What did you find to be better than expected?

[Robert Lai]

Medium format BTE

Medium format BTE

Once upon a time, I was a serious Zeiss Super Ikonta collector. I had A, BX and C, as well as a Contessa. All overhauled by Henry Scherer. They are extremely well built, beautiful cameras. Along came an Agfa Super Isolette with its unit focusing Solinar lens. Wide open and up close, the unit focusing Tessar type lens was far superior to the front cell focusing Super Ikontas. The BX with f/2.8 80mm Tessar focuses to 1.5m. The Agfa 75mm f/3.5 focuses to 1 m. Wide open, both are in proper focus, but the Agfa is clearly sharper. Less spherical aberration, higher contrast. All of my Zeiss Super Ikontas and the Contessa are now for sale at Henry Scherer's site. I'm keeping the Agfa Super Isolette as my sole remaining folder for 6x6.

For 6x9cm, the Super Ikonta C has been replaced by a Kodak Medalist II. I bought it from our own CourierCam. It was shipped directly to Ken Ruth, who overhauled it, and converted it to 120. When I got it back, I was amazed at the clarity and sharpness of the viewfinder and split image rangefinder. Yes, the camera is rather large and heavy. OK, so my wimpy muscles will have to work out a bit to carry this thing. But, the first slides from this camera are just amazing. Wide open and up close, this lens is sharp! The camera even has a vestigal parallax correction. It moves up and down, but so minutely that you wonder why they bothered to put it in at all.

Hey guys, we seriously need some gear porn in this thread!

 

[mdarnton]

All the Voigtlander lenses. The first I bought, when it first came out, was the 15mm, and I was not prepared for how good it was. Since then, if I want a Leica-fit lens, I just buy the Voigtlander version, and have not yet been disappointed. I'm just waiting for them to make an 85mm f/1.4, so I can dump my 90 Summicron, and then I'll be a happy man.

 

[Robert Lai]

CV lenses that I felt equivocal about

CV lenses that I felt equivocal about

I was disappointed with my CV 90mm Apo Lanthar. It backfocused out of the box. I probably should have returned it to the head bartender for service or exchange, but it was beyond 30 days by the time I got my films back, and scanned them. I sent it to DAG to correct. That's why I had some trepidation when I bought the 75. I was very happy that it focused properly right out of the box.

A lens that I sold but miss is the CV 50mm f/3.5 Heliar. It was wonderful and sharp. The problem is that the images looked like they were nothing special. They could have been made by my Summicron 50. After a while, I realized that nothing special IS special. There was NO DISTORTION, NO FLARE, no wierdness at all. Just optical perfection. Just like a Summicron, at a much lower price. Better than a 50 3.5 Elmar. Now that I have the Bessa case for my Bessa R, I'm looking again at that Heliar as a nice collapsible lens.

 

[Pioneer]

There are so many things that I have picked up in the last year or two that were surprising, but these would have to be the top 4. In no particular order:

1) The VC 50/3.5 Color Heliar - I don't know if they are all like this one, but I consider this to be my best 35mm lens. This lens produces beautiful pictures right from wide open until f8.

2) The ZM 50/1.5 Sonnar - My copy produces amazing pictures at f1.5 and 2.0. Move it to f5.6 and it is tack sharp. And it is still light and easy to pack. It shares time on my ZI with the Color Heliar.

3) The Pentax Q - This is a tiny little mirrorless camera that punches way above its weight. I have not had this much fun with a camera since way back in my Minolta SRT period. It has hardly ever left my side (even asleep it sits on the nightstand with its battery charger) since I bought it a year and a half ago. Have you ever seen what a 300mm telephoto looks like on a tiny sensor? It becomes a stunning 1300mm extreme telephoto!! And the Summilux 50/1.4 is just as nice at 250mm as it is at 50. 😀

4) Leica II w/Elmar 50/3.5 - I know this one probably sounds a bit wierd, but this has become my film equivalent to the Q. It is light, simple to use, slides quickly in and out of my shirt pocket, and still takes magnificent, full-frame pictures. I can see why Leica became the premier miniature camera maker in the 30s. If they were still building cameras that were as far out in front of the curve now as these cameras were in 1932, they would still be way out in front of everybody. Unfortunately they are stuck copying what they did back in 1954. Too bad.

 

[thegman]

My brother's blue Bessa T with collapsible Heliar, so usable, tiny, light, affordable. I'll be honest and say I much preferred it to my Leica IIIf.

Nikon S2, I actually liked that little focusing wheel, range finder was pretty nice and contrasty.

 

[Scrambler]

I guess I tend to buy either after research. The positive surprises have been:

Hexar RF can meter a Jupiter-12. OK, so for most people this won't even be of interest, but it was for me, and completely unexpected. The Hexar was otherwise every bit as good as I'd expected.

The images from a modern dSLR (Canon EOS700D) are so much better than from a 7 year old one (Pentax K100D)... I know this shouldn't have been a surprise, but the difference was amazing. And high ISOs... !

 

[pepeguitarra]

pentax k1000, it's slowly becoming my main camera

That was my first camera way back in 1971? Yeap, because I bought my Pentax ME in 1976, and my Canon AE-1 in 1977 (I started making money after college graduation). K1000 is the best and forever a useful fully manual camera.

 

[smk]

Two things:

1. 40mm M-Rokkor, fantastic little lens, much better than what I was expecting. I already have a 28mm Summicron and a 50mm Summilux so I didn't use it and off it went, but I have much more respect for it now that I tried it than before.

2. Konica Minolta DiMage Scan Dual IV film scanner. I bought this in 2005 for $180 brand new. As of today it scanned more than 26000 photos and it is keep going strong!

