What film camera should I get next?

[giganova]

My camera collection is growing steadily ... love them all:

• M4 with a 50/2 Rigid -- the setup I use most of the time. Lovely!
• M4 with a 21/3.4 Super Angulon -- when I need a wider field of view.
• Mamiya RZ67 with a number of lenses -- for portraits and landscapes, when I have time and want more definition. People think I'm a real photographer when I schlep that thing around on my 30 pounds Gitzo tripod! 🙄
• Minox 35 GT-E and ML -- wonderful lenses and true "stealth" cameras for street photography because they fit into the palm of your hand. I have four of them, that's how good they are! 😀
• Olympus MJU II -- tiny wonder with an amazing 35/2.8 lens, but I would love it more if it wasn't so noisy when it advances the film and swallow the film lead when it winds back. 🙁
• Nikon F3 with a 50/1.4 AI-S lens -- I simply cannot warm up to this camera, not my thing. I don't care for the digital exposure display which is hard to see, the loud shutter noise, the rough cocking, and that 50/1.4 lens is too soft for me wide open. Meek.
• Nikon FM2 -- would love it more if it didn't have such a horrible shutter noise and a needle meter instead of 3-LEDs.
• Nikon One Touch 35/2.8 and a Fuji Instax -- to pass around at weddings and parties, pure plastic fun for everyone.
• Fuji X-T3 -- yes, I have a digital camera, don't hit me. My excuse is that its for family photos. 😉

My first camera was a Leica R4 that I loved to death ... literally, until it died on me. The replacement R4 died on my, too, as well as the replacement-of-the-replacement R4. Maybe I should get a full mechanical R6?

The Makina 67 is tempting. What's not to love about a 6x7 camera in such a relatively small format?

I almost bought a Hasselblad ... but that 6x6 format is not for me.

Shall I consolidate, sell some of the cameras and get what I always wanted, a Leica M-A (= a shiny new M4)? I have a feeling that Leica will soon discontinue it, so maybe now's a good time to get one?

How shall I continue my journey to film camera nirvana and what should I add? Help that poor soul find a new toy! 😀 Unconventional ideas are more than welcome!

Below, just for fun, a picture from the first two rolls of film that I ever took (Leica R4).

Russian school boy on a bus, Red Square Moscow 1984:

Russian wedding limousine, Red Square Moscow 1984: (Note: this is the only color photo you will ever see me posting!)

(sorry about the JPG compression artifacts)

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Wrong statement. "What camera should I get rid of next" is correct.
At least this is what I'm asking myself if I have more than ten cameras.

 

[Crazy Fedya]

I think you should add either a Veriwide 100, or a Wideluxe. Both are wonderful cameras. Widelux compliments any Leica with any lens on it. Veriwide 100 compliments any medium format camera.
My opinion.

 

[Rayt]

Hasselblad SWC

 

[tunalegs]

Get an Exa, with a WLF. Change your way of seeing, of doing, grow through a new experience.

 

[dourbalistar]

If you truly want to reach film camera nirvana, you need a camera that has all the features possible. You know, one with everything. 😉

 

[Benjamin Marks]

No, no, no, son. You want to go larger. Why duplicate capabilities that you already have?

You want a Fuji 6x9 rangefinder. Fixed lens. Film real estate the size of Texas compared to those little negs you're using. Same film ratio as 35mm . . . but BIIIIIG. So there you go. That's your next camera.

Alternate? Crown Graphic with a 135 Opton and a Grafmatic sheet film holder. Get the rangefinder aligned and shoot like a real man.

OK. Back to our regularly scheduled programming . . ..

 

[Oren Grad]

How shall I continue my journey to film camera nirvana and what should I add? Help that poor soul find a new toy! 😀 Unconventional ideas are more than welcome!

Well, if you put it that way: you haven't really tried photography until you've used a large format camera.

And if you truly want to experience something different from what you're used to, don't futz around with 4x5, either. Go directly to whole plate or 8x10 and make contact prints.

 

[Huss]

Definitely buy my spare R-E. Works perfectly, just don't need two..
😉

Speaking of your Minoxs, ever had a reliability issue with them? Read so many of them have shutter issues.

 

[Huss]

Or my beautiful black paint ('custom') Kiev 4AM. Awesome lens with the bonus of a possible light leak every 3rd exposure!
https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168815

 

[giganova]

Speaking of your Minoxs, ever had a reliability issue with them? Read so many of them have shutter issues.

Yes, I bought maybe ten or so over the past two years (all advertised as in "mint condition" and fully functional), returned the ones that had shutter issues and kept four that worked because I know they will eventually die one after another. The exposure is off by two stops for two of the four and I compensate with the ISO setting. But the lenses are really good and the tiny cameras are so much fun. Here's a picture I took a few days ago:

Here's a blowup of the light fixture at the top:

 

[phaedrus]

I second the idea of getting a Leica M-A as long as they make them. It is the unassuming star in my camera collection, too. Just yesterday, a in-the-know guest at a birthday party I shot at mistook it for a Leica M10-D. Not so, sir, it really loads film!

 

[giganova]

This was taken with the Olympus MJU II. I am posting the pictures because I find it funny. 😀

 

[Huss]

This was taken with the Olympus MJU II. I am posting the pictures because I find it funny. 😀

Was he going to steal that tomato?

 

[kxl]

A Texas Leica

 

[giganova]

Regarding MF or LF:

Isn't analogue photography all about embracing the flaws of film and the beauty of grain? If I wanted tack sharp photos, wide tonality and great resolution, I would buy a 47Mpix Leica Q2 which gives me all of the above plus mobility and being able to react quickly. I find it hard capturing "the moment" with my RZ67 because it is simply too slow, I always seem to run out of film when something interesting happens (despite three 120 backs) or I simply don't have that monster with me (weight/size) when I should have taken a camera. Don't get me wrong, I am able to create beautiful pictures with my RZ67, but all my best photos have been taken with 35mm cameras because I was able to react quickly to interesting events. I am therefore reluctant to embrace MF or LF, unless I give my creative art a completely new direction towards more static objects (e.g., landscapes, buildings, portraits). The above reasons are why I am loving these tiny point & shoot cameras because they are with me all the time and are almost invisible.

 

[giganova]

Was he going to steal that tomato?

Haha, no: he looked at me ... and looked at me ... and when he realized that this tiny thing in my hand that was pointing at him was a camera (Minox), he freaked out, jumped and ran away! 😀

 

[Contarama]

I would go for a pentax k lens based hybrid system...something like a k1 digital and a MX or lx or something...now go figure why I said that...

 

[benlees]

Fuji GA645. But then you'll realize you don't need the others.

 

[lynnb]

Stefanjozef on this forum does great street work with a Contax G1 and 28 Biogon, 45 Planar and 90mm Sonnar lenses - see the RFF Gallery. See also his Flickr galleries here and here.

He also uses a GA645zi and a Texas Leica - and a few others.

Have you tried an XA or XA4? I'd suggest a Rollei 35S but the XAs exposure systems are faster than the manual Rolleis if you're in constantly changing light. The 35S has a nicer lens, though.