jssaraiva
Top Veteran
- Location
- Porto, Portugal
- Name
- José
Agreed, prices of these compacts are vey high for the apparent features and results. I've very happy with my Olympus XA2 and Fuji zoom date 2.8 as compact options.
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Film IQ vs price
- Thread starter tonyturley
- Start date
-
- Tags
- film film photography
Agreed, prices of these compacts are vey high for the apparent features and results. I've very happy with my Olympus XA2 and Fuji zoom date 2.8 as compact options.
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
I have my Zeiss Tessar and Voigtländer Ultron and Color-Skopar - for a lot less money. My cameras from the 50s and 60s sport those lenses and are, frankly, mechanical marvels. The Voigtländer Vitessa and Zeiss Ikon Contessamatic E are among my favourite cameras - real picture taking machines, not delicate little toys with admittedly fantastic lenses (though some of the cameras you mentioned are extremely worthy @tonyturley). My freshly acquired Leica AF-C1 is a very enjoyable, completely simple camera to shoot - my new plastic monster! It has a very nice 40mm f/2.8, calculation by Leica (plus a very decent 80mm f/5.6 at the push of a button - the tele converter's built in! I sincerely doubt that many of those super-compacts are decisively better equipped.
Anyhow, I don't know if you read Bellamy Hunt's site - he recently published an open letter to the industry for a reintroduction/reinvention of a high-class compact film camera because he sees a demand for one. Considering that he's a major provider of premium compact film cameras to the rest of the world (outside Japan, that is), he's in a good position to know if that's the case. I'm just afraid that this is nothing but a hipsta hype. I certainly don't see film photography that way - rediscovering film transformed the way I look at and practise photography.
Yesterday, I took out the XA again - while I like the crispness and contrast of the Minox' lens better with colour film, I reckon it'll work very nicely with well graded b&w films ... But maybe if more people discovered the qualities of this little powerhouses (Olympus and Minox alike) they wouldn't pay ridicolous prices for other old compacts - and sell those old cameras for pennies.
That said, I should have bought that Minilux for $80 years ago ...
M.
Anyhow, I don't know if you read Bellamy Hunt's site - he recently published an open letter to the industry for a reintroduction/reinvention of a high-class compact film camera because he sees a demand for one. Considering that he's a major provider of premium compact film cameras to the rest of the world (outside Japan, that is), he's in a good position to know if that's the case. I'm just afraid that this is nothing but a hipsta hype. I certainly don't see film photography that way - rediscovering film transformed the way I look at and practise photography.
Yesterday, I took out the XA again - while I like the crispness and contrast of the Minox' lens better with colour film, I reckon it'll work very nicely with well graded b&w films ... But maybe if more people discovered the qualities of this little powerhouses (Olympus and Minox alike) they wouldn't pay ridicolous prices for other old compacts - and sell those old cameras for pennies.
That said, I should have bought that Minilux for $80 years ago ...
M.
tonyturley
Legend
- Location
- Scott Depot, WV, USA
- Name
- Tony
I did indeed see Bellamy's letter, and have visited his site many times. My own "Serious Compact" is the Olympus 35RC, with its own 42mm f/2.8 sharp little lens. I just mailed off a newly exposed roll of Potra 400 for developing. Currently running a roll of Fuji Superia 400 through the Praktica, which is sporting the Flektogon 35mm f/2.4. That is not a compact camera/lens combination at all, but I'm hoping the IQ it produces is worth the heft.
You're right about the hype . . . yesterday I saw a Kyocera/Yashica T4 Super listed for $799. Insane.
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
I bet you'll not be disappointed - the Zeiss Jena glass is famously well designed; my own Flektogon (the radioactive one
) is one wonderful lens (but since it's for the Pentacon Six, it's really huge and heavy). I actually don't mind lugging around those old cameras (much ...) - for one simple reason: Their heft is actually proof of their sturdiness and general build quality. When I was putting together my digital systems, there was always something missing, even with the best cameras I found for a certain task. I know now what it was: the feeling that these things simply can't be broken (of course they can, but it does feel like you could knock out an ox with them before worrying about it happening). And everything's simple and straightforward; hardly anything stands between you and the image you take - no blinkenlights, no beeps, no focus points, no histograms, no capricious electronics, no "you can't do it that way, it's not how we think things should work" - wind film, judge exposure, focus, frame, shoot, repeat. Oh, and something else: one image at a time, no "spray and pray" capabilities. Love it!Even some of the later plastic stuff with circuits insight feels that way - for example, the Leica AF-C1 is really rather limited, but it's actually a very quick camera to shoot. Let me tell you this: Even though it's bulkier, the only digital camera that sort of feels and handles the same is - the Ricoh GR! The AF-C1 isn't a premium camera by a long shot, in spite of its name, but it certainly shoots like one by *modern* standards! Go figure ... We seem to have forgotten how immediate and fluid photography can be - and on the other hand, how deliberate and precise a process it may become ...
Back on topic: Those premium cameras are gorgeous, and if someone uses them to make great images, I'm the first to applaud. But they're not worth the money that's asked for them at the moment.
M.
tonyturley
Legend
- Location
- Scott Depot, WV, USA
- Name
- Tony
From time to time I pop into a local thrift store. I saw a few $2 plastic compact film cameras last time I was in there, but nothing like this. If the story is true, it's the find of a lifetime: Thrift Store Miracle: College Student Finds a Leica M2 for Just $5
