The Pocket Rangefinder

Jon Claremont said:
New there's the Olympus mju V, which looks pretty nifty for pocket-carrying. Seems like an updated XA in a nifty metal casing.
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That comment made me run to the website. It's the Stylus Select in the US. Nice casing, but the lens is an f5.6 zoom 🙁

And it looks like the famed Stylus Epic with the fast 35mm has been "archived", though still listed as the mju II in Europe. 😡 Something tells me they did not do this to make room for a new XA model. And why is it that the modest elegant shooters tend to be held back from the US market in favor of the BigZoom Thises and HyperAuto Thats? Wait, please, I don't really want to hear the answer to that. :bang:
 
The pocket rangefinder is the Olympus 35RC or something similar.

Damn! I shot a roll in my 35RC thinking it was B&W, but everything was shot indoors because I don't have a yellow or orange filter. Today I dropped off the film and saw that is was COLOUR! Oh, well. I hope the indoor lighting wasn't too yellow. I've got my fingers crossed. So wish me luck or call me stupid. Either one is fine by me. 🙂 :bang: 😀

My problem is that I have too many cameras. 🙁
 
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I have test the Olympus Xa. Tomorrow I imagine that I finish my film test... I tested the lens in wide aperture, and low speed... I dont know about the result that I find when I developed the roll.

Some months I had the Contax T of one friend, the camera was in ugly condition... but works. I like it. The viewfinder is better (much better) than the Xa, and have a cool design, but its strange to find. I dont know... I wish buy one pocket camera with great quality. I dont believe that the Canonet that I have was a really pocket camera. I consider pocket cameras the minox, the rollei 35, the olympus Xa/Mju, the contax T... but no the Yashicas Gsn/Lynx, the Olympus SP... even the leica screw mount cameras...

In Christmast I see if I try to buy other Contax T or I continue with the Xa, for me its important that the camera have rangefinder, why one aperture of 2.8 if you cant use it !!??

If Im decided to buy other T, I will request you help.

😉
 
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...strange that my favourite escapistic thougths allways turn up as threads at RFF...

The Bessa T with a small 35 or 28 and the mini finder fits in larger pockets but feels like a "real" camera in Your hands. It is a little bit larger than old bottom loaders but it is lighter, and it has a meter and a super accurate rangefinder.

The CL with the 40/2 is about the same size as, or even smaller than, a Canonet. And You can bring an extra lens in the other pocket.
 
I tried an XA once and had real problems not to put my fingers all over the lens, too small for me 🙁

But now...

Jacob said:
The Bessa T with a small 35 or 28 and the mini finder fits in larger pockets but feels like a "real" camera in Your hands. It is a little bit larger than old bottom loaders but it is lighter, and it has a meter and a super accurate rangefinder.
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Hear hear !!! Many times I don't even use a finder at all and that makes it even more compact.
 
Olympus 35rc, although recently I read at RFF about the Revue, with bigger apperture that the 35rc's f/2.8

Cheers,

Ruben
 
JoeFriday said:
without hesitation I'd say my favorite pocket RF is my Contax T.. it has a 38mm Sonnar and metering that is possibly the best of any camera I own.. here's a photo of me holding mine 😉 and a couple shots I've taken
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I'll agree that the Contax T would be my choice. Those are a couple of nice shots Brett but I remember yours being black not silver... Ha Ha. It's a sweet little camera. I've looked around a bit for one but they seem hard to find and not inexpensive either. For years I used the original Canon APS Elph. Not a rangefinder and not the best image quality but amazingly small and discreet.
 
fredus said:
Rollei 35S ... Couldn't be happier. Way better than Olympus XA. I can do 3200. YEs sir !! 😎

Fred
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The dial only goes to 1600 on my 35S.

Anyhow, I don't enjoy using cameras which are only "good" instead of "excellent."

The XA is good. The Rollei 35 (Sonnar and Tessar), Contax T, and Minilux are excellent, IMO.
 
sbug said:
I'll agree that the Contax T would be my choice. Those are a couple of nice shots Brett but I remember yours being black not silver... Ha Ha. It's a sweet little camera. I've looked around a bit for one but they seem hard to find and not inexpensive either. For years I used the original Canon APS Elph. Not a rangefinder and not the best image quality but amazingly small and discreet.
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hey, are you calling me a liar! why I oughtta...

but yeah, my BLACK Contax T has an amazingly sharp lens.. I sold my Oly Stylus Epic after comparing its results to the Contax

now I need to find a pocketable digicam with comparable image quality and very little shutter delay
 
FrankS said:
My CL has a wonky meter. Thinking about removing the meter ganglia so I can collapse a lens into it, for a compact outfit.
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I took some measurements and did some tests a month or two ago. One apparently *can* safely use a CL body with a collapsed 50mm f2 folding Summicron. There's at least .150" clearance between the meter arm's most forward part and the lens's most rearward part while collapsed and backed-in, if I remember correctly.


Got a dial caliper?
 
Beniliam said:
See the Fuji F11... Brett. Have low noise at 800 -1600 (for this type of compact camera) and have very low shutter lag... But no viewfinder...

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0509/05092901fuji_f11.asp

http://gallery.leica-users.org/f11evaluation

...
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thanks for the suggestion, Beni.. that's actually at the top of my list already.. altho it's unclear whether the F11 will be sold in the US.. but the F10 is already here and very popular.. the difference between the two being that the F11 has manual controls.. which would be a nice bonus, but I'm not sure I'd need it on a P&S digital
 
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