The best camera you never liked?

Zorki 6.
One of the better soviet rangefinders, but the back has got a flimsy closing system that got popped by anything at all. I've lost entire rolls on that beast.

Hasselblad 500C.
I have a deep and profound love for this camera, and the negatives it delivered, but it was a monster to use. Front-heavy, mirror only goes back up when you wind and cock the shutter, the interlocking shutter speed and diaphragm rings were hard to set (try it when it's freezing outside). But I loved it. Deeply.

Nikon F
The shutter button was way too far back, and it had so many corners, I'd cut my face bringing it to eye-level. The F2 I liked, but it ended up losing frames. And it was top-heavy with the photomic.
 
thegman said:
I hankered after a Black Paint MP for a while, and eventually got one at a price I could live with. I found it to be a lovely camera, but preferred my M3 which I had before. Frankly I've found any relatively modern Leica to be a bit 'meh', but the M3, IIIf etc. deserve their reputation.
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Of the Leica cameras I have owned the M4 is my favorite. I love the view finder, frame lines and smooth action.
 
Leica M7 - flakey DX reader. not an issue for shooting if you set the ISO manually and don't mind the constantly flashing dot, but shouldn't the DX reader on such an expensive camera just work?! if manufacturers of cheap P&S cameras can make reliable DX readers, why can't Leica???

Nikon F3 - my god that HP finder is ugly.

Nikon FM3A - i used to love her but its all over now. one day in Laos, i took a photo of a woman sitting on some steps in a village on the Mekong river, and the ridiculously LOUD shutter completely startled her. my motivation to use the camera died right there and then.

Hassleblad 500CM/503CX - so slow and clumsy, such a hassle to shoot with.


mfogiel said:
Leica MP - a completely useless camera - should have been made without the internal light meter, and without these ridiculous 75 and 50mm frames stuck together.
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"Completely useless" seems a bit harsh, but you are entitled to your opinion Marek :D

Without an internal light meter? Just remove the batteries.

Ridiculous 75mm and 50mm frames stuck together? Aren't they in all Leica bodies since the M4P anyway?
 
I must be even wierder than I think. Nothing that's been mentioned so far gets on my list and I've used most of them.

One does come to mind, though. The old Reflex Korel. Dimest finder I've ever used, ergonomics designed by the Torqemada group and the sort of reliability that British Leyland cars exhibited in the 'seventies.

Apart from that, a nice little camera ;)
 
Yashica T4 and Olympus Stylus Epic/MjuII. I cannot understand the hype (or the inflated prices) on these two point and shoot cameras. It's not that they are bad, it is just that, beyond the hype, I find them to be quite ordinary, as far as results go.
 
Contax and it's various derivatives. I love the styling, but mounting lenses is much more bother than it needs to be. With a Leica M mount on it, the Nikon SP would have been my favorite camera of all time, in all regards, but. . . ..
 
One more...

Pentax 645 - Hugely popular with wedding shooters. Great bang for your buck, but the interface is mostly driven by tiny buttons manipulating a tiny LCD screen. Very fidgety and
slow to use in manual mode. This was my first serious camera, but I ended up selling it and after saving up more money ended up buying a demo M6ttl from a local dealer.

The 645 II and IIn solved all of those problems and is a truly great camera.
 
Yashica M. Although in general I rather like it, the backwards film uptake spool gets on my nerves every time I try to load the thing. Argh.
 
Nikon SP (2005 version with 35/1.8 Nikkor). Pretty to look at but I found the RF patch not nearly as good as any M or even the Hexar RF in poor light. Also 1/15 second was off a full stop and the 35/1.8 despite improved coating to be a disappointment in terms of IQ. Even though brand new, maybe mine was a subpar version. Part of it I think was that coming from a long time M user, it was too hard to make the transition.
 
CK Dexter Haven said:
Leica M7. Beautifully made, but frustrating to use. Always felt silly to have to adapt to it, while i was still using other cameras that worked the way i wanted/was used to. I later got a Zeiss Ikon, which was fundamentally the same, but a bit better in every way except heft.
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Agreed. I now have a ZI which I much prefer to the M7, however the M6TTL is fine by me. Also, I had a couple of the Russian rangefinders and didn't get on with them at all, while the J12 is the most ergonomically crazy lens I've ever owned.
 
Ron (Netherlands) said:
Leica M5 and second place, Exactas
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HA! Awesome! My main camera is my M5, and my SLR kit is Exakta! I love them both.

I can't get to like the Medalist II. The results are very good, but the camera is very awkward. The "American Leica" nickname must have been facetious. It is not an elegant or refined camera at all. (Yes, I think the M5 and Exaktas are elegant, as well as very functional for me.)

Matt
 
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