What was your first RF?

[bbresler]

My first RF was my dad's Kodak Retina IIc. The Schneider Xenon f2.8 is still one of the sweetest lenses I've ever shot with. Too bad the viewfinder was so small. Years later I had a Leica M-4 and an M-4P and a few lenses. Finally sold those after not using them for about 5 years. Now I'm back to a Canonet G-III 1.7 that I bought for only $20 because the meter was shot. No problem, I used handheld meters with the Leicas.
I don't want to say this too loudly, but for the 9x13 inch prints that I make, I can't see any difference between the Leicas and the el cheapo Canon.

 

[zpuskas]

My first was a Canon QL19 I bought at the BX in Okinawa. Took me a few months on lay-away. Used it for about 10 years with no problems and "loaned" it to my sister. I think she sold it at a pawn shop a few years later...I was #$%7 mad!

 

[brightsky]

My first was a Yashica GSN, purchased in the early 70's. I only kept it for a year or so and bought a Nikkormat EL which I still have to this day along with a Nikkor-H 50/f2. My first Leica, an M4, was purchased in 1975 and sold in 1976 to help finance a '76 MGB.

 

[richard_l]

My first 35mm camera was a rangefinder, an Argus C3. 🙁 I thought the generally crappy pictures were entirely my fault, until I got my next camera, a Rollei 35. 🙂

 

[naturephoto1]

My First Rangefinder Camera

My First Rangefinder Camera

My first Rangefinder Camera was my dad's Argus C3 (the brick). Subsequent to that I purchased and used an assortment of Canon F Series SLR Cameras including F1's, EF, Ftbn, A1 and a Yashimat 124. These cameras were replaced by a series of Rollei TLR's (the latest a 3.5F Planar which I still have), Leica R series SLR cameras including R4s (modified), R4SP, R7, and R8 and a Linhof Technika IV 4" x 5" camera (which was stolen and replaced by a Linhof Technikardan 45S).

It was not until several years ago when I purchased my Mamiya 7 II that I had started to use a Rangefinder Camera again. 🙂 Most of my work however has relied on my Leica R Series Cameras and my Linhof 4"x 5" cameras due to my need for an assortment of very wide angle, very long and close-up equipment. The Mamiya 7 II now serves the purpose of traveling lighter and working faster than my View Camera and when I want more detail than the Leicas will normally record.

Rich

http://www.nelridg.com
richard@nelridge.com

 

[MarkB]

My first rangefinder was a CLE in the early 80's, it's been a great little camera to document my kids.

Hey Ben M, still getting out on Church St with that Nocti?

 

[djon]

My first rangefinder was the Iloca (fixed lens 35mm, probably 2.8) that my father sent me from Korea (1954). I've got a B*W frame of Stirling Moss at Laguna Seca that I made with this camera in 1959 or thereabouts (when I was in high school). My hero's coming downhill out of a chicane in a birdcage Maserati, only going 80mph or so. Where are those negs...maybe they're better than the drugstore prints I've filed with them....

 

[Trius]

I had to think awhile about this. My first 35mm camera was a Konica C35-V, which is the scale focus verison of the C35. So it really wasn't a rangefinder. From there I went to OM SLRs. I was thinking that my current Minolta 7s was my first true rangefinder purchase, but then I remembered the M3 I had in the early to mid 80s. How could I forget!?

Once I found RFF, my collection grew somehow grew.

Trius

 

[raid]

I don't know whether a Zeiss Contina counts as a Rangefinder camera since it did not have a rangefinder. Then I moved to a Leica M3.

 

[Byuphoto]

I first fell in love with the Rf back in the early 70's. My high school photography teacher had some kind of Canon RF. I thought it was the neatest thing since store bought milk.But I got convinxced that an SLR was the way to go. So while in Navy boot camp I bought a Yashica TL Electro-X, at the PX. It was stolen before I left for Nam. I bought a Yashica GSN at the Phillipines PX. I kept it till I got out and then bought a pentax ME. I had the SLR blues for a number of years till several incidents conspired to turn me around. I had gotten the DSLR bug bad and within a year I had $12,000 dollars worth of Canons and lenses. One day it was all stolen, I got it back, but I gotr to thinking about how much money was tied up in that plastic. Then the divorce settlement caused me to have to sell all my Digital gear. was purusing E*** for some FD lenses for my old Canons and saw a yashica GSN. The nostalgia bug hit. About this time GeneW, whom I knew from another forum, was posting these outstanding B&W's taken with an RF. So I bought the GSN and Gene turned me onto this forum.
I then traded my Dreb to Ray_G for a Bessa R and a 50 Summitar. Bought a GIII and flash. then a 135 and a 90 Elmar and a pristine Konica Auto S2.
After I opened the Studio I bought a Mamiya 7II and since then several more classic 35's and MF cameras.

