the unofficial Cosina-Voigtlander User Community

alex wrote:

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It also frees me from the tyranny of choice in interchangeable lenses. I generally only carry my 40mm and 90mm lenses with the R3a, instead of the 24mm to 300mm range I'm too tempted to carry when I load the SLRs. That often means more pictures taken, because there's less fiddling about with equipment.

This is true...with my SLRs I would carry 24/50/105 primes, a short range zoom (like 28-80) and a long range zoom (70-300). With a rangefinder I've got either a 35 or 28 on and a 90 in the bag.

Not only does it free you up from fiddling with lenses it also frees up your creative process. You never think "which lens would be best for this photo?". You learn to use the focal length you have and that's it.

Brian wrote:

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You never think "which lens would be best for this photo?". You learn to use the focal length you have and that's it.

It's surprising how liberating this is, physically as well as creatively. I began to realise how out of hand things were getting on a recent trip when I found myself looking for a larger bag to hold all the kit I'd chosen for the trip. Two SLRs (one for safety spare), 24, 28, 35, 50, 135, 70-210, 300, flash, meters, tripod, monopod, backpack, digital camera, Oly compact 35 (backup again), folding camera, rangefinder attachment, hoods, filters, much other stuff. It's very hard to be spontaneous with all that stuff on your back, even allowing for leaving the spare SLR behind in the hotel or wherever. In the event, it turned out that a half to two thirds of my SLR photography on my most recent trip was done with the mechanical (backup) SLR and a 35mm Distagon lens. I was, in a way similar to your observation, learning to use one focal length. I spent more time looking outwards, and less time down into the camera bag moving lenses around.

It was this realisation that I was using barely a fifth of the lens inventory I was humping around which propelled me to think more seriously about a rangefinder, that coupled with the days when I took just the Oly 35, and found it a perfect joy. So I did a little researching into the RF market, and the new CV Bessa R models were the obvious candidates, being affordable and gaining good reports in the pages of the better photo comics, like AP (which carried out a comparison review of the Leica M7, Zeiss Ikon, and Bessa R3A). The R3A turned out to be a good buy, and I love it. My one real regret on getting it has been that I never went down this road twenty years ago.

alex wrote:

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My one real regret on getting it has been that I never went down this road twenty years ago.

20 years ago your choices would have been either Leica or soon to be abandoned lines (i.e. Canon and Minoltas)

Aye well, maybe! And it reminds me of one of my sorriest photographic decisions, or rather, lack of decision. It would have been in the early '70s, that I saw a Leica IIIg in a photo shop window in Glasgow, priced at GBP 30. I hesitated for several days over it, going to the shop, coming back without it, until eventually I decided 'OK, that's it, I'm going to buy it, and do without beer for the next two months'. When I went to get it, someone else had show more decisiveness than I, and had already bought it. IIIg bodies are going for four-figure sums these days. Oh, how long and hard I've kicked myself for that indecisiveness!

I did flirt with a Zorki for a while, though I didn't find its split-image RF spot particularly easy to use, and film loading was a bit of a fumble, though the thing that led me to sell it on was that it had no strap lugs. Since re-discovering interchangeable lens RFs, I've acquired another Zorki, the knob wind this time instead of the lever wind, and this one has strap lugs. Knob wind isn't nearly as much of a hassle as I'd feared. But the Bessa R3A is a real joy to use - the RF spot is just superb, big, clear, easy to use, and I do like the 1:1 view. Yesterday, I bought the side grip to match it, and for such a small thing, it makes a remarkable difference to the feel of the camera, whilst adding hardly any obvious bulk.

One day, I may try a Leica, but I will have to offload a lot of surplus kit before that happens.

Since I've gotten into rangefinders I find that I want to try more gear. I've been quite gassy and I've somewhat turned into a collector. I do use all my gear though. When I had a dSLR, I was content with just two basic zoom lenses and I never thought about getting anything more - it could have been because I hated taking photographs with that thing. My typical day sees me leaving the house at around 8:00 am and I usually don't get back until about 7:00 pm. Every day I choose one body and one lens to take with me - right now my MP and 35 Summicron-ASPH (which replaced the damaged Ultron) usually accompanies me during the day. I'm trying to get to know the new lens. I'm usually quite happy with just using one body and lens and I adjust my style of shooting accordingly. When I go out with the intent of shooting, I usually take two bodies and three lenses. Usually the M3 with a 50 mounted, the MP with a 35 mounted and the CV 21/4.

I'm not sure what that said about rangefinders except that I enjoy them.