TIME FOR AN R3M—a very nice unit

julianphotoart

No likey digital-phooey
Local time
1:21 AM
Joined
Apr 27, 2005
Messages
619
Location
2,567 miles from Toronto
The R3M is a MIGHTY FINE camera. This past Saturday I picked up from Stephen Gandy/CameraQuest a luscious black R3M and accompanying 50mm f2 Heliar “Classic”. Camera’s serial no. is 1031 which means, I guess, I’ve got the 31st one made. For anyone looking for a serious and reasonable Leica alternative, this might be it.

It turns out that moving 2500-odd miles from Toronto means I’m now right down the street from Mr. Gandy. Well, he’s a very nice guy. We had a nice talk and it would have been longer had not my 2 year-old daughter been itching to get to the park.

The camera and lens came in a garish white presentation box with red lining. Since this camera will definitely not be shrink-wrapped, the box will go away somewhere in the garage. I will USE this damn camera.

I’ve attached a few photos. Photos BY the camera/lens are not developed yet. My daughter was an unwilling photography subject while she played at the park. I’m afraid I was very UNimaginative in photographing the camera; no steaming coffee, no martini shaken not stirred, no gorgeous women, etc. Sorry.

Voigtlander/Cosina’s quality and workmanship have improved. I happen to also have a Bessaflex and R2C and this R3M is substantially nicer and more solid. It feels like a confident mature camera. The lens especially is unbelievably nice; it is stuffed with a LOT of glass and metal.

The R3M has the 1:1 viewfinder and allows use of 40mm lenses. Oh, so nice. I guess with 1:1, the shorter rangefinder baselength is less of a problem. Is that right? Seems so. The 40mm framelines a kind of tough whilst wearing glasses; I have a good view of 60% of the lines and kind of guesstimate on the rest. On the other hand, the framelines for a 75mm lens are big. I use a 75mm a lot and this is a good feature indeed.

The mid-gray pattern on the shutter looks just like that of the ZI, which seems to be a change from how it used to be on VC-branded cameras. The exposure readings in the viewfinder are really nice too, going across the bottom in half-step increments. I think there are 7 steps. I was able to easily adjust f-stop on the 50 lens without taking my eye away from the scene, which is something I usually can’t do. It was almost as simple as AE would be, but leaving exposure compensation in my hands. The light-meter’s numbers along the bottom are a fair bit easier to see than the ZI’s left-side shutter numbers that sometimes go invisible (it would just be so nice if someone reproduced the M5-type viewfinder that shows everything).

One thing not shown on other photos I’ve seen prior to the camera’s release is the backside showing the nice big eyepiece. One of the photos shows that.

The CV shutter keeps getting quieter and sounding more and more “solid”. A nice, moderate-sounding click. The camera feels just the right weight. Real solid but not heavy. The lens strikes me as noticeably heavy (that’s just this side of “quite” heavy). Maybe “dense” is a better word. It feels dense; a lot is packed into its volume.

Oh, I forgot. I also got the CV trigger-winder. Not a bad idea once I actually started remembering to use it. Easy continuous shooting.
 

Attachments

  • R3M___Presentation_Box_700.jpg
    R3M___Presentation_Box_700.jpg
    291.5 KB · Views: 0
  • R3M___Trigger_straight_left_700.jpg
    R3M___Trigger_straight_left_700.jpg
    289.5 KB · Views: 0
  • R3M_back_650.jpg
    R3M_back_650.jpg
    255.8 KB · Views: 0
Congratulations Julian, on your new R3M, I got mine delivered on Saturday and I agree with everything you have said, the camera sure is well made, it feels solid andthe lens is just beatiful, I am halfway through my first roll at the moment, it would be great to see some pictures from yours when you have them
 
Silva Lining said:
Congratulations Julian, on your new R3M, I got mine delivered on Saturday and I agree with everything you have said, the camera sure is well made, it feels solid andthe lens is just beatiful, I am halfway through my first roll at the moment, it would be great to see some pictures from yours when you have them

Yes, I'm half-way through my first roll too. There's a weird bothersome thing called work that stopped me from finishing it. The clients just don't understand priorities. I didn't say enough about the lens. It's something.
 
you people are making me soooooooo anxious about mine!

(shipping tomorrow from Stephen)
i didn't get the set, and since i'm limited on funds right now i didn't even get a lens with it- i'm meeting up with my Cousin in two weeks, and he'll be letting me borrow his new 40/1.4 until November. (yes, this is my first RF)
 
julianphotoart said:
Yes, I'm half-way through my first roll too. There's a weird bothersome thing called work that stopped me from finishing it. The clients just don't understand priorities. I didn't say enough about the lens. It's something.
I know, work would be far to annoying if I didn;t need it to help me buy these lovely items in the first place. I took mine to work today with a view to using it in my lunch hour a client dropped by..... tried on Sunday, but we had a monsoon here in West London.🙄
 
back alley said:
sounds like cosina learned a thing or 2 from zeiss, maybe?

although i have never had a problem with them this new camera sounds pretty good.

Speaking from (no) experience, yet now having handled both cameras, my very first thought when I held the R3M was that the QC demanded by Zeiss for the ZI has positively affected the quality of CV-branded products too.
 
my original experience with cv was buying an r with 35/75 lenses.
i was very happy with that set up and thought the lenses were great. the body was much better than i had been led to believe and i was very pleased with it also.
these newer bodies sound like they are getting better with each new model.
if i ever sour on the cl's i'm more than tempted to check these out.
 
triplefinger said:
Have you had a chance to put it right next to a Zeiss RF and see, hear the difference?
I have a ZI, and am not too far from you.. maybe we can do a test run!

I only thought to do that after I'd already loaded the R3M with film.

But, I did make a point of listening to the ZI's shutter yesterday (it doesn't have film) and my sense is that the total volume is about the same but the "shape" of the sound is different.

The R3M's click is more pointy sound-wise, while the ZI click is more rounded. So imagine the ZI as half of a sin-wave shape with amplitude +2. The R3M shape is more like a sharply inclining triangle shape with an apex of +2. The high point of volume of the two different clicks is the same; how they get there is slightly different. Does that make sense? What I just said is totally subjective of course.
 
Thanks Julian.

Stephen's site says that the R2A/R3A and the R2M/R3M are both manufactured on the same assembly line, with the same body cast, and share many components.

Just curious as to whether the electronic shutter of the R2A sounds different than the R2M/R3M . If anybody knows, please chime in 🙂
 
Flyfisher Tom said:
Thanks Julian.

Stephen's site says that the R2A/R3A and the R2M/R3M are both manufactured on the same assembly line, with the same body cast, and share many components.

Just curious as to whether the electronic shutter of the R2A sounds different than the R2M/R3M . If anybody knows, please chime in 🙂
I own both. The R3M seems slightly more pleasing.
 
Back
Top Bottom