Rangefinder (changeable lens) camera reviews – the rangefinder cameras reviewed here allow the photographer to change the lens on the front of the camera. With this comes a series of different lens mounts. The most notable being Leica Thread (/Screw) Mount (LTM/LSM), Leica M-Mount, Nikon S Mount and Contax rangefinder mount. The latter comes in two varieties, internal (for 50mm lenses) and external (for other focal lengths). Sound complicated? It isn’t really.
If you are unaware of the concept of a rangefinder, you can find out more about them in this article: What is a Rangefinder Camera, and is one right for you?
As with all the content on this website, if you find something of interest, you can find more similar products by clicking on the tags you will find at the bottom of the reviews.
For the last few months, I’ve been beta testing Pixii – a new smartphone-connected, 12 megapixel, APS-C format, screen-less digital rangefinder camera that will be hitting the market in the not too distant future… so thought it about time I published a few thoughts on the thing.
I’ve had my Leica iiia for a long time now, and though I didn’t use it for about 4 1/2 years, I hadn’t been able to rationalise selling it. At least, that was the case until a couple of weeks ago when I bought a third Leica Barnack camera. In a moment of almost entirely planned GAS, I bought a Leica ic, a camera that I’ve convinced myself I will get more use out of. As such, I’ve decided the iiia is for the chop, but – just like the Minolta 28mm f/3.5 G-Rokkor I wrote about a week or so ago – I couldn’t let it go without saying a little goodbye.
It has often been said that a lot of the great photographers had “their” camera. Capa had his Contax 2, Cartier-Bresson his M3, John Free his Nikon F3 and so forth. That’s not to say they didn’t use other cameras, but it was always something that resonated with me. Personally, I’ve shot 50mm lenses so often that my mind sees in 50mm, and occasionally I see in 35mm, so this notion of having a camera that you know like the back of your hand really intrigued me. I’d like to take you on the journey of finding the camera that I could be happy using consistently and could become “my” camera. A warning, there’s a lot of talk about selling and buying cameras. GAS is real.
A couple of months ago I got myself up very early one Sunday and travelled to Plymouth to take some photos for the production company of a stage production called “The Simon and Garfunkel Story”. As I do with most of my professional work, I shot the job with the work kit: the Sony A7riii and various Zeiss lenses. In between the times I was shooting for the client, I also shot for myself with my own camera: the Leica M10-P and the 50mm ZM Sonnar. I got the results I wanted with both cameras, but the experience and reasoning behind shooting each of them was very different.
Yet another Leica M6 review, so I will try to keep it brief in the overstated aspects of the camera and more so discuss my experiences with it so far and how it has helped me grow as a photographer… so bear with me.
When it came to deciding to purchase a Leica M film body I really had no reason for doing so. I had my Contax 139Q was really happy with it. With the affordable Zeiss lenses, it was a great camera that packed a punch. There was no reason for me to change anything up, but I did anyways.
