brightsky
Established
Yashica T4 SuperD.
It's not particularly quiet and has one annoying "feature;" namely, the camera powers up into flash mode and one must tab the flash button to get beyond it or leave the camera on.
The results from it are amazingly sharp.
The attached photo has no processing or sharpening.
It's not particularly quiet and has one annoying "feature;" namely, the camera powers up into flash mode and one must tab the flash button to get beyond it or leave the camera on.
The results from it are amazingly sharp.
The attached photo has no processing or sharpening.
T
tedwhite
Guest
Ditto the Yash T4 Super. I have one, but it's not a 'D' so what does the 'D' Stand for? Oh, duh, just thought of what it must mean: Date. My bad.
Anyway, it's one heck of a camera and lens. A few years ago on an assignment the 4 double A's in my Maxxum 7000 gave out and I finished taking the remaining pictures (historic buildings) with the T4. It was my little secret.
Anyway, it's one heck of a camera and lens. A few years ago on an assignment the 4 double A's in my Maxxum 7000 gave out and I finished taking the remaining pictures (historic buildings) with the T4. It was my little secret.
strangerbeat
Member
I certainly almost always have either my Olympus XA or Yashica T4 Super with me at all times. Whichever I have at the time depends on the weather or what I'm wearing (the XA fits in my tighter pants much better than my T4).
I also have and enjoy my other point & shoots which are:
Leica Mini Zoom
Olympus Infinity Twin (not so compact)
Konica Big Mini 201
I'm currently trying to find myself a Leica Mini Zoom at a decent price. I cant believe how fast Olympus MJU-II's have gone from $40 on eBay to upwards of $80-$140 in just a matter of months.
I also have and enjoy my other point & shoots which are:
Leica Mini Zoom
Olympus Infinity Twin (not so compact)
Konica Big Mini 201
I'm currently trying to find myself a Leica Mini Zoom at a decent price. I cant believe how fast Olympus MJU-II's have gone from $40 on eBay to upwards of $80-$140 in just a matter of months.
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I was big on the Minilux and the T2 back in the 90s. Now I'm big on the X1.
rdeleskie
Well-known
I went on a tear a while back, accumulating point and shoots, and ended up with a Yashica T4 Super, an Olympus Stylus, a Rollei Prego 90, Olympus XA, Contax TVS, a Leica Mini-Zoom and a Leica Minilux, along with an assortment of lessor known 1980s/90s p&s cameras (I'm not including my little collection of 60s/70s Japanese rangefinders). A few thoughts on some of them:
Yashica T4 Super
It's a nice take-it-everywhere camera with a pretty good meter (I've happily shot E6 on it) and a sharp lens that vignettes noticeably. However, I personally feel it's a little over-rated, particularly at the premium prices it commands. For me, the lens isn't quite there, and the lack of manual controls make it difficult to compensate for some of the camera's deficiencies (i.e., soft corners when wide open).
Olympus XA
Simple, small and compact. It's a fun camera to carry around, although the focusing patch is prone to fade away almost to nothing. I'm not crazy about the lens on it, however. Vignettes like mad wide-open and even stopped down I don't personally find anything particularly special about it. Form factor is brilliant, however. If you get one, you'll shoot it.
Olympic Stylus (mju)
I feel about this much the way I feel about the XA (although I'd recommend the XA over the Stylus): great form factor, fun to shoot (if you want 100% auto), not crazy about the lens. I got mine for $2, so no great loss.
Contax TVS
I love this camera - my favourite p&s. Great feel, great ergonomics. I've been very happy with the short range zoom-lens (primarily for b&w), although I understand that it has its detractors. If you look around and are patient, and aren't looking for "mint," you can get one for a very good price. Briefly had a TVSII (shutter died on it), which was a hair better in terms of handling. That said, I see no need to "trade up." With a filter and a lens hood, it's larger than some of the others; but at least you've got the option to use filters and a lens hood, which is quite unusual for a P&S.
