RF Camera Advice?

[Paul Connet]

Man, I can tell I'm going to need subtitles for some of these conversations! Am trying to keep an open mind, but I'm really stuck on having a built in meter. I'm not experienced enough to judge exposure, and I think working with a handheld meter in the streets would be a handicap for me.

Dale

Dale, It is hard for me to imagine a city the size of St. Louis that does not have a camera store that carries Cosina Voigtlander cameras. Call a couple of the big camera stores and ask. You will find rf cameras to be habit forming so it will not really matter what camera you start with, you will soon surrounded by rf's of all shapes and sizes, your bank account will be empty, and you will be sneaking around trying to find a way to bring another one into the house without your wife realizing what you are up to. :angel:

Regards, Paul C.

 

[MCTuomey]

Paul has it right. You have to start somewhere and the Bessa is a good place given your criteria.

Re: your VF comparison between the R/R2/R2A and R3A as a wearer of glasses, you may have trouble with the 40 framelines in the R3A but not certain. You may have a bit of trouble with the 35 framelines in the R/R2/R2A but, again, not certain. So, I tend to think the decision should be based on whether you expect to shoot more on the wide end of the RF focal lengths, esp in the 28-50mm range. If so, the R/R2/R2A is the more practical choice.

Realistically, if you don't know where you may end up shooting more, just jump in and buy what you fancy. As everyone here will tell you, chances are quite high that it won't be your last RF body.

 

[vsolanoy]

It is hard for me to imagine a city the size of St. Louis that does not have a camera store that carries Cosina Voigtlander cameras.

I'm in San Jose, California and I couldn't locate a store that carried CV cameras. There's 1 shop that carries Leica (Keeble and Shucatt) that's a reasonable distance from where I live and work. I ended up ordering mine from B&H.

I even had problems finding a place to service my camera -- eventually, I found a great place called Kamera Korner in San Jose. They have a tech who services and specializes in classics and rangefinders.

 

[vsolanoy]

Thanks for all the replies. The Bessa R sounds like it might be the right one. I wish I could compare the viewfinders on the R and R3a in person, but that's hard to do when they're not sold locally. From the responses, it sounds like you can see most or all of the frame on the R when wearing glasses. Is it harder to see the full frame on the R3a than on the R with glasses on?

I wear glasses and I use an R3A. It's annoying initially, but you get a feel for where the framelines are and eventually becomes less annoying, and more intuitive. The 90mm framelines are a good guide for centering the image. What I've found, at least with my glasses and my facial structure, my field of view through the rangefinder is roughly 40mm.