Vintage film cameras

Can't see the text I posted with the pic above. Nicca 5L/Tower 45, a Leica screwmount copy with some of the features of the bayonet mount Leicas, such as lever wind and flip open back for film loading. To my taste, better than a Leica IIIg.
 
Fleischer said:
Can't see the text I posted with the pic above. Nicca 5L/Tower 45, a Leica screwmount copy with some of the features of the bayonet mount Leicas, such as lever wind and flip open back for film loading. To my taste, better than a Leica IIIg.
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Here's my IIIg. It needs repair, the shutter curtain has worked loose on one side.

Someone has put it in a vice in its very adventurous earlier life.
 
Yipe! That's been ridden hard and put away wet. I've found Leicas in worse-looking shape that came up fine. Have a red curtain IIIc that spent decades in someone's tacklebox. Covered with years of dried fish slime and missing it's vulcanite. Was serviced by the late Reinhold Mueller, a former Leica Canada employee who bought up a lot of Leica Midland stock, and recovered with real factory vulcanite. The fish slime came off with Q tips and water. I wish as pleasant a result with your IIIg
 
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I love the Contax II. Once you've mastered "the Contax grip" it is a wonderful camera and way ahead of pre-M series Leicas. The Sonnars are also clearly better than any Leica lens before the Summicron. Also, when I shoot with most vintage 35mm cameras, nobody seems to notice. But every time I'm out with the Contax II, someone always says (to my chagrin) "Great camera! Isn't that a Leica?". :-(
 
Fleischer said:
I love the Contax II. Once you've mastered "the Contax grip" it is a wonderful camera and way ahead of pre-M series Leicas. The Sonnars are also clearly better than any Leica lens before the Summicron. Also, when I shoot with most vintage 35mm cameras, nobody seems to notice. But every time I'm out with the Contax II, someone always says (to my chagrin) "Great camera! Isn't that a Leica?". :-(
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Well, sonnars have different signature, but as far as better - depends on what you like. While I too like the sonnar design and the way they draw, I also like Summitars, for example. I tried Contax RF at some point and while I like some things about it, it never felt as comfortable to me as Leica. But I like Konica Hexar RF even better. And even Leica I like is the least traditional - M5. I had M3, M6 and M5. To me M5 is far more comfortable than any others and thats the one I still have, while others are long since sold. Older screw mount ones - are just fun to use, not the most comfortable, but rather cool.
But even more I like to use folding rangefinders 6x6 or 6x9 format - those are lots of fun and great pieces of history, while capable of very good results.
 
I am a huge folder fan too, Krosya, with a particularly weak spot for Voigtlanders. And don't get me going about Japanese rangefinders - they are just wonderful. My faves are the Konica auto S3 and the little Olympus XA cameras, particularly the one with the 28mm lens. Don't mistake my comments on Leica as Leica-bashing. I have several, and do enjoy the signature of many of their lenses - even the much-despised Summar, which I never fully appreciated until I found an immaculate one, which is now a favoured portrait lens with bokeh to die for. So many good cameras. So few opportunities to use them......
 
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You've got a nice collection of cameras there Fleischer, thanks for sharing them with us.
I inherited my Leica's (IIIa & M3) but don't use them since I can't afford film and its costs.
I do shoot the lenses on occasion with my Sony A7ii.
 
IMG_20180915_172214.jpgZeiss Ikon Super Ikonta A with Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f3.5 lens mounted in a Compur-Rapid shutter. Takes 6 x 4.5 pics and has a coupled rangefinder. Was only made with this lens in 1948, so this is uncommon.
 
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Probably my favourite camera in my collection along with my Canonet QL-17. A Voigtlander Vito II with a clip on Voigtlander rangefinder. Manually cocked Compur Shutter with a lovely Color Skopar 1:3.5/50mm lens. Despite being all manual it is surprisingly easy to use. Results below on using Ilford XP2 film.

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IMG_20180915_182109.jpg Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta B with Compur-Rapid shutter and 8 cm f2.8 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens. 6 x 6 with coupled rangefinder.
 
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Johnno_Oz said:
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Probably my favourite camera in my collection along with my Canonet QL-17. A Voigtlander Vito II with a clip on Voigtlander rangefinder. Manually cocked Compur Shutter with a lovely Color Skopar 1:3.5/50mm lens. Despite being all manual it is surprisingly easy to use. Results below on using Ilford XP2 film.
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I have a real thing for Color Skopar lenses and really like how the blues in colour photos really "snap" when taken with them.
 
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