 

[f16sunshine]

Hexar AF.

I knew the lens formula, coatings, and quality of build.
I was and continue to be surprised how closely this camera exposes the way I wish for it to do in AE or Program mode. Manual Exposure is equally satisfying in how tightly the metering displays.
A Gem in every way and wonderful piece of kit!

 

[M Currie]

When I was in college, I picked up a vinyl LP by Telefunken or Teldec (I can't remember completely), with Wynton Marsalis playing the Haydn Horn Concerto on one side, and the Mozart Horn Concerto on the other side. The LP cover was a bit beat up, so I didn't expect much.

When I played it, I was BLOWN AWAY! Wynton Marsalis is absolutely the BEST! It's such a shame that he no longer plays any classical music, confining himself to jazz. He was phenomenally good at both.

As for the LP itself, the Mozart side was scratched up, but the Haydn side was incredible. To this day, I've not heard a better rendition of this horn concerto than Marsalis'. I'm sure this has been reissued on CD by now. Seek this one out. There's a youtube video of him giving this performance also. I still have that LP by the way.

I don't think it's the same performances, but Sony Classical has or had a 1993 performance on CD of Marsalis and the London Concert doing the Haydn, Hummell, Fasch and Leopold Mozart concertos. Marsalis is indeed very good.

 

[Griffin]

Fatherhood

 

[uhoh7]

I hate to admit it but I love the touch screen (for MF) on the nex 5n, and I will miss it on the A7r 🙁

That I never expected 😉

 

[--s]

a second hand nikon d300 i had bought for shooting cycle races, where a fast af is very useful.
the cam turned out to be a joy to shoot with, i love the handling, the features, the image quality, the long battery life.
the other week i had a picture printed in 60 x 90 cm, there is no pixelation, it is just sharp & nice.

expectations tripled, i would say.

the pixel race seems to be madness, as the d300 delivers no more than 12 mp.

 

[KansanTim]

I've already seen both answers above, but here are mine:

1. Like the OP, I was impressed by the Cosina Voigtlander Bessa R. At this point, I wish I had bought something with an M-mount, but at the time I had no idea how great rangefinders are and was giving them a cheapish test with the Bessa and an old Nikon LTM 50/2, which also was excellent. Rangefinders aren't for everyone, but they do fit me, and the roll of film in my SLR when I bought the Bessa was the last roll I ever put in an SLR.

2. Konica Minolta DiMage Scan Dual IV. Pretty much the same experience as smk above. If I ever upgrade, I'll probably look for something with the infrared dust removal (or maybe finally buy a digital camera if a Leica is cheap enough), but at the time I was trying not to break the bank and it's performed way above my expectations in both quality of the scans and durability. It's still going strong, so I don't know if that upgrade will ever happen.

 

[Keith]

Probably my F7 Widelux. I expected it to be much more difficult to use than it turned out to be.

 

[George Bonanno]

In all honesty it's my Konica Auto S2.

 

[Richard G]

1. I learnt here that my favourite camera, my M2, is indeed prized by others and especially here on RFF is put forward as the best of all Ms.

2. I reconsidered the M5 thanks to RFF and really enjoyed owning and using this camera, actually the first Leica I used as a 16 year old, thanks to my, science teacher.

3. Having had my Summilux stolen I bought an M4-2 and Summicron 50, Canadian, in 1986. Quality not in doubt and a wonderful pairing with which I took some of my best pictures before RFF improved my photography further.

4. Learning here of the non-Leica wonders in M mount I was totally enthralled by the Zeiss C Sonnar which transformed my understanding of lenses.

5. Enjoying the buzz here around the forthcoming X100 it proved even better than the considerable hype.

6. A SHOOC finder revived my interest in my Tele Elmar. I had frame lines for 135 in my M6, but framing is so much nicer in the SHOOC.

7. And the Konica Hexar AF bought through the classifieds here.

8. And the Rolleiflex Frank S said everyone has to try and which through the classifieds here I did.

 

[willie_901]

1. C-Sonnar 50/1.5
2. 14/2.8 & 35/1.4 Fujinon XF (a tie with the 14/2.8 ahead by a whisker because short focal length are more challenging with regard to design and manufacturing)
3. The final release of every firmware update for my X100 and X-Pro 1

 

[Robert Lai]

In response to Richard G, I will say that I do have the SHOOC 135mm finder, as well as the Canon 135 finder. Surprisingly, the magnified view of the Canon finder makes it easier to use, and the parallax correction is actually much more accurate than the dashed line offered by the SHOOC. In other words, the Canon 135 finder offers more accurate framing, and a better viewing experience - for far less cost. Definitely BTE!

I just recently acquired this lens, but the 58mm f/1.4 CV lens based on a Topcon design from the 1960s is an outstanding SLR lens. Mine is in Nikon F mount. I have the latest design with the scalloped metal focusing ring. Nikon's 50mm f/1.4 designs have horrible bokeh, and scads of barrel distortion. The CV design scores very well on both factors. The contrast level wide open by the CV lens is much better than Nikon's dreamy 50 1.4 wide open. The only outrageous part is that the hood sells separately for $40! You can pick up a generic metal 58mm hood anywhere like I did, for less than $10. It's too bad my entire Nikon system will be up for sale due to orders of Her Imperial Majesty. Her Majesty is not amused that I'm filling up an entire closet in the basement with my photo gear. Mebbe I can sneak this one away and hide it somewhere....

 

[Robert Lai]

Re: Marsalis

Re: Marsalis

I was an undergraduate student in 1983-1987. At that time, Marsalis was just starting his concert career. I remember reading some glowing reviews about a horn player who was a great classical concert artist, but also proficient at jazz. I think this must have been one of his earliest recordings.