is there any kit more versatile ...

[dave lackey]

Well, here 'tis, remembering I like Pentax too.

Wow...can we start a separate thread just for this bad boy?

 

[uhoh7]

Gee, uhoh7, is your camera upside down? Where's the pentaprism? And it looks like your lens broke in the middle...

PS: I discreetly don't mention it in my sig line, but I also like Pentax slrs and just got a Leica SLR. After all this IS the RFF!

haha

I know I know, shut up digitized perp

My first camera was a brand new Ftb, but in the end I just could not stand the bulk. I was too ignorant to study up on rangefinders in the 80s when I travelled alot.

Now I shoot off the cuff and in the backcountry, so SLR or DSLR--useless to me.

But the new punk nex, frankly does it all. Yes I wish it was full frame. But it takes ALL the great glass, and turns out good results with it. It shoots 7 FPS RAW on 1.5x APS-C and is a both a suberb street camera with all the RF glass, AND a very respectable platform for the very best SLR glass, like the incredible nFD 24/2 or the tokina 90/2.5

just a few:

so, while I give huge props to all who use the RFs and the classic SLRs--hell I drive a 240Z--

when it comes to versitile kit I think the nex-5 rules at the moment.

but that's just me.

I put that nikkor PC on a tilt adapter for a one lens example, hehe

 

[presspass]

One camera? One lens? No way, unless as Vics suggests, my Rollie 2.8. Otherwise, it's just won't do the job for me. If it's an SLR, any Nikon up to an F3 with a 35 1.4 and an 85 1.4.

 

[besk]

A Mamiya Press "flat top" with the 65mm lens would be ideal for me. Scale focusing or ground glass Graflok back. Rear movements. 6X4.5, 6X6, 6X9 or sheet film options.
Compact, rugged and sorta lightweight - about the same as a Rolleiflex.

 

[ferider]

How do you like that Soligor, uhoh7 ?

 

[dbarnes]

Is it nature or nurture? Maybe some bright young researcher will tell us someday. That is, what makes the difference between the crowd that owns a dozen 50mm lenses and the crowd that wouldn't touch even one with a ten foot pole. ;-)

 

[alfredian]

One lens? Leica M4 and Summicorn DR 50/2. I used it at the National Arboertum Saturday - flower time, to the max. Not a true macro, but for that I'd have to haul out the ringlight, etx. My only swap would be to the M5, for the meter.

 

[mfunnell]

you people need therapy!!

this is a rangefinder forum!!!

Well, I'll note that if I'm confined to a single body and only one (normal-ish) lens then you're more likely to find me with an M3 and an Elmar-M or a Hexar RF with one of the Hex 35s.

SLRs are more versatile - but RFs are often better for what they're good at.

...Mike

 

[Keith]

Actually after reading a previous post I would have to agree that the DR Summicron on an M body with the goggles in a pocket in case you need to close focus, would be hard to beat!

 

[paulfish4570]

agreed, keith. my cv 50 and 35 lenses focus to 2.5 feet on my r2m, so either would be about one foot short of being as versatile as my FE2 and Nikkor 50/1.8.
but hey, i just started this thread for fun ...

 

[Contarama]

Yeah I would rather have a GT40 than a model T but I think there has to be something said for the "original" versatile kit developed by an asthmatic so he could easily carry it on his walks in the countryside. The 24mmX36mm format...that is where the versatility is at! SLR? You're joking right? lol

 

[Steve M.]

Depends on the situation of the moment, yes? SLR's tend to be biggish, w/ or w/o a zoom. When I was shooting a Leica CL w/ a 50 DR (lovely combination there) the camera was so little that no one, and I mean no one, ever gave it a second look. When I went out in the same situations w/ a SLR, heads turned. A camera that was getting noticed wasn't very versatile. For portraits, gimme that SLR. It's wonderful to look through the lens. What great inventions that mirror and prism were.

 

[uhoh7]

How do you like that Soligor, uhoh7 ?

I saw it on ebay and won it for 157USD. It's mint except a tiny tinge of edge fungus in one small spot.

I have only done a bit of testing, but it is very sharp wide open, if you can focus with the super slim DOF.

It's heavy as hell and positively dangerous on the nex if you hold the body, but fine if you hold the lens.

It's still winter here and I'm really hoping to use it for the spring explosion of green. It's just a magnifcent piece of glass though, MD mount.

Funny enough, I have another MD mount 135 at the complete other end of the spectrum, a 25USD mint f/3.5 260 gram MD:

this little thing hangs off the nex effortlessly and also shoots sharp:

with adapters running about 20 bucks for any mount, you just chery pick the glass you like.

For day to day, I use leitz, CV and Canon RF:

or to impress women:

it's pretty fun.

I try to keep it all fairly cheap, but I did just win a CV 50 1.1, after being unable to find a reasonable canon RF 1.2

my other ridculous lens:

that's the aps-c sigma 8-16mm which does things like:

no, that's not my house, hehe

contarama, that thing is gorgeous--what is it again?

 

[tedwhite]

When it comes to SLR's, I'm comfortable with the kit I've had for decades: Pentax Spotmatic SP and Super Takumars 28/50/105. The ones I use most often. Also have 50/4 macro, 135/2.5, 35/3.5 (an amazing lens) and 300/4.

Old Pentax screwmount bodies and their lenses age well. I've had some of this stuff since the early seventies.