Help me find my dream cam - compact rangefinder with slow speeds & self timer

[hospadar]

Just to understand:

- Why does it have to be another rangefinder? For self-portraits, is that the right kind of camera?
- I guess for selfies, you are using a tripod? If you are already carrying a tripod and flash, does the size of the camera matter so much?
- Why dont you want to use the CL with additional self-timer?

Well, really, I have several different setups for this stuff that I _do_ like a lot, but am just trying to find something more perfect.

I do in fact use the CL with a self timer sometimes, and it's fine, but I'm often setting up in public or doing group shots and the extra time spent fiddling with the self timer feels non-ideal. (remve from case, remember to switch off, wind, attach, oops set the plunger depth wrong, oops forgot to wind and wasted a frame, finish shooting, remove from camera, put back in little case). Nothing that has ever really ruined anything, just annoying compared to a built-in.

I'm not dead-set on a rangefinder really, and in fact I often just guess to set focus since I'm often shooting at night and the rangefinder is useless anyways (ditto for SLR focusing aids). Using my known wingspan generally gets me close enough where I'm not loosing many shots to missed focus. I actually think a viewfinder camera would suit me just fine. I do some of this stuff with folding 6x4.5 (a zenobia and a miraculously-working ikonta I got in a junk box) and have never really missed the rangefinder much for tripod-and-selfie stuff (although the ikonta has no flash shoe and a non-standard sync connector, and the zenobia only has m-sync and no self timer, so neither of those really cut the cheese here). Nothing against SLRs really except their size. The MX is about as small as it gets and still would be hard to shove in a pocket even with the expensive pancake lens I don't have.

I'm usually packing a very small camera bag or just have the camera and flash and tripod stuffed into coat pockets. I usually use the smallest 2-AA flash I can scrounge up (have been favoring a sunpak 121 lately) and I have a little biloret with telescoping brass legs (LOVE that thing) that easily fits in a pocket or tucks into the straps of a bag. Of course, it's really not a big deal to carry a _slightly_ larger bag to fit something like the MX or the color-corrected-super (or use a strap and ever-ready case), but that usually precludes any possibility of pocketing the whole rig. In general I don't _love_ the ever-ready-and-strap setup because it feels more awkward to me than just camera-in-bag (most of the ever-readies I have don't conveniently allow tripod attachment without removing the case), and having the case halves and straps dangling from the tripod and occasionally in the lense feels annoying to me.

OBVIOUSLY none of these problems are serious, none of them have prevented me from going where I want and taking the kind of pictures I want to take, but if I can make it more perfect and pleasureable to use, why not!

 

[hospadar]

Canon makes a collapsible 50/1.9. There's a guy locally selling a Canon IVSB with that lens for $155, but it lacks the self-timer you need.

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Chris

OOoooo that's certainly something to add to the watchlist

 

[RezaLoghme]

Well, really, I have several different setups for this stuff that I _do_ like a lot, but am just trying to find something more perfect.

I do in fact use the CL with a self timer sometimes, and it's fine, but I'm often setting up in public or doing group shots and the extra time spent fiddling with the self timer feels non-ideal. (remve from case, remember to switch off, wind, attach, oops set the plunger depth wrong, oops forgot to wind and wasted a frame, finish shooting, remove from camera, put back in little case). Nothing that has ever really ruined anything, just annoying compared to a built-in.

I'm not dead-set on a rangefinder really, and in fact I often just guess to set focus since I'm often shooting at night and the rangefinder is useless anyways (ditto for SLR focusing aids). Using my known wingspan generally gets me close enough where I'm not loosing many shots to missed focus. I actually think a viewfinder camera would suit me just fine. I do some of this stuff with folding 6x4.5 (a zenobia and a miraculously-working ikonta I got in a junk box) and have never really missed the rangefinder much for tripod-and-selfie stuff (although the ikonta has no flash shoe and a non-standard sync connector, and the zenobia only has m-sync and no self timer, so neither of those really cut the cheese here). Nothing against SLRs really except their size. The MX is about as small as it gets and still would be hard to shove in a pocket even with the expensive pancake lens I don't have.