 

[elcud35rc]

I am new to RFs and just got one on eBay. Oly 35 rc. My first and only so far.

 

[Alec]

Leica IIf. But that was in another life.

 

[ray_g]

Olympus 35SP

 

[fgianni]

Sokol 2, I spent the first 20 minutes trying to remove the lens LOL

 

[rover]

Well, my father bought a Yashica RF way back around 1977, I was 11ish. He still talks about how that camera produced the best photographs he ever took. Shortly there after he gave that camera to my uncle and purchased two Minolta SRTs. I have no idea what model camera that was, and have showed my father photographs of all the Yashica fixed lens RFs, he can't remember either. I am pretty sure it was a fixed lens camera.

Well, fast forward to 2002, I was shopping to replace my EOS 10s, looking at an Elan or 3, and keep looking back at this little article in Pop Photo about the Canonet. I was captured, then found the Cameraquest site, and I the game was lost. 🙂

So, the Canonet QL17 GIII was quickly followed by the Konica Auto S3. They begot a Bessa R, a Himatic 9 and GSN. Then the fixed lens cameras morphed into an R2, and all of those above became a Leica.......

I never did buy that EOS. 😀

 

[dostacos]

My first RF was my dad's Kodak Retina IIc. The Schneider Xenon f2.8 is still one of the sweetest lenses I've ever shot with. Too bad the viewfinder was so small. Years later I had a Leica M-4 and an M-4P and a few lenses. Finally sold those after not using them for about 5 years. Now I'm back to a Canonet G-III 1.7 that I bought for only $20 because the meter was shot. No problem, I used handheld meters with the Leicas.
I don't want to say this too loudly, but for the 9x13 inch prints that I make, I can't see any difference between the Leicas and the el cheapo Canon.

Canonet 17 GIII QL which I still have [and fresh from Greyhoundman] I also had a Rolli 35 S but my dad found some other use for it. [Actually I had several interesting cameras go thru my hands, including a German/Kodax SLR non interchangeable lens 126 camera that got a special close up flash attachment and color coded metal distance frames that ended up being used in the mediacal profession....I really liked that camera, heavy sigh....]

 

[RObert Budding]

Olympus 35 RC - I used it while I was in college.

Robert

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Kodak Instamatik - way back when thankfully I was too young to realize that Disco was en vogue (perhaps I should clarify: the first time).

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Minolta Hi-Matic 9, bought in 1969. That was an entire summer of mowing lawns. I still have it, still looks good, and of course still operates. I keep it next to the Black Nikon SP.

 

[ErnestoJL]

My first RF was in fact my dad´s Rf, a Voigtländer Vitomatic IIb. It was bought during a trip (in a cargo ship) to Europe as the natural replacement for his old foldable 6x9 cm Wirgin which didnt have Rf or exposure meter. In fact, he wanted a ZI Contarex but we weren´t able to afford it unless bankrupt was acceptable (mom said NO!). Two years later, a friend of mine lend me for a few minutes a Contax IIIa... and it was the worst ever happened to me. After my father passed away in 1969, the Voigtländer fell into my hands. I donated the camera to my sister for her marriage and a few months later it was stolen. At this time I had my first SLR (a Miranda Sensomat which I still keep in good shape). One day in 1982 I was buying film and found in a corner of the shop an old Kiev 4 at a bargain price due to a nonworking meter. I bought it thinking of it as a discardable camera. Never been so wrong than this time.
In a few months it was a part of my body, even with the (in)famous Contax grip.
Then some years later I found RFF and got some knowledge about what I had for many years...GAS!!
My actual heading is towards any Leica M or Bessa... so I´m saving!!

Ernesto