Why do we shoot 35mm rangefinders?

I feel like Byuphoto and some other guys in this thread:
I still use some old manual or auto winding wristwatches, (Seiko, Citizen, Gladiador, Baume & Mercier, Vostok, etc), still shoot with the same auto handgun which is also 65 y.o. still love mechanical wall clocks...those machines were made to last... they are not disposable plastic gadgets like the wonders we have today, made only to last a mere 4 or 5 years....
Besides, I love and I´m aimed to have everything under my own control....I do not adhere to fully auto cameras... just because a perfectly (?) exposed and focused picture is not allways what I want... then the small error is what makes it almost perfect (at least for me).
I´ve been shooting with several SLRs and TLRs for the past 30 years, but at last I found , that the only camera that gives me the possibility to make pictures the way I want is an RF.
Another fact I have to take care of is that almost 95% of my pictures were shoot through a normal lens...extreme tele and/or macro is beyond an RF ... then comes the SLR.
I know that digital is here to stay, but it will take some more time to get the same we have today with good film cameras, in the digital universe.
 
Dear Wayne,

Ah, I think you have not tried some of the Kievs with the REALLY bad quality control...

And of course if you want a magnum there's always 70mm.

Cheers,

Roger
 
CBLZ4 wrote: I prefer to dine at eateries where waitresses bring real plates to your table; I don’t like standing at a trough waiting for my paper feedbag. I like Coke from a glass bottle, old books and my Bible has a leather cover – not “pleather.” I guess the further down the road I get, the more I want to slow down, look around and enjoy the journey.
Here, here. I could not have said it better.
Joe wrote:send me your address and i'll send ya some 'nabob full city dark', my favourite blend.
good canadian coffee maker that 'nabob' is.
Send me your address and I will send you some Community Dark roast. Of the smell of chicory in the morning.
One sip and you are fully awake, one cup and you are up all day, one pot and you will never blink again ;-)
 
XAos said:
I'm sorry, I thought everyone on the planet had seen "The Princess Bride".
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:bang:
No problem. But as far as movies if it does not star Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, Mel Gibson or Tommie Lee Jones I don't even consider it. Since the era of the great Western matinees wnet out :mad: there are only a hand full of movies I have seen. The best are, IMHO, Quigley down Under, The Sacketts, TR, Lonesome Dove, The last of the Mohicans The Patriot and Braveheart. As you can see I don't do comedy ;)
 
I might suggest Open Range with Kevin Costner and Robert Duval. It is from the old school westerns. Has any of you tried the pinon coffee from the Owl Cafe in Albuquerque? It may not knock your socks off, but it is one fine cuppa! (I guess this is a different group)
 
Send me your address and I will send you some Community Dark roast. Of the smell of chicory in the morning.
One sip and you are fully awake, one cup and you are up all day, one pot and you will never blink again ;-)


sounds delicious & scarey at the same time.

joe
 
Richard Black said:
I might suggest Open Range with Kevin Costner and Robert Duval. It is from the old school westerns. Has any of you tried the pinon coffee from the Owl Cafe in Albuquerque? It may not knock your socks off, but it is one fine cuppa! (I guess this is a different group)
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Saw it not bad but could have been better without Costner. Never did care for him just like SavingPrivate Ryan would have been better without Tom hanks. he should stick to comedy ;)
 
Hicks wrote: "Starbucks with FRIENDS? What do you drink with your ENEMIES?"

Ha!! Guess I’ve outlived my enemies. "Starbucks with friends" means "they're buyin'!" But hey, I like Starbucks okay. I'll tell ya though, byuphoto, Starbucks and Folgers may be pretty rank, but if you ever see me drinking anything that ends with letters "c-c-i-n-o" or has an apostrophe at the end of it, just go ahead and use that Sharps on me and put me out of my misery.

I grew up drinking Folgers, the poor folks coffee I guess. My Dad started me on it when I was about five, brewed in a steel pot called “The Percolator,” not “Mr. Whatever” that’s sifted through some paper something. (The same Dad that told me all my life about the time he left his Leica in the back seat of a Yokohama taxi after the Big War. "Kicked myself a thousand times over that one.")

And thanks for all the offers of "the good stuff," but your grand beans would pretty much be wasted on me. The truth of the matter is, my brain cells that run my taste buds didn’t survive the 70’s anyway. When it comes to flavor, I'm up Juan Valdez's mountain without a donkey. So Starbucks or Shineola, it all tastes about the same to me.
 
just for the record, nabob coffee is from the supermarket, it's not a 'premium' coffee at all.
i just like the flavour.

joe
 
Between the coffee, Bikes and cameras here and the guns and cameras on the what else turns us on thread, I think we need a coffee, guns, bikes camera forum
 
Community is not a premium either. It was a poormans coffee made here in New Orleans and sold statewide. Just has that deep south flavor. Chicory was used during the depression as a way to stretch the coffee. It was later sold as Stretcher during the war. When you ran out of coffee you boiled the stretcher. Till you have had stretcher coffee ran through an old sock you haven't lived(back in the '60's we had a very primitive hunting camp)
 
My work as a designer has gone digital. My entertainment is nearly all digital. My Canon G2- digital, and fidgety (I still get some fun out of it).

