Whats your biggest rangefinder related regret

I had a Plaubel Makina 67, fully functioning, which I had to sell in my very last year of grad school because I glitched on my budgeting for tuition: thought I still had a scholarship available on which it was shown that I didn't. Anyway, I made almost 100% profit on the camera, but really missed it. Big negative, compact, lightmeter. I should have begged, borrowed or, er, stolen, to try to hold on to that one. I can't afford what they're going for now!
 
I have none, I was about to post a few but then thought, hey, life is about living - not regretting stuff.

But I really regret selling my SP35. And getting rid of my Contax G1 (if it sells). And my Petri. I regret lots of things, but I look forward to many more.
 
Well I'm selling my Noctilux today so I'm sure that may well rank up there on the list at some point. I absolutely love the lens but I simply do not use it enough and I have my eye on another toy.

I definitely regret selling my black Nikon S3 2000. To my eye it was simply the best looking camera out there.
 
Not buying the M9 when I bought my M8.2. It was the only time I was ready to buy it and decided to "cheap" out. Now I cannot bring myself to buy it. Oh well... life goes on and I have other fine cameras to use. :)
 
The fact that I could never get a Nikon rangefinder (SP or S2) to work right for me. Nice cameras, but I had issues with focusing (spoiled by Leica M viewfinders), and the fiddly lens changing. Sold 'em off, but there's still times when I look at an SP and wish....
 
In retrospect, I probably should not have given away my blue leathered Olympus AutoEye. I don't think it ever sees light anymore.
 
I wish I had bought a Leica in the very beginning so I wouldn't have entered the gear chase for all those years. I always knew that a Leica was what I wanted, but I thought I couldn't afford it. Oh! The money I'd have saved if I'd just bought an M2 and a 35mm 'cron back in '68.
 
Mine must be when I handed my carry-on luggage containing my M6 kit to an Indian airport hostess for a security check. You should have seen my face when she threw it 4 feet through the air and onto the x-ray conveyor belt. Ouch. No damage, though.
 
about a year ago in NYC I was looking for a chrome M6 + 35mm Summicron for a friend. I didn't have much knowledge on the summicrons as I was satisfied with my 35/1.4 nokton. I picked up a chrome 35mm cron and it looked rather in good condition, but wanted to check with him if the price was ok before i bought it. he didn't answer the phone, so we could only talk by night. i came back next day and the lens had been sold... it was $1000. only these days it came to my mind it was a chrome v1 summicron, a lens which im currently considering getting. in the end i got him a $1200 v3, but damn, if i could go back in time i would have gotten that v1 for myself!
 
Biggest regret: I should have bought the R-D1 years ago, not months. That would have spared me from always being on the search for the real one camera... (Would have saved much money, too...:eek:)
 
My biggest regret was giving my fathers black Canon GIII to a camera shop in London for 1.5V lightmeter conversation. They did a terrible job ! The funny thing is that this was the only camera my father ever owned. He bought it back in the 70s. In the 80s this camera was in my "toy box". Never really noticed what it is and good it was covered by the case. Once I got interested in photography I found it one day and had a second look to it. In the meantime I shot some of my best pictures with this camera. There is a big emotional value to this camera - that is the reason why I regret this conversation job so much ! It gets even worst when I think or write about it....

But also there was times when I wrote ebay sellers a email saying "I am sorry about that price", because I bought their Rangefinder for 1$ - Will not think about it how they felt
 
Last edited:
Selling my Leica M8 back in September and having to sell off most of my gear to buy another one in January as I missed it so much. :(
 
I also regret not getting into RF earlier but my most recent regret was buying a 28 Elmarit version II instead of a new CV 28/2. The Elmarit ended up having some fungus and scratches I didn't see during my inspection at the store which seriously hurt its resale value. Needless to say, I learned my lesson.
 
Back
Top Bottom