At 04:09 3/6/00 , Ray Moth wrote:
>Olympus cameras nevertheless.] I have developed an interest in
>the old Olympus rangefinder cameras, that were on the market 20+
>years ago or so, particularly the RC, RD and 35SP. I might seek
>out a good used example of one of them but I don't know which,
>if any, would be a good buy. So, what I would like to ask is if
>anyone has any experience with any of these Olympus RFs and can
>tell me whether they are good, do they work well and what are
>their strengths and weaknesses?
Ray,
I use a Rollei 35S (horror of horrors, not an Oly) for the same purposes
but it is incredibly small with absolutely superb MC glass designed by
Zeiss (a Sonnar). Very glad I bought it new many years ago as they are now
collector's items now and rather expensive. Pure serendipity; no foresight
on my part. I would encourage all serious photogs to have some type of
small 40mm focal length RF in the camera bag. There are times when a
full-blown SLR is just too big, noisy, heavy, cumbersome or obtrusive. The
leaf shutters are very quiet and you can eek out at least a stop slower
shutter speed hand held.
The RF's you mentioned are slightly larger and have good reputations.
Major competitor for them at the time was the Canon Canonet GIII QL-17.
One thing to watch for on the QL-17 is what the "QL" stood for: "Quick
Load." If the spool is badly worn you could encounter problems with film
loading. OTOH, they are inexpensive on the used market. You may find a
number of "QL-19" models floating around too. The number was the lens
speed (17=f/1.7; 19=f/1.9). You can read about pros and cons of the
Canonet QL-17's and the Oly RF's on Stephen Gandy's CameraQuest site. He
has a sense of humor, but pulls no punches. Gives a pretty even-handed
list of pros and cons for each:
http://www.jetlink.net/~cameras/canql17.htm
http://www.jetlink.net/~cameras/olyrc.htm
http://www.jetlink.net/~cameras/olyrd.htm
http://www.jetlink.net/~cameras/olysp.htm
His index for all his reviews (an extensive list) is here:
http://www.jetlink.net/~cameras/classics.htm
GL
-- John
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