underated and pleasantly surprised

[lxmike]

Thanks to everyone who has posted to my disapointed thread, which made me think, 'is there a camera, lens or bit of kit' that took me by surprise, that outperformed its price tag, that I liked but did not expect too, something that was good but not supposed to be.

SLR wise, well a borrowed a Nikon EM with E series 50mm Nikkor that produced some great images. Also the Rollei 35B, everybody shouts about the Tessar and Sonnar, but I think the Triotar is a real gem. Finally the Bessa L, I've only had it a few months but so far I really like it, have had no reliability issues, find the build quality good and shutter not too loud. What has surprised you

 

[smasher]

Canonet 28. Tack-sharp lens with amazing tones in B&W. (Never tried it in color.)

 

[hipsterdufus]

Coated Elmar 90mm f4 LTM lens. This is one of the few bargains in the Leica lens bin of history and they're dirt cheap (relatively speaking). My favorite rendering of any lens I own at the moment. I just wish I could get a 50mm that rendered as well.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Olympus Pen W, Nikon EM, Konica IIIS, KowaSIX...

Cheers,

R.

 

[jsrockit]

Voigtlander 35mm f/1.7 Ultron - shocked me how much I like this lens on the M8. I thought it would be a cheap stop gap lens for me while I decided to buy a more expensive lens. Nope, it is the lens I've been looking for.

 

[wakarimasen]

Olympus 35RC. When I showed digital scans of photographs from this camera to a friend, he asked me why I would ever want a Leica.

 

[Keith]

Iskra ... not a particularly intuative piece of kit but the lens is stellar and the camera has a very accurate and contrasty rangefinder.

And it's an FSU ... go figure! 😀

 

[kshapero]

Nikon EM, CV Ultron 35/1.7, Any Nikkormat

 

[efix]

Voigtländer 50mm f/1.5 Nokton and 28mm f/1.9 Ultron. I'm surprised these outstanding performers are available for such low money on the used market.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The secret of the Olympus 42/2.8 used in the RC and others: It is a 5-element design, and not a stretched Tessar. Also, the optics are all in one fixture and the shutter/aperture mechanism is behind the lens rather than in between the elements. Easier to construct with higher tolerance between elements. If it were a 35mm focal length, it would be sitting in a J-12 fixture on my M8.

My two: the Canon 50/0.95 and the Jupiter-3.

 

[lxmike]

Thanks Brian I find what you have to say about the RC lens very interesting

 

[hipsterdufus]

I can just see all of the GAS-hounds pulling out their pen and paper to take notes from this thread. 🙂

 

[Mablo]

Retina IIS. A 45mm/2.8 Xenar equipped ugly duckling.

 

[thawkins]

Kodak Retina IIa with the 50mm F2 Xenon lens. Fantastic sharpness but the small rangefinder/viewfinder is increasingly more difficult for six decade old eyes to use.

 

[BillBingham2]

Ricoh GRD I. I was blow away by the natural feel the controls in such a small digital camera. Now addicted with no signs of a cure.

B2 (;->

 

[D.O'K.]

A 1950's Zeiss Nettar 6x6 with f4.5 novar lens--now a cheap folder and easy to find.
Stopped down it's capable of astonishingly good pictures that will often stand comparison with those from my Rolleiflex & Rolleicord Vb.

A Zorki 1 with industar 22 lens (an elmar copy?)--very nice results, with handling (somewhat) better than advertised...

Regards,
D.

 

[johannielscom]

Horseman 970 Press.

I shot it handheld 😎 at an outdoor costume event (Dickens Festijn in Deventer, Netherlands) last weekend. It was heavy but the grip is easy to hold it with, and a small Metz flash on top was enough to light up the actors that portrayed famous Dickens characters.

I had quite the lookers, and envious-looking DSLR shooters galore 😀

Every now and then I consider shooting bigger (currently considering 5x7") but the Horseman is a perfect mix between large negatives and 'small' camera, and the negatives easily produce 40x60 cm prints. I'll have a go at 70x100 cm prints😎 soon to see if it holds up

 

[hans voralberg]

I can just see all of the GAS-hounds pulling out their pen and paper to take notes from this thread. 🙂

Nah they will go straight to the bay!

Mine is the CV 35/2.5 LTM and my favorite folder the Nettar 🙂

 

[JeffL]

Konica C35. It made me like it.

 

[gavinlg]

Canon 50mm f1.2L I bought this rather nervously due to internet law that it wouldn't focus properly, and would exhibit focus shift at all apertures, but not wanting to use the f1.4 version, I went ahead the the purchase anyway. Turned out to be probably the best 50mm lens I've used. Gorgeous rendition and rock solid reliable for me. I sold it because I needed money, and I plan on buying another sometime. One of the underrated jewels of the current EOS system IMO.

Yashica Minister III - Somewhat ugly and unspoken of, yet I've had two of these and they both worked perfectly despite being beaten up and worn. Photos taken with these always had a lovely look to them - sharp without being harsh and just generally pleasant. No worse than most normal SLR lenses around 35-50mm. Both cost me $2-3 and they don't use batteries.

Canon AV-1 - Got it through inheritance, knew it was the dumbed down brother of the AE1 and wasn't very interested. Shot some slides, results were stunning - even with the cheap 50mm f1.8. Lovely little SLR.

Voigtlander 35mm f2.5 pII - Bought this when I bought an M6 because I couldn't afford a leica or a zeiss. After using it for a few months I realized it was actually a brilliant little lens. I couldn't imagine how a leica or zeiss equivalent could be $700-1500 better. In every aspect it does admirably, not even taking into account how little it cost.