What 35mm non-Leica do you also enjoy?

[pgk]

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10 hours ago, 250swb said:

The answer for me would be an Olympus XA ..... the Olympus XA is as magic as magic can be, a superb lens in a tiny body that is a design classic.

Lovely little camera but all I found it (like the Minox range) to be just too small. They have a reputation for being slightly fragile too (although that may be bias having seen a number go in for repair) Design classic is right though.

My last SLR was a plain prism Nikon F - another 'classic'. Sadly many of these great cameras are ageing and although they can still be bought for reasonable prices I have seen a lot with faults which could easily be rectified by a CLA but its an additional, and sometimes quite high, cost.

[ianman]

16 hours ago, Graham (G4FUJ) said:

73

Oh wow! You don't look a day over 60!! 😇

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[Graham (G4FUJ)]

1 hour ago, ianman said:

Oh wow! You don't look a day over 60!! 😇

That's a compliment Ian - almost 62 😜

[mann61]

I like my M3 and M5 (my fav Leica rangefinder) but for rangefinders I much prefer Contax G2 and G1 . Old cameras wind on film making it difficult for development in the tank. G2 is faultless in this regard.

For SLRs I like my R8 (I have a few)but also the old LeicaflexSL 2 sans meter.

 

[ianman]

Here are my others (on some nice pippy oak  ) which still get used from time to time. The problem with the Horizon is getting the negs scanned.

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[colint544]

Back in 1998 I bought an Olympus MJU2 camera. If you don't know it, It's a fairly cheap plastic clamshell 35mm compact. It has a sharp 35mm 2.8 lens, and it's all automatic. I used it for fun for about two years, then digital cameras came in, and I largely forgot about it. 

December 2018, I was clearing out a cupboard at my mum's house, and found the little Olympus at the bottom of a box. Bought a battery for it the next day, put it in, and the camera sprang instantly to life. Ran a roll of HP5 through it, developed it, and it was fine. Since then, I've put more than 30 rolls of film (mostly Kodak Portra) through that little camera. Still going on that battery. 

I've a drawer full of dead digital cameras. Canon G5, Canon G9, Nikon D1. The Ricoh GR3 I have at the moment is destined to end up in there too. You get a few years out of them, then they break. My precious, and expensive Leica Monochrom is still soldiering on, and it's very nearly eight years old. I really don't want it to end up in the drawer any time soon.

But, the little Olympus MJU2 and a roll of Portra - I love it, it's fantastic. It just soldiers on. Check the picture below I shot last year at the British museum on that little snapshot camera loaded with Porta, and look how sharp the lens is!

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[ianman]

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21 minutes ago, colint544 said:

Back in 1998 I bought an Olympus MJU2 camera. If you don't know it, It's a fairly cheap plastic clamshell 35mm compact.

Now you mention it, somewhere I have a Ricoh GR1 that my brother gave me... I'll have a little search later

 

[colint544]

Just now, ianman said:

Now you mention it, somewhere I have a Ricoh GR1 that my brother gave me... I'll have a little search later

 

Have you seen the prices people are selling these old compact cameras for these days? It's insane, there's no way they're worth it. I paid £100 for my MJU2 in 1998 - it was brand new, and had a year warranty. They're going for upwards of £300 on eBay now, and they're 20, 25 years old,. If it breaks, that's it.

GR1 is a kind of holy grail camera these days. Pretty solidly made, I think. Definitely worth having a look for.

[pippy]

1 hour ago, colint544 said:

...I've a drawer full of dead digital cameras......But, the little Olympus MJU2 and a roll of Portra - I love it, it's fantastic. It just soldiers on. Check the picture below I shot last year at the British museum on that little snapshot camera loaded with Porta, and look how sharp the lens is!...

I know exactly what you mean, Colin.

Some of the older 35mm film point'n'shoot cameras even further down at the lower end of the price-scale were amazingly good for the asking price. In the late '70s and early '80s I worked holiday-times in a pretty decent camera shop and as part of our duty we had to compare these 'cheapies' in order to be able to give valid advice to the public. The one which was the best in the bang-for-the-buck stakes was called the Konica Pop. From memory I think it was around the £30 mark.

It only had an f4 lens (36mm focal-length) but the upside of this is it's easier and cheaper to make an f4 good than it is an f2.8. As a carry-about-put-in-your-pocket camera it was a really great performer.

Philip.

[colint544]

7 minutes ago, pippy said:

I know exactly what you mean, Colin.

Some of the older 35mm film point'n'shoot cameras even further down at the lower end of the price-scale were amazingly good for the asking price. In the late '70s and early '80s I worked holiday-times in a pretty decent camera shop and as part of our duty we had to compare these 'cheapies' in order to be able to give valid advice to the public. The one which was the best in the bang-for-the-buck stakes was called the Konica Pop. From memory I think it was around the £30 mark.

It only had an f4 lens (36mm focal-length) but the upside of this is it's easier and cheaper to make an f4 good than it is an f2.8. As a carry-about-put-in-your-pocket camera it was a really great performer.

Philip.

