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Your favourite non-Leica camera


jagwar.jim

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Some time ago my local Council published statistics on dogs in the municipality that had committed 'infringements' according to bylaws. The number of dogs infringing bylaws was apparently large, in the order of 1500 as I recall. This precipitated a howl of disapproval from community members. I checked the number of registered dogs in the municipality to find there are something like 13000 registered dogs . (Caveat: these figures may be a bit rubbery, but definitely in the right order of things). My point to the populace was that far and away the majority were 'law abiding', but of course nobody reports an incident where 'nothing is wrong'. My point here is that success rarely gets noticed, failure nearly always gets reported.

 

I'm not going to flog this horse to death, but that's not an analogous situation whatsoever: we have a community of enthusiasts here - the vastly overwhelming majority of us signed-up and participate in this forum because we love our Leica cameras and lenses.

Seriously, hands-up ANYONE reading this who originally joined the forum in order to complain about their Leica equipment? ANYONE?

 

The people who join only when they have a problem tend to be drive-by posters: usually chased-off by a jeering herd after just one thread (if not just a single post). And often that post ("My M* sensor just broke! What do I do??!!") is often followed by twenty-five knee-jerk responses along the lines of "Had mine for x years and zero problems!"

 

But anyway, I'm not gonna pursue this discussion. We're all grown-ups, and people buying into Leica's digital cameras must know what they're doing. Presumably.

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I'm not going to flog this horse to death, but that's not an analogous situation whatsoever: we have a community of enthusiasts here - the vastly overwhelming majority of us signed-up and participate in this forum because we love our Leica cameras and lenses.

Seriously, hands-up ANYONE reading this who originally joined the forum in order to complain about their Leica equipment? ANYONE?

Sorry Plasticman, but my analogy is on target. People choose to own dogs, in my example, because they are pet lovers. The 'failures' are the misbehaving ones. They are a vast minority and get reported. The greater majority don't get noticed. ergo, an observer concludes, "dogs misbehave"!

That is a distortion of the overall facts, as for reported Leica failures, which of course do happen.

 

If you can't see the direct parallel, then, well I don't mind anyway.

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While there is some merit in the selection bias you describe -- where are all the loud complaining M film camera owners? I seem to recall some issues with the MP when it was first released, but just look at all the I love threads on the M3, M2, M4, M4-P, M6, etc. The only comparable group of consistently happy users I can recall here are the Monochrom owners. It seems clear to me that, even taking into account biases such as you describe, there seem to be more issues with the digital M cameras, particularly in the period of time following a new release until the fixes are implemented. Later things seem to settle down, as with the M8 forum nowadays.

 

On dogs, we have a few Dogo Argentino around here, lovely dogs but I don't want to meet a misbehaving one or its owner.

 

Nick

Edited by Nick_S
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Sorry Plasticman, but my analogy is on target. People choose to own dogs, in my example, because they are pet lovers. The 'failures' are the misbehaving ones. They are a vast minority and get reported. The greater majority don't get noticed. ergo, an observer concludes, "dogs misbehave"!

That is a distortion of the overall facts, as for reported Leica failures, which of course do happen.

 

If you can't see the direct parallel, then, well I don't mind anyway.

 

It's not a direct parallel because the Leica forum is not the wider public of non-dog-owners that you're talking about in your example, it's more akin to an enthusiastic kennel-club. So the general reaction of this select group is not at all "dogs misbehave!" but rather "my dog doesn't behave like that, at all! It must be the owner's fault!"

 

Anyway, to channel towards the thread subject again - one of the wonderful things about film is the amazing diversity of formats, and how they do actually look totally different to each other, so I'm going to nominate yet another favorite: the Olympus Pen F and FT half-frame cameras. I love how the juxtaposition of images can lead to a form of 'story-telling' within a normal 35mm frame.

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It's not the camera I shoot the most (anymore), but I'm dearly fond of my mamiya 7.

How did you find the focussing of the 150mm lens for Mamiya 7? I have read some mixed reviews, suggesting great lens but common calibration issues with the body (or perhaps a too short rangefinder base length to work accurately with the longer lens).

 

Nick

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Due to my gradually failing eyesight, I transferred from my M7 to the Zeiss ZI to get a much-larger, brighter and reasonably accurate viewfinder.

 

The Zi has proven to be just what I needed, and all my lenses fit (21,24,28,35,50)

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I just bought a Konica Auto S3 on the bay. Great little camera. Fits in the pocket with a classy lens. Looking forward to the postman arriving. :)

I have had a Konica Auto S3 for a number of years and it is a really nice camera. I took it to Istanbul in 2012, and it a great pocketable film camera. I did not take it with me to China this year only because I had in the meantime acquired 2 M3's, a second M8 and an M4 which I wanted to use instead. In some ways I regret not having it, but I was too heavily laden as it was. I think you will enjoy your new prize immensely!

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I have had a Konica Auto S3 for a number of years and it is a really nice camera. I took it to Istanbul in 2012, and it a great pocketable film camera. I did not take it with me to China this year only because I had in the meantime acquired 2 M3's, a second M8 and an M4 which I wanted to use instead. In some ways I regret not having it, but I was too heavily laden as it was. I think you will enjoy your new prize immensely!

 

Well the camera arrived and its in really good condition, everything works fine except the light-seals are a gooey mess. I'm getting them replaced at the moment while trying to get a rebate from the seller. I used one for my final year at college many years ago and, as far as image quality goes, it was not bettered by any of the SLRs used by other students. Its hopefully back from the menders today or tomorrow

I bought it to use for colour film while using my M4 for b&w or vice-versa.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I must add

 

tiny Tessina 35, a twin lens reflex 35mm camera, it takes 35mm film in special cartridge, frame format 14x 21mm.

 

Springloaded film winder allows one to take up to 8 pictures consecutively without

winding, quite convenient

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