Whats your biggest rangefinder related regret

[migtex]

Not have the funds to buy an SP black 2005....
Not selling anything to fund it afraid I will regret it after....

 

[benmacphoto]

Missing my chance at a Canon 7 with a 50mm f 0.95 for $400.
Not buying a Noctilux before the M8.2/M9 came out.

 

[CameraQuest]

Not buying a very early like new NIKON ONE in the first 100 for $100 at a pawn shop.
Bob Rotoloni had not yet published his first Nikon Rangefinder book or his first NHS Journal.
Nikon rarities were simply not documented then.....damn.

This is a neat thread, let's add to it.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

I wish I had bought a used Leica M2 when prices bottomed out about 10-15 years ago and a nice one could be had for around $700...

Chris

 

[skopar steve]

My biggest regret was selling my M6 with 50mm bought new to venture into photography. Ten years later I bought a M4-2 with 50&35 summicrons. I still have a Nikon D780 for digital, but I've collected some FSU cameras and lenses a Rollie 2.8 schneider, Iskra folder and some Contax and Olympus kits. None of these will I ever part with. Still wish I had that M6 kit.

 

[Darthfeeble]

I didn't like having to sell my M10 but didn't regret it, I hugely regreted selling not one but two R-D1s, promptly bought another and then caught a not so rediculous priced R-D1x and will never sell either of them.

 

[mconnealy]

I sold my Nikon S in the late 1960s for just enough to buy a pair of pants I needed to shoot a wedding. I have since decided the series of pictures I made with that camera in New York's Chinatown was the best thing I ever did. I've been looking for a replacement for years, but all I've seen have been beyond my budget.

 

[MISH]

My first Leica was a M3 DS which I promptly dropped causing rangefinder separation and the dreaded black viewfinder
Saw a used Hammertone M6 soon after they came out, don’t remember the exact price but it was around $2500 (it was a really pretty camera)
M6 Titanium could be found pretty cheap 15 years ago
I have had the Leica bug for thirty-five years and I saw lots of stuff that I thought was prohibitively expensive at the time that in hindsight would’ve been a bargain, fortunately I did buy some of it

 

[Prest_400]

Not purchasing a Mamiya 7II kit with the 80mm that was listed in the classifieds here, for about 400€, in 2012.
I was in highschool and had neither the funds nor the age to clear such a transaction.

Mostly medium format for me... The following are barely RF but:
Buying a Rolleiflex 3.5E, freshly CLAd, from a local store for about $350. Never seen again.

Perhaps getting a Fuji 645 (AF versions) when they were below $500.

Might add a token Leica M3/M6 purchase prior to the pandemic and price surges.

But in general, many about shots not taken. And in my case having mainly had a Fuji 6x9, it was to not take some shots due to awkwardness, slowness or film economy.

 

[boojum]

I am doing alright on the regrets. I got interested in the RF's here. How strange. ;o) I started with an M8.2 as a small start, then an M9 with a factory replaced sensor and circuit board and then a pair of M240's. One was for a friend who sent it back, he didn't like it. It has found another home and is in capable hands. The three M bodies see color differently and I find that the M240, the red-headed stepchild of the Leica family, shoots great color. It is not the vibrant Kodachrome color and that is fine. I liked Agfachrome better and that is more the M240 color.

So the RF's I have are all good, serviceable cameras which I enjoy using. Peterm on here has some lovely M8 shots and I have to use mine more. The colors are nice and not too bright. And the M8/8.2 does mono very nicely, too.

So, no regrets, yet.

 

[jaredangle]

Lens cap left on for an entire 220 roll of Velvia when I was borrowing a Mamiya 7ii back in the day.

 

[boojum]

Lens cap left on for an entire 220 roll of Velvia when I was borrowing a Mamiya 7ii back in the day.

Could you rewind and re-use the roll?

 

[wlewisiii]

Selling my IIIf and Summitar. I got a Nikon F2 & 50/1.4 for it but still...

 

[Prest_400]

Lens cap left on for an entire 220 roll of Velvia when I was borrowing a Mamiya 7ii back in the day.

Have to add in that, half a roll of Provia 120 lens cap. Did realise it so shot some blanks.
In the same scene (2018) of a temporal art installation I regret not taking any B&W as the subject really leant to it.

 

[pvdhaar]

In hindsight, regret getting rid of the Hexar-RF. Brilliant camera on its own, but I couldn't stop comparing it to the Hexar-AF.
Am shooting with an M4 now, and find I'm missing the metering and auto-exposure.

 

[nightlight]

Not a purchase/sale regret; rather a technique one at at time when I documented protests. I missed a heap of shots over the many years obsessing about focus accuracy.

Practicing scale focus would have helped to get the shots - nevermind sharp or blurred - which was the whole point.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

The last rangefinder I owned was a Bessa R3A paired with the Voigtlander 40mm 1.4 lens. I owned several other lenses, but that 40mm practically lived on the camera. I purchased the camera and lens from the Head Bartender himself, back in the day.

I was in the middle of transitioning from film to digital and I was selling all my film gear to help pay for it. At the end, I finally sold all my rangefinder gear, with the R3A being the last film camera I owned. Big mistake. I still miss that camera today.

 

[Photar]

I bought too many bags

 

[Ken Ford]

I wish I had never sold my first M kit back in the late 80s, I’ll never be able to justify having a Noct again.

 

[retinax]

I'm not special, I wish I'd bought a bunch of stuff when it was cheap. And made enough money back then. Or now...