Some CHEAP 35mm Rangefinders - With STUNNING Lenses!
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- čas přidán 14. 01. 2023
- In this video are some of the best value rangefinders in the world, each with an outstanding lens!
If you're looking for a reliable and capable film rangefinder, you need to watch this video.
If you want a rangefinder that can mount ALL L39 lenses, from Leica, Canon, Reid and all the FSU manufacturers, you need to watch this video.
If you appreciate a slower, thoughtful way of making images, you need to watch this video.
If you just love old things from the age of machines, you need to watch this video.
Get it?
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Thanks for watching!
I do have a Zorki 4. I couldn't understand why the viewfinder was so murky, and hadn't realised that that little lever was for a diopter until you said Nigel. It's crystal clear now. I'll laugh about that in years to come. 😆
Glad I was able to help!
I've had many Zorki4's and the dioptre lever is invaluable. I'm at a loss to understand why it wasn't more popular with other brands.
A friend of mine has a FED 3 (I think), and he brought it for me to see if it's good enough for shooting it. I didn't get why it was all murky as well, but then I realized that there is a diopter thingy in the viewfinder ring. It's a pretty good camera I'd say. Although he needs to replace the curtains, cuz they leak the light
@@sputumtube I believe that the dioptre was adapted in the 1980's in many non-Soviet cameras. I am an enthusiastic fan of the Zorki 4 and own several as well as the Zorki's leading up to it. Another plus is the film loading system that was used and simplified with the Zorki 3 and FED 2. Similar systems were used by Nicca and Yashica, but it is far easier to have the back come off of the camera rather than cutting and aligning the film.
I am warming to Rangefinders (I have a Yashica Campus and a Balda Supermatic - both very capable with super fixed lenses) and now a family member, originally from Latvia, is bringing me a FED 4 when she returns from visiting family in Riga. I am quite excited! Lots of great information again thanks.
I agree with every word!!! Thank you! I abgree especially with your commen ts about the Kiev..... I found an example from 1955 in a flea market.... gorgeous!! And, the thing is, that gthere are hundreds of lovely rangefinders out there from the 50's to the 80's, with lovely lenses - oh, and style!!
I have 3 rangefinders and paid less than £40 each with lenses. A FED 2 with a Jupiter 8 lens, A Zorki 4 with a Jupiter 8 and an Olympus 35RC. The Olympus is a phenomenal little thing, the lens is as close to perfect as any of my SLR primes and it doesn't need a battery to use it. The battery is just to power the light meter and auto setting. It's a beautifully made camera.
I only own one rangefinder a Konica Auto S 1.6 & I love it the optics of the Hexanon 45mm f1.6 has given me great beautiful sharp results. I need to get another rangefinder because I own over 50 SLRs and only one rangefinder.
I have a Zorki S (1958) and Kiev 4M (1984). Zorki one is my favorite film camera I currently own. It's a bit hard to load, but its size and overall ease of use just very nice. I do also like my Kiev, but it stopped working for some reason (curtains close too slow). I gotta service it I think. But I don't exactly have money to spare these days, so I guess I'll do that later
A lovely half hour, thanks!
The Jupiter-8 is my absolute favorite 50mm lens. There are certainly many more modern and objectively "better" 50s out there but I just like the way my photos look when made with a decent J-8. I have used just about all of the FSO 50s and even the J-3 did not unseat the J-8 from its top spot for me.
The Zorki 4 is pretty nice but there is one thing to be aware of; later production versions changed from an engraved shutter speed dial to a dial with the numbers printed onto the dial. And that has worn off over time on a lot of these. So, if somebody is looking to buy one, check to see what the speed dial looks like.
My own favorite FSU camera is the Zorki 3m. That model has all the stuff that I find important: strap lugs, full shutter speed range, and is a small but significant bit smaller than the later Zorki or FED cameras. Plus I just like its looks a lot more than the others.
The FED 4 has an interesting aesthetic appeal to me and, overall, functions just fine. My only concern with that particular model is the very slow rewind.
A couple of final things to consider about FSU rangefinders:
First is that every different model I have owned was very hard on eyeglass lenses. With my vision, I have to wear my glasses all the time and have had to figure out a way to use these great cameras with out scratching my eyeglasses. I have a small pile of small rubber(synthetic, maybe? Not really sure and it doesn't matter) O-rings and I just put one around the eye piece of the cameras that will fit them. There are other ways to go but this works for me. You could just cut a small piece of tape to cover the metal eye piece rings.
The other more important thing to keep in mind is that all of these are getting on in years, even the newest ones are probably 35 years old now and we can't really know what the service history has been like with any of them.
