Rangefinder Cameras

Rangefinder camera reviews – Here you will find a list of all the rangefinder camera reviews that have been published on 35mmc. If you aren’t aware of the nature of a rangefinder camera, you can find a guide to what they are and how they work here.

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.

Minolta Hi-Matic E – Minolta’s ‘Difficult’ Second Electro Camera – By Bob Janes

By / March 25, 2023 / Rangefinders (Fixed Lens) / Leave a Comment

The Hi-Matic E (previously also reviewed by Hamish here) is a Minolta rangefinder with a Rokkor lens. The lens is a 40 mm f/1.7 lens of six elements in four groups. The same specification has been used in other much sought after Minolta rangefinder cameras, like the Hi-Matic 7sii.

The Minolta Hi-Matics have history. John Glenn took a rebranded (and highly modified) Hi-Matic into space. That said, the Hi-Matic E is an odd camera. Caught in an eddy; it has ‘quirks’.

A Contax G1 camera

Contax G1 – Much more in-focus than out-of-focus – By Chantel Wakefield

By / June 11, 2022 / Rangefinders (Changeable Lens) / 32 Comments

“I loved owning one for two weeks until every photo came back out of focus.” This was a comment from a popular YouTuber under another popular YouTuber’s review of the Contax G1 35mm Rangefinder Camera. I won’t name names, but if you think about the first few film photography YouTubers that come to mind, he’s probably on that list.

For those unfamiliar with Contax G series, the G1 is a premium interchangeable lens camera made of aluminum and titanium. It was once described by TIME as “a thoroughly modern version of the classic Leica, proof that retro is the wave of the future.” Designed to be used with Carl Zeiss G-mount lenses, it cost over $2,000 when it was originally released in 1994. These days, a G1 camera body runs anywhere between $350-$500 on average, depending on the condition

Beauty shot of the equipment I'm reviewing.

Kodak Retina IIIC – Back into Film with a Charity Auction Find – By Stewart Waller

By / January 11, 2022 / Rangefinders (Fixed Lens) / 23 Comments

I recently fell for analog cameras, especially vintage ones. It feels like a rabbit hole much of the time, chasing that elusive, cosmetically beautiful, functionally accurate, 60+ year-old technology  (and expecting magic when I find it).

Although I learned photography in journalism school around 1990 and shot for the local paper, I largely stayed within my comfort zone with my trusty Nikon FM2 and a few cheap lenses. I first adopted digital in 1999, and was fully digital by 2002 as a corporate art director and photographer, with professional state-of-the-art digital Nikons (think DCS 760, D1-X). So, knowing next to nothing about this quirky world of aging treasures, I embarked on a buying binge.

And now I own a lot of old broken cameras. But like any treasure hunt, sometimes you find gold or a diamond in the rough. Such was the case with this Kodak Retina IIIC (Big C)

Pixii

Pixii (A1571) Review – New Upgrades and Some Personal Experiences

By / December 19, 2022 / Digital Cameras, Rangefinders (Changeable Lens) / 80 Comments

For a long time, the only digital rangefinders on the market were Leicas. Now there’s Pixii. A screen-less, APS-C sensor, “connected” rangefinder that’s quite a lot less cash than anything from Leica and comes from a startup company with ideas of disrupting the marketplace with something a little different.

Konica Auto S3

Konica Auto S3 – Small and Perfectly Formed – By Bob Janes

By / March 12, 2022 / Rangefinders (Fixed Lens) / 15 Comments

Coinciding with their centenary in the early 70s, Konica fused two of their camera lines together. Since 1968 they had made a compact rangefinder camera called the C35. They had also made a series of fast fixed lens rangefinders in the ‘Auto S’ series. Now they produced a camera with the body of the C35 and the lens of the Auto S cameras. This was known as the C35 FD in Japan and the Konica Auto S3 elsewhere. The Auto S3 was finished in black anodised aluminium, while the C35 FD had a plain anodised finish

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