Konica Hexar AF

Distinctively the best Point & Shoot for street photography.

CC Image courtesy of wintoid on Flickr

Like any other street camera, the Konica Hexar AF is designed to be discreet and stealthy, ideal for capturing the decisive. In many ways though, the Konica Hexar AF is  very different to it's peers for it's unique layout and body design. The design, reminiscent to it's bigger M-mount brother, the Hexar RF makes it possible to incorporate a full-sized Leica lens design which Konica definitely did; doing an exact copy of the famed 35/2 Summicron into it's own high quality Hexar lens. This is particularly interesting in the camera world as such technology had never been as advanced as the Konica Hexar AF in it's time.

With autofocus abilities and A/P exposure modes, the Hexar AF offers fast operation on the streets, much faster than the old, traditional rangefinders. In real world use, the AF is quick enough to snap people at walking pace, but locking the AF at a certain distance and snap away like you would with old manual focus lenses is much more practical than you would with the Hexar's laggy AF. 

Speaking of lenses, the Hexar AF sports a superb 35/2 Hexar lens which was reputed to be an exact copy of the non-ASPH. Leica 35/2 Summicron. This 7 element in 6 group lens produces image quality on par to that of the Leica but drops in terms of bokeh performance as it seems to lack the dreamy Leica character that makes the images stand out. The Hexar lens will go up to f/22 with the closest focusing distance of 0.6 meters; not great, but good enough for street photography.

The Konica Hexar AF has been dubbed 'the quietest camera on the planet'. This is by no surprise as it's 'silent mode' works brilliantly in reducing the motor noise when advancing the film. The leaf shutter on the Hexar is also notably quite, even more so than the discreet mode on the modern digital Leicas' which requires you to walk away from the subject to release that rather noisy re-cocking sound after you've pressed the shutter. Apparently though, the silent mode was disabled by the factory on the silver models which is a shame, but re-enabling it could be done through some rather complicated programming steps.
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Voigtländer Bessa R2A & R3A

Like Leica, but without the price.

CC Image courtesy of Shane Lin on Flickr

Leica had always been the pinnacle of rangefinder photography. The privilege to own one is simply a dream come true, but what about our friend Voigtländer? Is it still in the game for Leica aficionados like you and me to appreciate it's value and beauty? Well, let's find out in the new review of the Voigtländer R2A/R3A.

The Bessa R2A introduced in 2004 at Photokina alongside the R3A is basically a revamp of the R2 with the advantage of aperture priority and the ability to mount Leica glass. Both cameras are pretty identical including it's functionality and design with exception of the framelines; the R2A with 0.7x magnification, and the R3A with a 1:1 'to scale' finder - one of the first Leica M mount cameras to possess this feature. The R3A's finder, compared to other 1:1 RFs is extremely bright with easy-to-see framelines, which is quite surprising due to most 1:1 models possessing a much dimmer finder with difficult to read framelines.

Both the R2A and the R3A are battery based; meaning that without the battery, the camera's electronic shutter won't work, therefore rendering the camera practically useless. The battery used in the R2A and R3A is the 1.5V alkaline battery used in most AE rangefinder cameras. 

Although the Bessas' are designed to be Leica M mountable and performs incredibly well with it, some lenses are not recommended to be used with the R bodies especially those with a deeply recessed rear lens element or a collapsible barrel. This is due to the shutter curtain that is recessed not so deeply into the camera body. Though there is a metal stopper between the lens and the shutter curtain, it is still probably not a good idea to slam in the lens as you might damage your precious glass and camera. The good thing is, if you careful enough then it would probably be fine.
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Canonet G-III QL17

A cult camera. An icon of the 70s'

CC Image courtesy of Lozit on Wikimedia Commons

In recent years, the Canonet G-III QL17 had proven to be a hit amongst hipsters and Canon fanboys alike, but back in the days, the G-III was one of the bestsellers of Canon since Canon was around! First off, for those who are new to the camera, the Canonet is the series of 35mm compact RF's, the G-III is the third generation of the Canonet series, QL is what Canon regarded as the 'Quick-Load' system which semi-automatically loads the film into the camera, and 17 is it's widest aperture at f/1.7. 