Leica Minilux
I'm torn on this camera. It's fun to look at and hold, but it's noisy to use. It has a good feature set, but a terrible, tiny finder, and it can be awkward to access some of the controls (i.e., 6 or 7 button pushes to turn off the flash!). I've thought about selling it many times. But the lens on it is phenomenal. The electronics may be Japanese (nothing wrong with that), but the lens is definitely Leica. It's been mentioned before it has a very powerful flash. I'd add that the camera seems to balance the flash nicely for daylight fill. I've run into some overexposure problems with the camera, possibly due to the silly 1/500th max shutter speed. There's also the legendary E02 error issue. Still, writing about it makes me want to shoot with it, just to see the results from that lens.
Leica Mini Zoom
A surprising little camera. I've gotten great results on it. The lens is really quite good for a zoom - almost as good as the Contax TVS IMO. Finder and handling are marginally better than the Minilux, which makes it a little more fun to shoot. You can find them for under $100, which is also a plus. The camera is frequently over-looked: I'd almost call it a hidden gem.
Contax T2?
I've thought about selling or trading the Minilux for a Contax T2. I think that might give me the Contax handling (which I love) along with a lens that I've heard is the equal of the Minilux's Summarit 40mm. Anybody here own/tried both?
Yashica T4 Super
It's a nice take-it-everywhere camera with a pretty good meter (I've happily shot E6 on it) and a sharp lens that vignettes noticeably. However, I personally feel it's a little over-rated, particularly at the premium prices it commands. For me, the lens isn't quite there, and the lack of manual controls make it difficult to compensate for some of the camera's deficiencies (i.e., soft corners when wide open).
Olympus XA
Simple, small and compact. It's a fun camera to carry around, although the focusing patch is prone to fade away almost to nothing. I'm not crazy about the lens on it, however. Vignettes like mad wide-open and even stopped down I don't personally find anything particularly special about it. Form factor is brilliant, however. If you get one, you'll shoot it.
Olympic Stylus (mju)
I feel about this much the way I feel about the XA (although I'd recommend the XA over the Stylus): great form factor, fun to shoot (if you want 100% auto), not crazy about the lens. I got mine for $2, so no great loss.
Contax TVS
I love this camera - my favourite p&s. Great feel, great ergonomics. I've been very happy with the short range zoom-lens (primarily for b&w), although I understand that it has its detractors. If you look around and are patient, and aren't looking for "mint," you can get one for a very good price. Briefly had a TVSII (shutter died on it), which was a hair better in terms of handling. That said, I see no need to "trade up." With a filter and a lens hood, it's larger than some of the others; but at least you've got the option to use filters and a lens hood, which is quite unusual for a P&S.
Leica Minilux
I'm torn on this camera. It's fun to look at and hold, but it's noisy to use. It has a good feature set, but a terrible, tiny finder, and it can be awkward to access some of the controls (i.e., 6 or 7 button pushes to turn off the flash!). I've thought about selling it many times. But the lens on it is phenomenal. The electronics may be Japanese (nothing wrong with that), but the lens is definitely Leica. It's been mentioned before it has a very powerful flash. I'd add that the camera seems to balance the flash nicely for daylight fill. I've run into some overexposure problems with the camera, possibly due to the silly 1/500th max shutter speed. There's also the legendary E02 error issue. Still, writing about it makes me want to shoot with it, just to see the results from that lens.
Leica Mini Zoom
A surprising little camera. I've gotten great results on it. The lens is really quite good for a zoom - almost as good as the Contax TVS IMO. Finder and handling are marginally better than the Minilux, which makes it a little more fun to shoot. You can find them for under $100, which is also a plus. The camera is frequently over-looked: I'd almost call it a hidden gem.
Contax T2?
I've thought about selling or trading the Minilux for a Contax T2. I think that might give me the Contax handling (which I love) along with a lens that I've heard is the equal of the Minilux's Summarit 40mm. Anybody here own/tried both?
gliderbee
Well-known
I usually have two camera's with me: a Canon S90 and a Olympus XA. If only one, it's the XA.
