Diversity (on encouraging you to look anew)

[paulatukcamera]

As its the time of year when there is a New Year and a new start just around the corner and as it is also a time of peace & goodwill and you may just tolerate my ramblings!

I have been impressed by those here championing the cause of lesser known Minolta, Mamiya & Ricoh SLRs, so I thought I'd mention a few rangefinders that won't break the bank and might introduce a few of you to the pleasures of the genre without major expenditure!

First up is the range of Agfa Silettes (also known as Memars I think, in the States) In terms of price they have hit absolute "rock bottom" with £10 - $20 being the upper limits for most. Agreed they didn't quite have the finish of the Retinas or the Contessamatics, but mechanically & optically they were their match. There were two basic lenses throughout the range, the Apotar (3 element) & the Solinar (4)

The cheapest Silettes are no longer that much different in price from the top of the range, so buy the best! The Super Silette Automatic had a coupled rangefinder and meter and was built as well as any of its competitors.



However the range topping Optima 500 S (the other models were rangefinderless & had Apotar lenses) has the best rangefinder clarity of any of my rangefinders (& as you know, I have a fair few) and is a little gem, condemned by its "automaticity" (No aperture or shutter speed to adjust) to forever languish at the bottom of the pile. Buy one and you will find it is a rock solid little camera, beautifully built that will take wonderful pictures.

Check the meter! If it don't go green as well as red, then its not doing much.



Perhaps some of you will be brave enough to try one of these two recommendations and report back if you agree with me or not.

Better still if one or two of you have a little favourite that is also inexpensive enough for some of us to try, why not post it here?

Paul

[nikonbob]

I have a little Minolta Highmatic E with a very good 40mm/1.7 lens. Just a super little camera with only one niggle for me and that is that you don't have full manual control.

Bob

[physiognomy]

Paul, nice thread... I have often thought about buying one of the Agfa rangefinders as they look like good cameras. The prices on the Silettes/Memars are quite low here as well... Even the Agfa Karat often sells for very affordable prices.

One of my suggestions for a lesser known, but affordable entry into rangefinders would have to be the Iloca. As far as I know there were several models that ranged from scale focus viewfinders to models with coupled rangefinders (& selenium meters?). I have the Iloca Rapid-B and find it to be a quirky, yet enjoyable little camera that gives good results. The lens is a 50/2.8 Steinheil Cassar S, which I believe is a triplet. The rangefinder & viewfinder windows are switched from most other rangefinders I have used & therefore the viewfinder is located in the middle/right of the camera. This means you have to adjust any normal grip you've become accustomed to with your right hand. No major inconvenience, but something you have to get used to. The best feature imho about this camera is the folding advance lever. After you have advanced the film, it simply folds in half back against the body. I wish it was possible to engineer one for every knob wind camera! Here it is:



Peter

[bobm]

For me it's my Rank Mamiya 4B - I've had it for years and it remains one of my favourites.

I used to shoot Extar 25 with it and the Mamiya -Kominar 2.8/40 lens gave very pleasing images with a nice almost pastel feel to them.

It's a good looking, solidly built little RF with the usual virtually silent shutter and is relatively unobtrusive.

Then there's the Olympus XA.........

[herron]

Bob:
I am also quite fond of the Mamiya 4B (naturally :..and it's "parent" camera, if you will, the Mamiya Ruby



Mamiya introduced the leaf shutter Mamiya Ruby in September 1959. It was a front-lens focusing linked rangefinder, with a point matching exposure meter, read in a dial on top of the camera. It was to become the style basis for several Mamiya rangefinders, including the 4B. The Ruby came standard with that same 2.8 Mamiya-Kominar lens, and a 2.0 lens was an option.

One of the problems with having so many cameras is you often forget to use some of them. Alas, this is true of my Ruby...but I just may put some film in it and shoot some pre-Christmas stuff, now that I'm thinking of it again!
;D

[kiev4a]

I must admot I've never been into the leaf shutter RFs. 1. Because the lenses (usualy) aren't interchangable and 2. Because if the cameras have been unused for several years the shutters have a tendency to stick. I still have my original 35mm--an Ansco Super Memar--but it doesn't produce pictures of the quality of most of my other cameras.

[bobm]

1. Because the lenses (usualy) aren't interchangable and 2. Because if the cameras have been unused for several years the shutters have a tendency to stick.

Sometimes a fixed lens can be good in the sense that it makes things more spontaneous simply because you don't have the choice of which lens to use....

Although I don't have a particularly large collection of cameras and so they all get used at some point, I still fire the shutters at all speeds on them every so often to avoid any sticking problems.

[paulatukcamera]

Never ever convince yourself that you are completely correct in your logic - it can lead to gross errors of judgement!

You know what I have done?

Posted this and then looked up Agfas on eBay to see if my statement on price was still correct now rather than when I last looked some months ago (I do try and post accurately!). Firstly, it is. Secondly, I am really, really, ashamed to say I lost all control of my reason and I now own a further two Agfas!

How could I be so stupid! I now have to intercept the postman every day to Xmas. I don't mind doing this if its really worth it, (I did manage to get a Retina IIC reasonably the other day and I've wanted one for ages to partner the IIIC) but this ............

Words fail me - I am risking life limb and the divorce courts for:

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=020&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=300060031320&rd=1&rd=1

Super Silette £6.19 (about $11) (don't have one)

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=020&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=300060188770&rd=1&rd=1

Optima 500S £12.9 ($22) - Meter on my mint one is rather suspect when I examined it prior to taking its picture & posting here.

Is there any hope?

What is worse, well probably far worse is - I feel an acute attack of "Dismantleitis" coming on.

The symptoms are these:

New Zealander selling catalogues & a rare Ilford Sportsman Auto RF (these don't come up often) Shutter jammed, but excellent condition - better than mine. Didn't fetch his $5 reserve, but postage to UK well over the value of this camera even by my distorted standards!

I then bought one of his catalogues & he kindly took the top housing & working meter off it and sent it to me - all for $4!

Now you see why I keep looking at my small screwdriver set.

Someone stop me. Let the voice of sanity and reason prevail. I risk completely wrecking an innocent camera that has done me no harm and I could also spend Xmas in the garage amidst a pile of cardboard boxes I've been trying to conceal!

I am not really safe in front of a computer. Perhaps I should never post in the RF thread again.

Paul