The film advance devices in the various Retinas are actually quite robust, and I rarely find one that's truly "broken". (I service an average of three of them a week) The vast majority just need old lubricants cleaned out and replaced. The IIc/IIIc types (late 1950s) has a problem with the nickel plated brass toothed rack that links the film advance to the cocking of the shutter: if the camera has not been serviced in decades, the lubricants dry out and a lot of extra force is applied to the rack, which inevitably results in distortion/breakage of the teeth. In 1959 it wasn't considered a "flaw", since replacement racks were readily available, but 60 years later, its a different matter. Which models do you have, and can you describe their problems?
The Retina IIa and Ia have a particular issue where the tiny spring that controls the frame counter eventually wears out from metal fatigue, and so the tip breaks off and the frame counter stops working. But that doesn't affect the functioning of the film advance.
More generally, the plethora of relatively modern SLRs that have a grip built in for the right hand, but nothing for the ~20% of photographers who are left handed.
May be more of a missed opportunity than anything else.
You may have missed the fact that this thread is in the 35mm Cameras sub-forumThe Hasselblad sits in the left hand and is fired with the left index finger.
The Exacta are great left handed cameras
The Mamiya C2xx and C3xx allowed focus and firing with either hand <==== A real rarity!!
You may have missed the fact that this thread is in the 35mm Cameras sub-forum.
And of course, the "relatively modern" part of my post probably means that Exactas aren't in the running!
And how many people presented with a Nikon F in 1959 would be bitching about all the things wrong with it, good grief is this a spoiled brats thread?
And how many people presented with a Nikon F in 1959 would be bitching about all the things wrong with it, good grief is this a spoiled brats thread?
More generally, the plethora of relatively modern SLRs that have a grip built in for the right hand, but nothing for the ~20% of photographers who are left handed.
May be more of a missed opportunity than anything else.
And how many people presented with a Nikon F in 1959 would be bitching about all the things wrong with it, good grief is this a spoiled brats thread?
So I am not the only one that notices the self-righteous bitching. I am glad go see that I am not alone.
When designers send out a product, they can't anticipate every way those items will be used in the real world. Cameras made today have the advantage of computer modeling and other resources to help locate the weak points. Still, they rely on feedback from the people who are using them. Most of the cameras discussed in this thread had improvements made because of customers input. Apperently, the griping worked.
Why do you think Nikon fixed those issues w the F2?
We accept your thanks in behalf of those spoiled brats in years past who have brought us all the wonderful photographic improvements.
More generally, the plethora of relatively modern SLRs that have a grip built in for the right hand, but nothing for the ~20% of photographers who are left handed.
May be more of a missed opportunity than anything else.
But after using the Nikon for 40 plus years it became second nature. I would intutively know which way to mount the lens, which way to turn the aperture ring and which way to turn the focusing ring. When I use a different brand I kind of got lost.Putting the meter readout on top of the camera is not much help, that one never made sense to me, I want to see it in the viewfinder. Of course, the biggest design error is that except for Nikon, all the other lenses mount in the wrong direction.
The M7 has DX-code reading, if I’m correct it’s the first M that has it. As a consequence the film cassettes are much more difficult to get out of the camera when changing films. Apart from that it’s a well-known problem of the M7 that the DX-code reading doesn’t work properly, so I never use it. Another small PITA is the on/off switch which is placed in an unhandy manner, it’s mostly very hard to switch it on when you have the camera for your eyes in shooting position, unless you have long nails, which I don’t prefer for pushing the shutter release button.
Finally, my 3rd retarded design award goes to the maker of humans. Leica engineers have devised a brilliant way to nearly instantly load a 35mm film cassette into a camera, which was revealed with the introduction of the Leica M4. Unfortunately, the human designer dropped the ball on geometry comprehension brain circuitry, and as a result, despite trivial to follow instructions and the intuitive film loading diagram printed on every bottom plate of every Leica ever produced, an average human appears to be incapable of following those instructions.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?