Why do you have a RF?

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lellou

Marcus Carlsson
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I wonder why you have a rangefinder?

My own answer will be that I started with photography '96 after seeing
Anne Geddes on Oprah. I was stunned that one could make such fun
pictures with a camera.

Anyway I bought an SLR. But after a couple of years I found myself hating
the grain and therefore I built my own Large format camera (8x10") and
contact-printed the negatives.

Then I bought my DSLR, and now I really hate it, because the images are
too perfect and for once I just want that really grainy images and
I want to use tri-x.
I also want to do some street-photo and therefore I think a RF suits the perpose
well.

Anyway, this is my story and it would be fun hearing yours.

/ Marcus
 
I prefer film to digital and prime lenses to zooms. The smallest cameras with good prime lenses are rangefinders. So, when I wanted a quality camera that would take interchangable lenses that I could use when traveling I bought the Voigtlander Bessa-R. I wanted at least one body and three to four lenses that would fit in a fanny pack. I now have two lenses. With the two lenses I have there is still plenty of room in my fanny-pack so I will be adding at least one more lens soon.

Kevin
 
I just like 'em -- nothing much more than that, really. I like their compact size, the *small* lenses, and the excellent view through the VF of most models. I also like my SLR's, TLR and digicams, so maybe I'm not as discriminating as some of you, but I really enjoy RF's 😀

Gene
 
lellou said:
I wonder why you have a rangefinder?
Click to expand...

Mainly because I had one back in another life. 🙂 I realize that it has some advantages over the SLR, mainly in that it's a better low-light camera, at least for what I want to do with it.

The real question is, why do I have 2 (actually 2 1/2) of them? 🙂

Anyway, this is my story and it would be fun hearing yours.
Click to expand...

I think that many of the people here are sick of hearing this story, but here goes. 🙂

My first real camera was a Mamiya Super Deluxe. This was when I was back in high school, now 30+ years ago. Shortly after that I "upgraded" to a SLR, a Pentax Spotmatic, black "press" model. {woo-hoo!} I kinda pushed the Mamiya RF aside and eventually sold it for one song and one dance. That was the second stupidest mistake I think I ever made. (The stupidest had to be taking my car to Earl Sheib to have it painted -- don't ask!)

Fast forward to 2003. I was in Chicago, free afternoon at a conference, and I was taking some shots in the subway. I had (and still have) a Pentax K1000, an upgrade from the Spotmatic. I was kinda alternating between underexposing a stop at 1/60 wide open and struggling to handhold at 1/30 or even 1/15. I knew that >>THWACK<< of the mirror was costing me an f-stop!

Fast forward again to October of 2004. Same conference, same thing, shooting low-light in the subway. I made up my mind that I would try to locate a camera like my old one so I could have an advantage in low light.

(OBTW, several photos from those two shoots are published at http://world.nycsubway.org if anybody cares.) 🙂

I've always wanted to procrastinate, but I never really got around to it. In February of this year I began a serious quest for my old camera. I started out at rec.photo.equipment.35mm on Usenet, which got me here. I didn't even remember the actual model of the camera, but the folks here had it identified after a couple exchanges. I then set off to "that auction site" to find one.

It seemed like whenever one showed up, somebody else wanted it more than I did. 🙁 At the recommendation of the people here, I picked up a QL17 GIII, as-is, and got my baptism by fire in camera repair. That is a story in itself! 🙂 The GIII now works fine and I love it.

However (comma) while surfing on That Auction Site<tm> a few weeks back, I stumbled on one of the SD's mis-filed under medium format. "Completely overhauled" etc., and I was able to snag it for $17 and change.

Well, "completely overhauled" means something like it was only run over by a small truck. I was a little p*ssed at the misrepresentation, but I figured $18 is a fair price for a parts camera, so I decided to keep it. It turns out that the camera had been smacked on the lens, causing a "bend" right in the shutter mechansm. 🙁

I also found another one, and got it almost to the penny of my max bid, coincidentally. This new one looks clean, but the shutter is irregular at 1/4 and below and I'm now deciding which parts of which camera to use to make one working Frankencamera. Thanks to Jon Goodman and Greyhoundman, I almost have enough to make 2 semi-working ones. (Thanks also to everybody here for advice and encouragement.) 🙂

I love the GIII, more and more the more I use it. It's great for low-light, and I do like the wider 40mm lens. There are several from it, as well as from my original SD, in the gallery. The one thing it lacks is the match-needle exposure. I plan on keeping both the GIII and the FrankenSD and using them both.

That's about it, hope it wasn't too boring. 🙂 Hey, you asked. 🙂

(Hmmmm ... Looks like I exceeded my quota of smilies in this post ...)
 