I'm usually packing a very small camera bag or just have the camera and flash and tripod stuffed into coat pockets. I usually use the smallest 2-AA flash I can scrounge up (have been favoring a sunpak 121 lately) and I have a little biloret with telescoping brass legs (LOVE that thing) that easily fits in a pocket or tucks into the straps of a bag. Of course, it's really not a big deal to carry a _slightly_ larger bag to fit something like the MX or the color-corrected-super (or use a strap and ever-ready case), but that usually precludes any possibility of pocketing the whole rig. In general I don't _love_ the ever-ready-and-strap setup because it feels more awkward to me than just camera-in-bag (most of the ever-readies I have don't conveniently allow tripod attachment without removing the case), and having the case halves and straps dangling from the tripod and occasionally in the lense feels annoying to me.

OBVIOUSLY none of these problems are serious, none of them have prevented me from going where I want and taking the kind of pictures I want to take, but if I can make it more perfect and pleasureable to use, why not!

Hi

Two remarks:

- Instead of buying a new camera (if it exists at all) becoming familiar with your CL self timer by simply using it a lot until muscle memory has been built would be a zero cost option. If you buy a new-to-you camera, you also have to internalize how to use it.


- Just want to encourage you to think "out of the box". Is the (relative) smallness really a limiting factor? Dont laugh, but could you buy a better coat with bigger pockets? I have a "shooting jacket" with large internal coats which swallowed a Hasselblad. As you own so many 1960s niche rangefinders already, "more of the same" is not really going to make a difference. SLR, digital, whatever. Think about the outcome of the exercise, not about performative optics.

 

[John Wiegerink]

Hi

Two remarks:

- Instead of buying a new camera (if it exists at all) becoming familiar with your CL self timer by simply using it a lot until muscle memory has been built would be a zero cost option. If you buy a new-to-you camera, you also have to internalize how to use it.


- Just want to encourage you to think "out of the box". Is the (relative) smallness really a limiting factor? Dont laugh, but could you buy a better coat with bigger pockets? I have a "shooting jacket" with large internal coats which swallowed a Hasselblad. As you own so many 1960s niche rangefinders already, "more of the same" is not really going to make a difference. SLR, digital, whatever. Think about the outcome of the exercise, not about performative optics.

Somehow I think the OP is just in the market for a new (to him) camera otherwise he'd be using that great little CL.

 

[RezaLoghme]

Olympus 35 SP: This is the most “serious tool” in the bunch that actually does what you want.
Leaf shutter with slow speeds (to 1 s + B)
Self-timer
Manual aperture + shutter
42 mm f/1.7, great for night/flash
Flash sync at all speeds (because leaf)

 

[hospadar]

Haha yeah I'm definitely in the market! That's why the thread

 

[hospadar]

Just for posterity, in case any future readers find themselves on the same quest, I decided to scoop up for cheap an Agfa Karat IV and a Minolta Auto Wide. No rangefinder on the auto wide but you do get a coupled meter and a 35mm lens which is pretty great, as well as a full range of speeds and a self timer. I think both probably need some work but that's a fun winter restoration project for me. The karat is pretty small and almost everything I like about a Retina IIa (minus the door) but also with a self-timer.

 

[Chromium VI]

One of my favorite cameras:
Shutter: 1s to 1/300 +B +self-timer(w/ cancel function) AGC Prontor-SVS
Aperture: f3.5-22
Lens: 45mm f3.5
Small (~14x8cm) solid aluminum body

It's the AGFA Super-Sillete (prontor-svs model) that I bought for 5euro.
Cais do Sodré Railway Station by Simão PC, no Flickr

 

[JeanPaul]

Ik chose the Olympus 35 SP and Kodak Retina IIIS when I had that question. Yashica Electro 35 GTN is als a great option if you can live with a semi automatic.

 

[xkaes]

I don't know why you're dismissing the Canon QLIII becasue it only goes to 1/4s -- it has B -- but the Olympus RD35 goes to 1/2s.

Check this out:

http://www.subclub.org/minman/leanmean.pdf

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Had I seen this thread sooner... For what you are doing you would be better off with one of the last consumer autofocus cameras, like the Canon Rebel T2. All the controls you need, plus add a flash like the 550EX and it would do anything you need a camera/flash to do. Put a pancake lens on it and it is pretty small too. They sell for peanuts these days.