rangefinders take pictures; SLRs make pictures. Agree?

[James Brannan]

Well, we sound similar. I hate the viewfinder with a passion on the D70. The auto nature of the beast means you feel obliged to keep your eye welded to it and if you can't see the shot how can you take it?

Have used D100s and D200s and they are an improvement (the D100 is very filmic as you say, something intangibly good about the images it produces). Getting off topic now but my other reason for considering a rangefinder is that with all these (now permanent) carryon restrictions I need to rationalise my gear. If I can't carry a 70-200mm VR in hand luggage than I'd rather do without, and suddenly a prime-equipped rangefinder makes sense. I rarely use a big zoom (would only miss it for motorsport photography) and really miss my wideangle landscape photography on a cropped sensor. The Voigtlander 12 is a better lens than the Nikon 12-24mm zoom and a damn sight lighter...

Getting really off topic... 😀

I couldn't agree more. The only downside of crop DSLR's IMO is the lack of "true" wide angle lenses (other than DX fisheyes). I've owned the Nikon and Tokina 12-24 and was unimpressed with what I saw with both. Out of countless wide angle lenses I've owned, the only one I would praise for optics is my Nikon 17-55mm. It could hardly be called a sensible compact lens though. Used with the hood it's impossible for others to ignore. For wide angle I still go to my old F100. I love how compact my D200 is with my two favorite primes (50mm 2.0 AIS and 45mm 2.8P) but neither are anywhere near as light or unobtrusive as a RF still.

 

[fitzihardwurshd]

Remember, the discussion is centred around an article by Bill Pierce. I felt he was defending a plot of creative territory for rangefinders in an SLR dominated industry.

The two concepts are not an alternative , you need them both. Actually the strength of each concept it its limitaton too.

Fitzi

 

[Graham Line]

For me there is no difference in making and taking a photo. It's just the terminology used for the capture of an image.

There is however a clear difference in the way the image is viewed and captired.

.... .

The SLR and the RF have been on the shelf in their closet all week, and neither one of them has either 'taken' or 'made' a picture.