my rangefinders

I was introduced to rangefinders (RF) by a friend rather late in the game in 2004. We were at Cathay Photo looking at Nikon gear when he asked to see the M7 that was on display. It seemed intriging with the overlapping focusing patch, but I was a little more focused on getting a lens for my S2pro.

However, not too long after that, I found myself trading-in some of my Nikon lenses at The Camera Workshop (TCW) for a M6 TTL and a 35 Summicron ASPH… and as anyone who has touched a Leica would know, it was slippery steep slope from there, like a RF friend my mine said, “I slipped and bought a M9″…

Why RF? – All I’ll say is that it’s because it’s a joy to use. Great images from a relative compact camera. Simple, intuitive, manual focus and non-TTL view – they simplfy things and challenge your photography skills… and you don’t have to break your shoulder carrying all your gear, although you could break your back account!!

It was a rather slow start on film, it took 3-5 days to develop the b&w film at the shops and the quality of their scans weren’t great. But things really picked up when I got my hands on a digital RF – the Epson RD1s, and later upgraded to a M8.

I have met many RFers along the way, ranging from shooters to gearnuts, local and overseas… I think I will have to classify myself as a local gearnut, as admittedly, I have really a lot more gear than I need. All you really need is one camera and one lens… okay, maybe 3 lenses, one of each different focal length (28mm, 35mm, 50mm).

Even though the lenses are small and sexy, my dry cabinet is already coming pretty darn close to bursting at the seems. There are multiple lenses at various focal lengths ranging from 21mm to 75mm, ranging from Canon, Leica, Fujinon, Nikon, Voigtländer, and Zeiss, modern and vintage lenses, all of them having their own character. My staple “kit” is my M9, 50 Summilux pre-asph v4 and/or 35 Summilux Asph v1 .

Useful RF links
ClubSNAP – An Introduction to RF
RF Review of the Voigtländer 35mm f/1.2 I vs II
RF Review of fast 75mm lenses
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CameraQuest
Amedeo Adaptors
Erwin Putts
Luminous Landscape
RFSG.asia
Rangefinder Forum (RFF)
Thorsten von Overgaard’s Leica Camera Compendium