So I have come to accept that there is a bit of risk involved with buying any FSU camera. Not super high stakes for sure, but a risk nonetheless. And, really, that same risk is present no matter what brand a camera is or what country it was made in. The good news is that if there is a problem with the camera it is generally not impossible to get it fixed. At least for the all mechanical cameras.
Lastly, thanks for showing thes and extra thanks for sharing some of the photos you've made with them, very nice work we got to see!
I know what you mean about the Zorki 3 - a beautiful piece of industrial design from the age of machines. I have a 3, had the 3m too but my 3 was in nicer condition so that's the one I kept. I know what you mean about the glasses thing as well - definitely need some protection!
The Zorki was one of my first "proper" cameras back in the early 1990's but in wasn't until i got an Olympus 35RC that I decided to keep a rangefinder camera in my collection. In 2019 I took it out with a roll of HP5 to test it before selling it but I was so pleased with the photos I got that I decided to keep it.
The rangefinder I really want is that little Minolta CLE but... that's going a little off topic as it's hardly cheap... :)
Thanks for this one - very interesting.
The Kiev's were based on (OK - a direct copy of) Contax ii and iii models. I have had a couple of Kievs, and the shutters on neither worked properly. I have successfully CLAd quite a few cameras and lenses, mainly older mechanical models, so I did try to fix these up. I was not able to make them any better as the shutters had deteriorated too far. I suspect the servicing issues were a combination of the original Contax shutter design and maybe poor quality materials. I might have had better luck with an original Contax ii.
In 1950 Zeiss replaced the ii and iii models with the iia and iiia - which had many improvements, especially to the shutter. The Kievs continued using the Contax ii / iii designs.
I have a Contax iia and have done a full strip down and clean etc. - these are an absolute dream to work on, everything seems so logical and in the right place. Just a lovely camera. I prefer the iia's to the iia's. The iiia has the light meter which I don't find particularly useful or reliable, and I think make the cameras look ugly,. A iia with a modern cold-shoe mount meter is my preference.
The Soviet lenses fit the Contax iiA, with the exception of the Jupiter 12 which only works on the Contax ii / iii and Kievs - a shame as I love that lens. My recommendation, if you want to go down the Kiev route is to get an original Contax iia (not a ii) and find some good Soviet lenses. Of course the original Zeiss lenses are great too - but a lot more expensive. Having said that Soviet lenses seem to be going up in price fast!
Have you ever used the turret viewfinders that were optional on these old boys? I found that you can get them still with perfect glass. I mounted one on my Fuji X-M1 and found it useful on bright days where viewing the rear screen was not an option. Plus, it gave the X-M1 quite a look. There must have been some push back from Contax and Leica for these copies, but I never heard about it.
One of my earliest cameras was a Kiev, not a copy of a Contax II, as you know, Nigel, but a camera, made by the same engineers that made the Contax, using the same machinery, and using the same materials and drawings, as the FSU had transferred all of the Contax factory (including staff) to Kiev as war reparations. You covered this in one of your earlier videos very comprehensively.
If you bought a Kiev you were actually buying a Contax, but at a bargain price.
I found mine in a pawn shop in North Shields, well before they were available to buy as imports in the UK. How it got there is conjecture, what I do know is that Russian trawlers used to offload fish at the North Shields fish quay and I assume one of the crew, most probably Captain or First Mate (as a camera of that quality was quite expensive for a Russian to buy) had pawned it for drinking money while the trawler was in dock.
At least, that's my version of how it came to be in the pawn shop. I paid £20 for it in 1964, bought a film from the local North Shields chemist, and shot it all around the dock area. I still have the negatives filed away of that shoot, and I still have the camera and shoot it occasionally for old times sake.
I fell in love with those FSU cameras and have a collection of Fed's, Zorki's and a couple of other Kiev's.
Great, great episode, 5 star.
George
Unfortunately, I've not had much luck with the Electro 35 GT. First one failed after a few months. The second one the film advance locked. Inquired about repair but places said they could not help due to old electronics. I do have a nice Zorki 3M at your suggestion. Thanks.
I love the shutter sound on my Leica II
I have enjoyed using my Leica IIIf, black dial rangefinder, a camera I thought was reasonable priced. Yet, I wish I considered Canon IVSB2 first. I purchased my canon for about $130.00 USD and it works great!
I do love the look of those early Leica RF cameras. The shape of the top plate and the whole aesthetic is just so... sexy, damnit! The Zorki 4, is similar, but not quite there in my eyes. Ah, alas my eye has more expensive taste than my budget does. I've got a TLR, lots of SLRs, but I have not yet dipped my foot into the Rangefinder pool. Soon though, I will. Very soon.
