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.
I’ve spent the last month or so shooting with a Leica M [typ 240]. I bought it as temporary replacement camera after my M262 had to pay a little trip to Germany for some repair work. The Leica M240 has done me proud whilst the M262 has been away, though the experience has not be without a couple of surprises, so I thought I’d write a little bit about what I’ve found.
The Minolta CLE had always intrigued me as a lighter body alternative to my heavier Leica M bodies, like the M3, M6, and M7, while still being compatible with my Leica M-mount lenses all in a compact package about the same size as my Fuji X100T, or 1970s era fixed lens rangefinder compacts like the Olympus 35RC.
About three years ago, I bought a pre-owned Leica M7 in excellent shape offered at a great price. I had intended to use the M7 only for a two or three months while my Leica M3, my only Leica M body at the time, was being overhauled at Kanto Camera in Japan. I figured I could resell the M7 for at least the amount I had paid. Yet when I got my M3 back, I could not bear to part with the M7 and decided to keep it. Readers take note! This is how the Leica money sink starts!
In 2015 when I decided I wanted to give film photography a try, it was the Leica M3 rangefinder that intrigued me the most. However, at the time I did not feel I was ready to plunk down the cash to invest in a Leica just to indulge a curiosity. After doing some reading around, I ended up deciding on buying a Nikon S2 of the same era, found a reasonable deal on eBay and made the purchase. The body came with the outstanding C-mount Nikkor H 50mm f/2 lens.
The Leica M6J is a limited edition pre-M6 TTL released in 1994 to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the introduction of the Leica M3 in 1954. Leica produced 1640 of them, 40 for each year from 1954 to 1994, and they have serial numbers that start with the year that the camera represents. The M6J was sold as a kit with a matching serial number Elmar 50mm f/2.8 collapsible lens, but the remade version, not the 1950s version, all packaged in a wooden box. Some people say that the “J” stands for Jahre, the German word for “years,” but I prefer to think the “J” is a tip-of-the-hat to the Japan-based Leica users group that had orginally proposed the camera’s concept to Leica.
