RangeFinderForum Under New Ownership

[Nachkebia]

I once bought a lens from Stephen, I have to say it was not one of the best shoping experiance`s, I hope RFF will stay as smart and friendly place as it was before!
Though check this out!

Wide Angle Voigtlander R4M / R4A with 21/25/28/35/50 framelines! Free Shipping World Wide with your RFF ID!

😀 😀 maybe he should start distributing Leica after all 😀

 

[nico]

Thanks Jorge.
Ciao
Nico

 

[Nachkebia]

Great thing about Jorge was that he was comunicating, asking and answering, hope stays this way 🙂

 

[PetarDima]

Jorge, about a year ago, I find out that there is one place on NET - for old timers,
personal thoughts, thoughts about old cameras, B&W photo poetry ...🙄
I hope that this site will stay same as I found it ...
Best regards !

 

[mikeh]

I'm OK with it I guess. I'm not a Voigtlander guy, but I'm wondering how many members would feel a little hesitant about dissing a Bessa.....certainly not as freely as they would the M8!
But Stephen is not an apologist for Voigtlander, he really is an RF promoter, so we couldn't hope for better.
And besides, should the forum change too much, non-comp agreements don't last forever!

 

[kevin m]

...but I'm wondering how many members would feel a little hesitant about dissing a Bessa....

Not me. Life's too short.

If Mr. Gandy has Mr. Kobayashi's ear he should tell him to quit fixing the Bessa bodies on the installment plan and finally put a real competitor to the Leica M on the market. Nearly $600 for an RF body build on a cheap SLR chassis with a dinky rangefinder is a bit outrageous, but $1,500 for one built on the F6 chassis with the Zeiss Ikon RF would be a bargain.

Worth a shot, eh? 😀

 

[HuubL]

I love Steven's site and I love RFF. This will be synergism: together better than the sum of the two separate.

 

[jmilkins]

Welll well well.

All good. My route to RFs was through CVUG, finding RFF and buying a Bessa from CameraQuest.

Congrats Stephen and Jorge. And thanks to the great mods who have maintained the flavour of the site - I hope you will still have the same roles and approach.

Will there be an influx of former CVUG members I wonder - though I would think most everyone on that list would be here already.

Interesting times. Hope the place stays pretty much the same as it moves from a village to a town...

 

[Todd.Hanz]

If money changed hands, how much do you think RFF is worth? (I'm certainly not expecting an answer from Jorge or Stephen, as that would be gauche to ask them.) Just wondering because it's such an ethereal thing.

How much is it worth?
Not much without us, I say we start a union and go on strike for better benefits 😀

Todd

 

[Nachkebia]

Not much without us, I say we start a union and go on strike for better benefits 😀

Todd

Like Bessa R4A with 50% discount?

 

[popstar]

Wonder if there will be more contests with Voigtlander products as prizes?! One can only hope!

 

[robert blu]

Jorge: Thanks for what you have done for RFF .
Stephen: welcome !
robert

 

[CameraQuest]

Argus and a Thank You

Argus and a Thank You

I would like to thank everyone for the support. This really is a special online community, and I am very committed to only making RFF better.

IF anyone cares, my first RFF move was having George add the Argus forum. The importance of those cameras combined with their relatively low cost and lack of recognition has always facinated me.

Stephen

 

[sf]

I have to disagree with the sentiments expressed so far because on paper, this is a BAD idea.

No offense to Stephen, he's obviously an enthusiast and a decent guy, but he is also a retailer, and I fear we're about to lose our little oasis of objectivity. A forum is first and foremost a place for the free exchange of ideas, and it's bad enough that any one person should 'own' it, nevermind a person whose objectivity is clouded by being the leading importer for one particular brand of camera. Where, for example, will someone turn now for advice about a Cameraquest deal gone bad?

His site, as valuable a resource as it is, also reads at times like a gushing fanzine for all things Cosina/Voigtlander, and I don't want to see that editorial stamp used here.

A fearless commentary, for sure. I have to say that this speaks aloud some of my own first reactions to this change. Having a retailer own RFF, as I said, will be "interesting". This only makes it more important that we hold together as a community.

I also believe that Stephen understands that he'll have to feed us to keep us alive.

We aren't led by any leader, we are RFF. The owner merely owns the space, we define its nature, and in the end, its success or failure is up to us. Having a passionate camera lover at the head, and a store such as Cameraquest at the back end will only offer value. We have to decide how to use it.

 

[kevin m]

The owner merely owns the space, we define its nature, and in the end, its success or failure is up to us.

Well, let's hope what you say proves true.

Coming here fresh from the carnage at the photo.net Leica forum, I'm not inclined to be quite so optimistic. 🙂

 

[dcsang]

Well, let's hope what you say proves true.

Coming here fresh from the carnage at the photo.net Leica forum, I'm not inclined to be quite so optimistic. 🙂

The LUG is equally bad.

The only other group that allowed for "cross pollination" of ideas was the PDML; and that isn't a forum but an extremely busy mailing list.

I don't doubt that people will still be able to speak their minds here - as many have already said, if anyone (be it Jorge or, now Stephen) were to clamp down on "dissing" any camera brand; be it Leica or CV or Nikon or Canon or etc. etc. etc. those that felt betrayed would be long gone and the forum, in and of itself, would die.

None of us want that.
None of the sponsors want that.
And now that Stephen's the owner, I'm sure he won't want that either.

He's already stated that changes will be evolutionary and not revolutionary. Let's not put cart before horse or judge a man guilty without a trial ok? 🙂

Dave

 

[DougK]

Congrats Stephen and Jorge!

 

[Solinar]

I would like to thank everyone for the support. This really is a special online community, and I am very committed to only making RFF better.

IF anyone cares, my first RFF move was having George add the Argus forum. The importance of those cameras combined with their relatively low cost and lack of recognition has always facinated me.

Stephen

Awesome news. I like the Argus move, too. It shows that he has an eclectic side as well.

Steve has done more than most to give range finder photography a boost.

 

[goo0h]

kevin m: Well, I've been on here and on the cameraquest mailing lists for a while now, and I'm not worried. Stephen has never been heavy handed on his very own lists, and believe me the topics can wander at times. 😉

In terms of other sponsors and deals, Stephen strikes me as being very pragmatic. If he chases away all the other sponsors, the already highly selective rangefinder niche market may very well become even more exclusive, perhaps even to the point of oblivion. Nobody benefits from that. And I'm sure he also realizes that if everybody moved away, somebody will probably eventually put up another site. Despite it being a niche market, obviously there's a need for a site like this.

So I'm not worried.

 

[mjflory]

I'll second the comments about Stephen's hands-off approach to his mailing lists, especially the busiest, the CVUG. Let's hope the discussion of the yucca in Baba's back yard is preserved somewhere for posterity! If we needed any more evidence of a laisser-faire approach...

I've never had the opportunity to meet him in person, but I have the impression that Stephen Gandy is first a tremendous and very energetic rangefinder enthusiast, and second a retailer -- a resourceful fellow who's found a way to turn his love into a way to make a living. The Christmas Bessa gift is just one testament to his generosity; other hints have doubtless been caught by those who follow the CVUG regularly. I am hopeful that this will be a good New Year for Jorge, Stephen, and the whole RFF!

-- Michael