I feel with rangefinders I have to try one out to see if I really bond with it. If I don't like the viewfinder and/or the feel of using the camera, the camera probably won't stay in my collection. I've tried rangefinders with nice specs, but found them kinda boring to use. But my Graflex Century 35 with a fixed 45mm f3.5 lens, which sounds kinda mediocre, is an absolute joy to use.
With SLRs it's a bit of a different story. I'm a bit more concerned about specs, lenses, and features with that design of camera.
I have the electro 35 ....beautiful...one of mai favorite
Great cameras and vlog. BTW: what do you think about Agfa Isolette (half format)? :)
I still have problems to focus the Jupiter 8 in the Zorki 4K. If I use it wide open, it doesn’t focus properly, even at infinite. And if I do close-up focus, one part comes on focus while the other is blurred.
Am I doing something wrong?
It's Robert Capa, not to be confused with Frank Capra. (Although in his auto-bio "Slightly Out Of Focus" he used this confusion to advantage).
Never knew I needed one until now
If you try one I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. It’s a subtly different way of doing photography.
This is awesome Works great is it a store easy to clean
I bought the Zorki 4 with industar 50mm f/2.8 (not sure if it's worth upgrading to Jupiter 50mm f/2.0) I bought a uv filter, vented lens hood black rapid style camera strap, and ruggard case and 3 rolls of fujicolor 200, all for less than $300.00
How could you leave out the Fujica V2? It had a very sharp 50mm f1.8 Fujinon lens, thumb-wheel focusing and a beautiful viewfinder. I replaced it with a Nikon F!
I have a FED 4, are there any wide lenses made for that system? The industar-69 has the wrong flange distance
I have owned most of these years ago. The Kiev always felt like it was going to break.
I love shooting film. I am typically a black and white shooter. I never use film anymore because it's just too expensive to get developed.
Hello Nigel, thanks for your upload! Did you get my email from a few days ago? I purchased a Canon Canonet QL19 which is also a very nice rangefinder. The lens is a 1.9/45 mm. It's indeed a very nice camera from the early 1970s and I'm happy to have one. Have a nice day! Best wishes, Ralf
22:49 Yes for the 50mm lens but for the 35mm , 85mm and the 135mm lenses all have external focusing helicals.
Thanks for the correction!
What is the model name of that Kiev rangefinder ?
Have you heard of Croma double glass lens 24mm f11 fixed focus L39 fit made in the USA £99 at the moment.... Please review... Nigel ta mate...
Another wildcard question.
What lenses will produce 16
pointed stars.... hopefully fairly fairly normal lenses
thanks Nigel...
Are batteries available for these cameras?
My Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII has jammed. First roll was great.
Sorry to hear that. Sounds like a mechanical issue that could probably be repaired though.
@@zenography7923film wind on lever won’t budge. Will get it checked out this week. By the way, please check out the Chris Killip exhibition in Soho if you’re in London. Went yesterday and the images are amazing.
Great video, as usual :)
Just one note for the Leica II vs. FED, Zorki rangefinders. The russians have bought the licence of the Leica II in 1932, so to be fair the earliest russian rangefinders are as good as a german originals, or even a little better, because the Leicas have mirrors in the rangefinder, ( as today's brand new Leicas), and the russian ones have prisms. That's why the Cyrillic Leicas (as we call they in Hungary) have brighter, and more durable rangefinders than the original ones. But the mirrors are far cheaper than the prisms ;)
P.S. In the past in Eastern Europe, a lot of fake Leicas was made from russian ones, as they grinded out the russian characters, and engraved the original Leica writings, and made a fortune from selling them...
As I understood it the first Fed copies of the Leica 2 were reverse engineered in a factory that had made electric drills, headed by a man called Dzerjinsky, who later founded the nkvd secret police - in fact many of the early Fed cameras are marked nkvd on the top plate! Pretty sure they were reverse engineered without a licence - although I could well be wrong.
@@zenography7923 Actually the children's combine in Kharkiv, which reverse-engineered the Leica II, was headed by Anton Makarenko. The combine was named after the founder of Cheka (Soviet secret police, later becoming the NKVD and the KGB) Felix E. Dzerzhinsky. Hence, the FED name.
I just ordered a 1935 Leica ii two days ago, the only thing I'm unsure about is if I'm able to use it since I'm nearsighted and need to wear glasses. The camera doesn't have an adjustable diopter ... But I just couldn't resist it :') You make great videos, thanks a lot!
I think you'll be okay if you stick some small adhesive silicon pieces to the eyepiece - I think you can get them on ebay?
