Zeiss Contax IIa or maybe Nikon S?

[humberland]

I bought my Fs when Ektachrome was only 3 and have never regreted it. If you want a film camera stick with your F and get another, or several! Lenses are plentiful, $100 bodies in great shape are everywhere.

I've shot every kind of rangefinder made and I own a Contax IIa and a IIIa w/NIKKOR 28 and 135 as well as the original Tessars for both.

When it's time for countin' its always the Fs.

The F and the Spotmatic are the reason rangefinders died!

F is and pretty much always be my first choice camera. I may get black body to match my chrome one.

Nikon S2 hands down,

My experience is with II, III, IIa, and IIIa Contax and one Nikn S2, the Nikon is superior in just about every way from a shooters view. The Contax do have that classic look, but... Honestly are a pain to hold and use unlike any other camera you own.

The Nikon S2 embodies a lot of great features and compatibility with newer Accessories.
MS-Optical was selling a optical attachment adapter that allowed you to mound a Leica M eyepiece/eyecup/magnifier to your Nikon S2, I purchased one and used it with an E-Clypse eyecup (Match Technical?).

Now, that makes me happy that I choose S2 instead of Contax 😀

As for lenses, try the W-Nikkor 2.5/35. Shoot long lenses on your F.

Thank you for lens recommendation. It's my plan to shoot S2 with wideangle and keep F in bag for longer shots.

 

[Gregm61]

No better "wide" than a 21mm f4.5 Biogon on a good Contax body.







Contax cameras are definitely a "different" process in use. Not quite as clumsy as, say, an Exakta, but definitely have their own unique quirks. I don't even like using the built-in 50mm finder on my IIA. I use the rangefinder to focus, but frame all shots with a shoe-mounted Zeiss 21-135mm universal finder with all the lenses, including the 50mm f2 Sonnar, and as long as I a remember to set the distance focused on the finder scale, parallax is compensated for pretty darn well, but it's an entirely manual process.

Loading and rewinding are, a process to say the least, but that's also just part of the experience. The lenses are the treat. You can't put together a better classic outfit than the IIA outfit I have, with the 50 and 85mm f2 Sonnars, 135mm f4 Sonnar and 21mm Biogon.

If I want a more modern feeling experience, I use one of my Leica bodies, either an M4 or M6.