Recommend a fixed lens rangefinder

[tkbslc]

I am looking for a film rangefinder and being a digital kind of guy, I don't really know what to look for.

My criteria:

Reasonably compact
35-45mm fixed lens, faster the better of course.
Has a meter I can find batteries for
manual controls
under $250 and not hard to find.
reliable

Any ideas? I tried an Olympus Trip last year and while I loved the form factor, it had a sticky shutter and no manual controls. Would like something I little higher end.

[ludoo]

If you don't mind the size, the Olympus 35SP is one of the best fl rangefinders ever made. Smaller, probably the Konica S3 but it's more fragile.

If you have a good repairman nearby for a CLA or find one from a reputable store, and don't mind a slightly longer lens (50mm) you can also look for a Voigtlander Vitomatic III, it has a wonderful 1:1 viewfinder, an Ultron f2.0 lens, and is a beautiful, compact (and heavy) piece of engineering.

Edit: with your budget, you could also investigate a meterless camera and a clip-on meter like the Voigtlander VCII, Sekonik L-208 etc. Your options will widen considerably.

[martinsmith99]

Canonet QL17 Giii I find brilliant or Vivitar 35ES I find very good.

[Nesster]

I don't know if the size is a turn-off for you, but so far my favorite fixed lens RF with meter is a Konica Auto S2... and the smaller Konica C35 in my pictures is good too, though it lacks manual exposure.

http://forum.mflenses.com/konica-auto-s2-t31600.html

[Sevo]

All of them were up-market compared to the average consumer cameras of the day. There were many nice ones - indeed I haven't come across one with poor image quality attributable to its design.

My personal favourites are the Yashica 35CC (outstanding IQ, the best night shooter of the type, with 35mm f/1.8 lens and aperture priority) and Olympus 35RC (the smallest apart from the all-plastics Olympus XA, with excellent IQ, 42mm/2.8, time priority or non-metered manual). But as I said there are few to no lemons among the bunch - I currently own far more compact rangefinders than I have space for, and still haven't decided which ones to split with...

[estudleon]

My options:

Yashica LYNK 14 F/ 1,4 lens (poor man Leica)

Konica III S (not battery, selenium meter)

Yashica Electro 35

Konica S

Konica S 2

Konica S 1,6 (F/ 1,6 lens)

Canon GIII

Petri Racer 1,7

Ricoh Super shot 1,7

Minolta HI Matic 7 sII

Agfa Ambi Sillete

Aires

etc.

There are a lot of cam that can give to you a very good service.

Good luck.

[Esox lucius]

Any coupled Zeiss Super Ikonta rangefinder, lens 75/3.5 or 80/2.8 equals about 40mm on full frame digital SLR. You'll love the detail of 120 film and mechanically they are fantastic machines, a joy to use.

[alex]

The Yashica Lynx 14e is a terrific camera, but it's not "reasonably compact" by any stretch. It does have an f/1.4 lens of no mean ability, continuous parallax-adjusting viewfinder, a full speed range from 1-500, and it's not battery-dependent (if the battery goes, only the meter goes with it).

It really is hard to beat the Olympus 35RC. It's compact, light, but not plastic. It's got a corking sharp and colourful lens, and has good rangefinder handling. The reason it's acquired an almost cult status is that it's really that good.

[scsambrook]

If you want a good but inexpensive camera, maybe think about the Yashica Minister II and Minister III. Selenium cell meters, so no batteries to worry about. Athough the cells will be getting old they seem to last for decades. Lenses are 4-element Tessar-type, nice and sharp from f4 downwards and not bad at f2.8. Mechanical reliability is as good as any other Japanese camera of similar age. And best of all, they can still be bought at modest prices!

[alex]

The Minister III is a good recommendation, and I think the III is the most attractive looking in the entire Minister range. I recently sold mine, simply because my inventory needs pruning, yet already I'm regretting it. It sits nicely in the hands, the lens is very good, and in mine the selenium meter was still dependable. It was overexposing consistently by about half a stop, but I'm not sure that was a simply calibration error ; I've a feeling that there was an ASA realignment sometime in the sixties or so that effectively reduced the exposure values defined for each ASA value without any change in emulsion speeds. Either way, as long as the difference is consistent, you can re-rate films accordingly.

One of the remarkable things about my old Yashica rangefinders is how accurate the mechanical shutters are. For example, on the Minister III I sold, all the speeds from 1 to 250 were within 5% of a stop of nominal values, and the 500 speed was slow by about a fifth of a stop. For a camera nearly half a century old, that's a phenomenal result, and means the marked values could be relied on even for slide film.

[estudleon]

The Minister III is a great cam.

Was my first cam at 10 years. Exist a version that say at the front M3. The production was stopped because Leica did the protest (Leica M3).

Very solid, nice lens. I didn't put in my list because the question was about fast lenses cams (if I don't understand badly).

The Olympus 35 RC, SP, and all that line are very fine cams, with very good lens F/1,7.

There are some, some cams to go for. If I could have the money.....

Rino.

[tkbslc]

Thanks for all the responses. I am surprised to get so many since I have not been able to get to the site since I posted!

Right now, the Olympus RC is looking attractive due to its size, but I will check out everything listed. I just want something simple and fun to use when my DSLR kit grows tiresome.

THose plastic XA units get pretty good reviews and they fold up solid to put in a pocket. I may have to grab one of those as a hiking/biking cam.