My first RF was a ZI Contessa LKE, which I picked up simply because I'd never had an RF, and it looked cool. After that, three things forced me out of my SLR kit:
  1. My SLR zooms were of poor quality, and I wanted to upgrade. I couldn't afford (and still can't, really) a Maxxum/Dynax 7.
  2. I found using the RF was more fun... maybe it was the brighter viewfinder?
  3. I needed something smaller and lighter for travelling.

I found what I was looking for in a Bessa R and CV lenses, without breaking the bank.
 
I have a broad range of camera's from a Lomo to a Full Frame DSLR.
The RF camera's - beside the mentioned quality fixed lenses - also have a history in them.
And that is the thing what make using them special to me.
It's like a flight out of busy modern life, going back to the years where my little RF's were the finest machines to record familylife, friends and surroundings. That's the feeling I get when I push the button of my GSN, my GIII, My FED, My Oly RC, my S3 and so on.
A RF can be packed with sentiment if you are open to it.
 
My Contax IIIa is built like a fine swiss watch, and the lenses are stunningly good. I bought my rangefinder about a year ago and took it on a family vacation, along with my Contax N1 with 24-85 zoom. Well, my little 40 year old rangefinder blew the modern Contax camera and zoom right out of the water. The rangefinder photos were sharper and had better contrast. Plus the camera was smaller and easier to carry.

Drawbacks? Well, there are times when autofocus and matrix metering would be nice. But 90% of the time, my rangefinder is the right tool for the type of shooting I do.

Digital? Not as much fun as printing in a darkroom, at least for me. And I also find that folks on this site are much nicer than the photo.net digital crowd.

Robert
 
I can't focus on a ground glass without taking FOREVER. Therefore, I need another way to focus. Rangefinders just seemed a natural fit.

Still are, though with the AF digital, I'm leaning more and more towards the "I just like 'em" camp.
 
I learned the basics on a compact Ricoh 500GX... and then moved on to "advanced p&s" digi, then 35mm SLR, dslr ( :bang: ), back to 35mm SLR and finally (!) got myself a Bessa R.

And I am not going back to digital. In fact, I'm hoping to hear back from a friend who is looking to buy my dslr. Which will give me enough money for some more screw mount gear! Hurray for GAS. 😀
 
Precise focus under very poor lighting, small, very quiet, fast, rugged, compact lenses, high quality glass and very well built. I'm a Leica M shooter and have used them as a pro for almost fourty years. Check my gallery and you'll see why they excell.

They're not perfect for everything but they have their place in my bag.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=5045
 
OK. It's time to be honest.
I've got about 60 rangefinders -- mostly FSU cameras. I enjoy learning about how and why they were manufactured. I enjoyed learning how to replace the shutter curtains on a Zorki 1. I like the sound of the shutters firing. I like running test rolls of black and white fim through the individual cameras to make sure they are operating properly. I like looking at the various models in the display case.
But.....
I wear glasses. Over the years I have used Leicas, Canons, Leotaxes and FSU RF gear. And in ever case I have had trouble getting pictures that are straight with the world--always tilting one way or the other-- and that include everything I wanted to include in the photo.

I'm not much of a "people' shooter anymore except for family snapshots. My main interest is landscapes and historical documentation -- shooting pictures of places and buildings that are being altered or replaced. And when I do that sort of shooting, usually in color, I'll take an SLR every time. I like the F series Nikons that allow you to see exactly what will be in the frame. They may be heavier and bulkier and noiser but it's worth it because I know exactly what I'm going to get. With an RF it's a guesstimate.

The proof of my preference for SLRs is that over the past 30 years I have owned three Leica Ms . I loved holding them, marveling at the smoothness of operation and the sound of their shutters. But within a year I always sold them . My reasoning has always been the same. If I am going to wrap that much money up in a camera, I want it to be one I'm going to use the hell out of (grammar). And the camera that fits the bill is the SLR.

So, I like RFs for the beauty of design and the history. And if I ever decide I want to be a real people shooter, my RFs would come off the shelf. But for general photography I'll stick with my Nikon F3HP. That's not because I think rangefinders aren't as good as SLRs. It's because the SLR is a better fit for my personal tastes.
 
Forgot to mention, no battery on pre M7, fits my hands and becomes an extension of my body and eyes and keeps on working in extreme weather and it's beautiful to the eye. Over the time that I've used M Leicas I've only had the RF's adjusted possibley three times, one self timer spring replaced and two adjustments on MR4 meters. I now need to send my M winder in to find out what the funky noise is that it's making. Not bad for this many cameras and years and oh yes, I've probably shot 25K rolls through them.

The only new body and only problems were with my CL meter that I bought when they came out.


http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=5045
 
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