Throughout the years, Canon had been pumping tons of Canonet's ranging from the QL17, which is the series' top-dog camera, to the QL19 and the 28. Today, I will be talking about what we consider as the best compact 35mm Rangefinder of all time; the G-III QL17.

Canon made it's first debut of the G-III back in 1972 with a staggering 1.2 million sales through to 1982, making the G-III probably one of the most successful camera in it's time. The specifications on this camera even surpasses the Leica CL albeit in a much cheaper price; just imagine a Sony RX1 with a 1.7 lens for 200 bucks? Incredible.

The Canonet G-III QL17 as said before is a compact 35mm rangefinder which boasts some amazing specs including a fast 40mm 1.7 lens, which is wide enough for some landscape shots, and long enough to do some portrait work on the streets with the closest focusing distance of 0.8 meters or 2.6 feet. To top that off, the lens is combined with automatic exposure and manual over-ride, a killer feature back in those days.

The rangefinder on the G-III is surprisingly bright but has a slight blue tint to it; a typical feature in early compact rangefinders to improve contrast, but I suppose it would not make much difference if you shoot black and white. The finder sports a 0.6x magnification, which goes extremely well with the 40mm lens and a frameline that compensates parallax error, which is very rare amongst cameras of the same genre.

Mamiya 6

What could be better than this?

CC Image courtesy of entropiK on Flickr

When one simply talks about rangefinders, Leica would be the first thing to pop up into mind. But photographers and film enthusiasts alike will instantaneously recognize the fame and glory of the Mamiya 6 and it's ever growing popularity amongst lovers of medium format and rangefinder photography.

For those who don't know, the 'New' Mamiya 6 is not an update or a new version of the old folding Mamiya Six camera. In fact, the Mamiya Six is a very different camera altogether; with a fixed lens and mechanical inner workings, a technology reminisce of the early 40s.

Introduced in 1989, the Mamiya 6 came out with three lenses; the 50mm, 75mm and 150mm. All three lenses for this system are incredibly sharp from corner to corner, producing images similar, or even better than the Zeiss lenses on Hasselblad V bodies.

So what is special about the Mamiya 6? Well, as a travel and street photographer, traveling light is key. No matter what destination it may be, lugging huge medium format SLRs with a set of lenses and backs is not ideal, and so the Mamiya 6 comes into play. The rangefinder design of Mamiya 6 is incredibly compact for it's category, and with the ability to collapse it's lenses, the size of the whole system can be as small, or perhaps even smaller than today's DSLRs. 

The another advantage of the Mamiya 6 over many other cameras of the same league is the image quality. This is driven solely by the lenses, which like Leica, can surpass the quality of SLR lenses because of the fact that the rear lens element can sit closely to the film giving extremely sharp results. This makes the Mamiya 6 one of the best cameras out there you could possibly buy.

Leica M6 & M6 TTL

Best Leica M for film photography?

CC Image courtesy of mr.Wood on Flickr

Launched in 1984, the M6 marked the return of the production from Leica's Canadian base back to Wetlzar, Germany, and soon to Sölms.

The M6 is considered by many as the best Leica M, and even the best 35mm film camera you could get out there. Many photographic enthusiasts who wanted to get into the world of Leica can simply pick one of these workhorses off from eBay at a relatively affordable price, and if your lucky enough,  you can own one with a lens at just above $1000.

Although some might argue that the M3, and the all mechanical MP are far superior than the M6, I would say that these are different cameras all round, serving different purposes and offers different results according to different tastes. The MP and the M3 are all mechanical, requiring just you and your brain to take that shot, a cult camera for the ones who solely believe in minimalism and appreciate the pureness of German engineering. The M6 and the M6 TTL on the other hand, are much more modern, offering (through-the-lens) TTL metering with red LED " < > " arrows to assist you in any given situation.