I enjoy photography. But I missed the simplicity of loading a cassette of film, turning the focus and aperture rings and releasing the shutter. Beside having a very brief adventure at 16 with an Argus C3 (hated it), I had only SLRs to work with. I didn't know much about rangefinders.

Last winter I began researching rangefinders on the Web. I knew about Leicas, their reputation is grand. But then I learned about Canons, Yashicas and Others. I was very intreagued when I learned about cameras from the FSU. Jim Blassick's site was my downfall.

I have an SLR, an old Canon T70 that had barely been used by my wife. However, whenever I pick up a camera these days it is most likely a rangefinder.

I find them to be simple, lightweight and straight-forward in use. The oldies like my Argus C-44 and Canon QL17 are a treat. My Bessa R is very handy with it's metal shutter, built in meter and decent ergonomics.
 
Byuphoto said:
:bang:
No problem. But as far as movies if it does not star Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, Mel Gibson or Tommie Lee Jones I don't even consider it. Since the era of the great Western matinees wnet out :mad: there are only a hand full of movies I have seen. The best are, IMHO, Quigley down Under, The Sacketts, TR, Lonesome Dove, The last of the Mohicans The Patriot and Braveheart. As you can see I don't do comedy ;)
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Lonesome Dove is the best western ever made -- for TV or as a motion picture. Kinda scary, however that it was written by the same guy who wrote "Terms of Endearment."
My second choice is "Jeramiah Johnson". Or the scene from "Gettysburg" near the beginning with Sam Elliott at the Union cavalry commander. I would give up all my Zorkis to have Sam Elliott's voice:)
 
JimDE said:
Byuphoto, Lets make it a Camera, Bike, Coffee, Shooting forum (all that shoots doesn't go bang) ;)
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JimDE - I'M IN!! :D

And Kiev4a,
"I would give up all my Zorkis to have Sam Elliott's voice"
Ya know, I just happen to have Sam Elliott's voice right here in a small [but deep] container. I think we can work out a trade. Send me your stuff first... :)
 
As for my Contax G2:

1. it has no reflex mirror
2. lenses are smaller
3. it is lighter than a typical SLR
4. therefore handholding is easier at slower speeds
5. therefore I can shoot in lower light conditions
6. or use a slower film
7. this means I can potentially enlarge more
8. it is less conspicuous
9. it still has: exposure compensation, bracketing, autofocus, auto/manual metering
10. it is well made

Despite all that a camera is only a means to an end - a tool.
 
Maybe I just don't fit into the modern disposable world world. I collect and shoot classic firearms. My last .22 was made in the 1890's and works great. I gave my mint 62 lincoln to my father in law for christmas and I am still driving a 66 mustang that once belonged to his father. I am still wearing the Rolex I purchased in 84 when I was in the Marines. I can still use a slide rule. I do some printing with an Ellwood enlarger from the 50's. I dont have cable tv but I average $100.00 a month on books. It is no supprise that my cameras are Contax G2 and Leica rangefinders, Hasselblad 501 and Mamiya C330 Med. format and 4x5 and 8x10 LF. I may sound like a snob but I know that these things will last for another generation or two and that means somthing to me.
 
I think older gadgets alllow you put more of yourself into whatever you're doing. I own a '68 morris minor and a '74 MGB. I service them myself and do some repairs as well. I if car I running nicely I know that it is something I did and I derive more satisfaction from driving . The same with cameras if you have an all manual camera you know the pictures it takes are due to your skill. If you use an Eos on program with an image stabilising zoom you'll shoot great pictures but you not such a big part of the process -technology dehumanises the endevour lessens the amount the you matter. David Bailey said that Digital makes good photographers look average and average photographers look good.

I want my abilties -good bad or indifferent- to be reflected in my work that's why I use an RF camera
 
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Man, what about "Monte Walsh"? One of Selleck's best westerns, if you ask me! As for getting back on topic, all the reasons stated above are why I dropped digital and went (back) to RF cameras. After 27 years of computers, I want old fashioned quality in my photos and digital don't do it! That's why I do woodworking with hand tools and wooden bodied planes as well. Besides, THAT saves my hearing and gives me that tactile sense no power tool can give. Sorry, Norm Abrams!
 
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