Most of the pics in my gallery here are from the XA, and I could only make them because I always have it with me (i.e. I didn't walk out specifically to take pictures)
Stefan.
Most of the pics in my gallery here are from the XA, and I could only make them because I always have it with me (i.e. I didn't walk out specifically to take pictures)
Stefan.
Yes, I used both back in the 90s. I always liked the Minilux better for one reason... no real shutter lag once focused. The T2 had shutter lag even pre-focused. The T2 was the nicer camera in most ways, but I used the Minilux more.
peterm1
Mentor
"Contax T2?
I've thought about selling or trading the Minilux for a Contax T2. I think that might give me the Contax handling (which I love) along with a lens that I've heard is the equal of the Minilux's Summarit 40mm. Anybody here own/tried both?"
I have not shot both but can confirm that the lens is really something special in the T2. Its as sharp and contrasty as any Leica lens I have shot on any camera.
I like the quirky little aperture dial around the lens - Just like a real camera :^) although there is a slight downside in that f2.8 cannot be selected manually - the camera will select it in auto mode if it needs it and the f2.8 position doubles as the auto setting. This is a little odd, but there you go! Perhaps the dial was just too small to fit another position comfortably on it. The other thing I like about it is that it has an exposure compensation dial too. So if you wish to you can use this to refine your shots. I especially like it for shooting films like Ilford XP2 which are bar coded 400 iso but in my view produce much nicer results at 200 iso.
For the rest, its a nice camera although a bit "bricky" in shape but not moreso than the minilux. If you can get one, find a black bodied one - these are more rare than the "champagne" titanium model, although the latter looks well too.
I've thought about selling or trading the Minilux for a Contax T2. I think that might give me the Contax handling (which I love) along with a lens that I've heard is the equal of the Minilux's Summarit 40mm. Anybody here own/tried both?"
I have not shot both but can confirm that the lens is really something special in the T2. Its as sharp and contrasty as any Leica lens I have shot on any camera.
I like the quirky little aperture dial around the lens - Just like a real camera :^) although there is a slight downside in that f2.8 cannot be selected manually - the camera will select it in auto mode if it needs it and the f2.8 position doubles as the auto setting. This is a little odd, but there you go! Perhaps the dial was just too small to fit another position comfortably on it. The other thing I like about it is that it has an exposure compensation dial too. So if you wish to you can use this to refine your shots. I especially like it for shooting films like Ilford XP2 which are bar coded 400 iso but in my view produce much nicer results at 200 iso.
For the rest, its a nice camera although a bit "bricky" in shape but not moreso than the minilux. If you can get one, find a black bodied one - these are more rare than the "champagne" titanium model, although the latter looks well too.
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Meatboy
Member
Over the years I've had a number of Cult PnS. Some film cameras were
Olympus XA - with the A16
Konica Big Mini
Contax T2 - wonderful little brick, should have kept this.
Nikon AF600 - quite a surprising little cam and hard to find now. (fixed 28mm)
Leica CM - wonderful images, but a bit lacking in build quality IMO.
But my all time favourite and the camera that gave me a large number of keepers is the Contax T3. While the CM may have a slightly better lens the T3 is by far the better camera of them all. Biggest regret was selling the Nikon AF600 and the XA. :bang: The T3 I will never part with.
I currently use my GRD III as the replacement for all of the above.
Olympus XA - with the A16
Konica Big Mini
Contax T2 - wonderful little brick, should have kept this.
Nikon AF600 - quite a surprising little cam and hard to find now. (fixed 28mm)
Leica CM - wonderful images, but a bit lacking in build quality IMO.
But my all time favourite and the camera that gave me a large number of keepers is the Contax T3. While the CM may have a slightly better lens the T3 is by far the better camera of them all. Biggest regret was selling the Nikon AF600 and the XA. :bang: The T3 I will never part with.
I currently use my GRD III as the replacement for all of the above.