I use an eye piece from Pentacon, it works wonderfully
@@rpgbb Thank you! :D
@@zenography7923 Thanks! I'll check it out :)
nice.
Thanks!
I paid under $50 (including shipping which was a third of the cost) for a Konica Auto S2 rangefinder with a 45mm f1.8 Hexanon lens in pristine condition in the past year. I was going to remove the lens and adapt it for use on my Sony camera, but the information on how to do it has mysteriously disappeared, so I've held off. The lens, from what I've seen in a YT video, is a stunner. I'd shoot film with the camera but I'm inconveniently situated at the moment with no film developing and printing services available.
Black and white developing is pretty easy, and the film is a lot cheaper than colour too!
Hi William, here you can find what you are looking for czcams.com/video/__alAfOcMs4/video.html. In that channel you can find more rangefinder lenses you can adapt to your Sony camera. I’ve bougth two broken Konica Auto S2 and I’m about to adapt the lenses soon.
@@cesardelallave4151 Thank you, Cesar. This is the video I was talking about. In the video's description, Vintage Optiks refers to a Flickr page giving detailed instructions. I saw it at one point but it's gone now. I'd be interested in how you do with the conversion. My email can be found on my Flickr page in the "About" section. My Flickr page has my name. Thanks.
Hi William, I’ve been watching that video several times these days and, yes, unfortunately a part of it has been removed. In any case you can follow that video czcams.com/video/gGaGTlKvxJE/video.html, because the steps you have to follow are the same. To archive infinite focusing you only have to sand the adapter, there is another video explaining the process (try and failure). I hope this helps.
Just got my mint yashica electro gt from the oxfam charity website £45!😊
Wow, that's a real bargain, well done!
I have to say, while rangefinders are pretty cool cameras, i prefer SLR cameras when it comes to shooting.
I want a rangefinder to add to my wedding photography. What has the brightest and easiest to focus? Meter would be nice and great image quality. I’ve been searching for ever. Almost got the Canon P then I heard the rangefinder was darker than others
I even found a local shop that had a Leica iii that’s ugly as hell but it just came back from Leica with everything fixed and working great. $250 no lens
Well, the z4 has a pretty big and bright viewfinder, as does the zorki 3. Feds are smaller and darker in general.
@@zenography7923 so the Zorki 3 or 4? 4K? thank you!
This may be a wildcard comment... Read an article about fuji film GXR 50R camera and using a smart adapter with canon EF 40mm f2.8 lens which I have and is a damn fine lens... the point I am making is the fuji sensor is larger than full frame 44mm x 33mm....not something I have heard you talk about....are other FF sensors of similar dimensions...I wonder....?
Hi Phil, all sensors sold as 'full frame' are, as far as I'm aware, the same size as 35mm film (24x36mm iirc). The GXR 50R sensor is larger again, although not, as I understand it, true medium format size. I'd certainly like to try one!
I would agree should be size of 35mm {full frame... so if not using medium format sensor...fuji must have other thoughts in mind either resolution or vignetting or something else..... thanks Nigel....take care....
I recently bought a Yashica Electro 35 GTN off eBay for £70 advertised as 'fully working'. . However, as a precaution I took it to a camera repair centre recommended by Grays of Westminster. They told me that the light seals had failed (he even showed me how the black stickiness came away on his finger) and that the 'Pad of Death' (common problem) needed attention too. To solve these issues would cost another £44.70 (including a full CLA) raising the total cost to £114.70......... buyer beware.
Indeed - these are old machines that will likely need a service - but for your £114 you have a very fine rangefinder! Enjoy!
Very camera
Quite!
A small comment, selenium lichtmeters will fail over time ,it’s part and parcel of there design. If you find one that still works ,it’s probably because the meter has not been exposed to light.
Frank Cappa? You mean Robert Cappa? Also known as Endre Ernő Friedmann?
It's. Robert of course - you know what, I think I was thinking of Frank Zappa!
@@zenography7923 🤣🤣🤣
Does all the stuff come from USSR/Ukraine and is discontinued since 2000?
Because you mentioned photographer Robert (Frank?) Capa.
Famous Austrian singer Falco dedicated the song "Kamikaze Cappa" to the war reporter who Died in Indochina 1954 when he stepped on a mine. Falco died in car crash in 1998 while he overlooked a bus at a exit. The irony of history. Both died at the age of 40. A really good and thoughtful song. czcams.com/video/kckWjdoLHEU/video.html
It's Robert of course - where did I get Frank from? I'll check out that song.
@@zenography7923 Brain fart with Frank Capra, same as me.
Oh don’t promote these cameras as cheap rangefinders because you will increase the prices! 😅