small companion to Hexar

[alwinvrm]

@ btgc:

I support your approach. I just got a red leather Canonet GIII QL17 and an Olympus RC 35 untill I find the suitable AF point and shoot for the right price. I figured that a 70's autoexposure camera will last and I just like the look and feel.

I am traumatizad about scale focusing though since I used a Rollei 35, how I hated that camera, for collectors only I suppose, or maybe I should have given it time, but why if there are better alternatives. I am used to prefocusing (HF distance etc.) but since I mostly communicate with subjects a RF is better for me.

Another thing is that I am used to either fuly automated working (Hexar AF) or fully classical with hand held meter and no AF (Leica M4,M2, Hasselblad). A 70's auto exposure RF already feels quite automated to me because I can concentrate on compostion and focusing.

 

[alwinvrm]

@ filmfan, Michiel Fokkema:

The ricoh has a price tag beyond what I would want to invest in what I may still consider a doubtful investment (electronic AF point and shoot). The same goes in a way for the Leica cm, although its looks are certainly seducing.

 

[alwinvrm]

@ Alex Krasotkin

I carried a hexar af with me in a lightly padded shoulder bag for 5 years every working day of the week and mostly weekends as well. Never used a camera more than a hexar, after the hexar leicas became cameras I wanted to keep (for whatever reason???) but they are just gathering dust. For all uses where I need other lenses I use SLR's either 35 mm or MF, so leicas became collectors on all accounts.

 

[amateriat]

@ amateriat:

Good that the T's can be repaired. I suppose with electronics it is a bit a thing of luck. I would expect that the more posh Contaxes have better changes for repair, then again maybe not, it is not mechanical fixing but the availability of an integrated circuit or a piece of electronics that determines repairability.

The Contaxes and Konica Hexar AF (and, yes, the Minolta TC-1, Nikon Ti and Ricoh GR series...anyone I left out?) were top-of-the-range products, made with the assumption that the people buying them would use them quite frequently, and not always under ideal conditions. In fact, there's an interesting argument in favor of electronics in cameras like these and others, in terms of general reliability, and especially consistency of performance. I haven't had a non-electronic camera as my main shootin' iron since early in the first Reagan administration.

I realize that I've been using my Hexar for about 15 years by now. It was carried around for 5 years, day in day out, in a shoulder bag, not a bad score so far.

I had my Hexar autofocus for five years, and it had a lot of film put through it. Smooth as butter, solid as granite, and with performance to burn. Only gave it up to help pay for one of my two Hex RFs.

As an aside, one of the things I love about my Contax Tvs is the fact that the zoom is manually adjusted, not mototized. Besides there being one less electro-mechanical item in the camera, I find manual zooming more concise, faster, and a hell of a lot more quiet (and no worrying about what "default" zoom setting the lens goes to when the camera gets switched on). In fact, everything about the camera is quiet...shutter and film-advance/rewind are almost whisper-quiet. As I said before, this camera goes out with me almost every day.


- Barrett

 

[alwinvrm]

@ amateriat:

That is an interesting article, thanks. Admittedly, while I had traumatizing experiences with digital P&S's and DSLR's , telephone camera's and the like, my hexar af or nikon n8008s (f801s) electronic film camera's never let me down.

On the other hand I discovered that the rolleiflexes I bought, unless in new condition, have often focusing issues, of course collectors don't find this a problem, but I do. By the way, the ones in new condition don't have focusing issues but instead glued shutter issues. With my leica m's I had shutter calibration issues, but this was fixed in 5 minutes for free by the very able elephant repair in tel aviv. I wonder if he is still there.

Maybe the conclusion is that with electronic camera's they tend to fully break down when they do. This combined with the "no spares angst" gives the failure of an electronic camera something final, intangible and scary.

While even repeated problems with mechanical camera's, although as irritating and in the long run maybe more costly, remain tangible and seem less final "... Just a minute sir, I only have to adjust the slow speed governour again,...".

It is all in the mind, clearly, but it is the only mind I have. So what can I do but think and share with you on the forum.