Cheers, Philip. Interesting. Funny, as a teenager in the 80's, I myself worked for a time on the camera counter of Dixons, if you know it. I remember the Konika Pop! I'm sure it came in different colours? 

I think what's driving the price up for these old eighties/nineties plastic cameras is that film has become popular again, but nobody makes a compact 35mm camera you can buy new any more. When I walk around the town, even during this pandemic, I constantly see people, mostly young people, walking around with old film cameras around their necks. I think it's nice.

[pippy]

Ah! The Competitor!............

I was an Elena Mae guy. Originally Falkirk branch then Prince's St., Edinburgh. I'm pretty sure you will remember the company as they had a shop in Glasgow.

Yes, the Konica Pop came in a few (6?) different colours. I liked the Scarlet one, myself! I've just had a quick google and working ones seem to start(!) at the £75 mark...

Philip.

[agiknee]

The contax g system. Every lens is a marvel of a lens and it’s precise and dependable. It produce a great image that even my Leica lenses fall short on. 
 

the Nikon fm2. It’s just a good trusty SLR and the lenses are great and affordable. 

[250swb]

2 hours ago, colint544 said:

Back in 1998 I bought an Olympus MJU2 camera. If you don't know it, It's a fairly cheap plastic clamshell 35mm compact. It has a sharp 35mm 2.8 lens, and it's all automatic. I used it for fun for about two years, then digital cameras came in, and I largely forgot about it. 

December 2018, I was clearing out a cupboard at my mum's house, and found the little Olympus at the bottom of a box. Bought a battery for it the next day, put it in, and the camera sprang instantly to life. Ran a roll of HP5 through it, developed it, and it was fine. Since then, I've put more than 30 rolls of film (mostly Kodak Portra) through that little camera. Still going on that battery. 

I've a drawer full of dead digital cameras. Canon G5, Canon G9, Nikon D1. The Ricoh GR3 I have at the moment is destined to end up in there too. You get a few years out of them, then they break. My precious, and expensive Leica Monochrom is still soldiering on, and it's very nearly eight years old. I really don't want it to end up in the drawer any time soon.

But, the little Olympus MJU2 and a roll of Portra - I love it, it's fantastic. It just soldiers on. Check the picture below I shot last year at the British museum on that little snapshot camera loaded with Porta, and look how sharp the lens is!

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The Olympus Mju2 was an amazing camera, press the button and forget, somehow or other negatives were always perfect. I dropped mine and killed it, went to buy another and they'd been discontinued!

[ianman]

On 7/2/2020 at 5:48 PM, colint544 said:

GR1 is a kind of holy grail camera these days. Pretty solidly made, I think. Definitely worth having a look for.

Well I found it. The battery was obviously dead as a doornail. So I went to buy a new one, installed it, switched the camera on and.... nothing. No life at all, no even a flicker on the tiny screen (and they say the one on the M9 is bad!! Jezzz.)... anyway...

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... I decided to take the battery out and put it back in the right way round and, strangely, that seemed to do the trick

I'll have to RTFM now,... all those buttons... it's overwhelming 🤪

[colint544]

42 minutes ago, ianman said:

Well I found it. The battery was obviously dead as a doornail. So I went to buy a new one, installed it, switched the camera on and.... nothing. No life at all, no even a flicker on the tiny screen (and they say the one on the M9 is bad!! Jezzz.)... anyway...

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... I decided to take the battery out and put it back in the right way round and, strangely, that seemed to do the trick

I'll have to RTFM now,... all those buttons... it's overwhelming 🤪

That looks like an absolute gem. I'm sure that was the camera made famous by Daido Moriyama. You've just got to run a roll of grainy mono film through it!

Edited July 3, 2020 by colint544

[Peter_S]

Contax T3. Unique and unmatched.

[ianman]

23 minutes ago, colint544 said:

That looks like an absolute gem. I'm sure that was the camera made famous by Daido Moriyama. You've just got to run a roll of grainy mono film through it!

I've still got some very grainy HIE but of course no appropriate filter. However it's a good opportunity to get some Ilford Pan 400 which I believe is quite grainy and I've been wanting to try out.

[bags27]

On 7/1/2020 at 2:51 PM, Ouroboros said:

 I have no interest in collecting cameras and I have only one Nikon FE left, which is my personal favourite of all the slr's I've owned.  I use it regularly with either a 50mm f1.2 ai-s or a 45mm f2.8p 'cos it's small, cute and a Tessar!

I wrote a bit about my FE here

 

 

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Great write up  Thanks! Love my FE also. It’s the wingman to my M 4-P. 

[Ouroboros]

I knew I still had a plastic point and shoot somewhere!

My Yashica T5.  These cameras seem to have gained cult status and some notoriety as Terry Richardson's favourite for fashion shoots.

I still have the original packaging and all the bits and pieces it came with.  Looking at current auction site prices I could sell this for around 5x the price I paid for it new in 1999 (it was about £80, iirc).  Nice little Tessar lens.

 

 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[DARCIUS1]

Olympus OM system (OM1, OM2n, M1), Olympus XA, Rollei 35s and Canon rangefinder (L1)