John A. Lind wrote:
>My "take anywhere" is a chrome Rollei 35S . . . a completely manual camera
>with a 40mm f/2.8 Sonnar. Bought it new 21 years ago and it's still
>functioning perfectly. There are a number of work-arounds for the oldies
>designed for the PX625 Hg cells.
Several other alternatives to the all-manual mini-35mm camera are:
(a) Petri Color 35 -- a Rollei 35S clone with a very sharp 40/2.8 lens
which Petri made themselves. Has full-info. VF. ($50-75)
(b) Olympus 35RC -- a great little camera with an excellent Zuiko 42/2.8,
which also has a R/F. ($60-85)
(c) Ricoh 500G -- another terrific little shooter, with a great, sharp
40/2.8 Rikenon lens and R/F. Several variants of this one have such
uncommon (for this category!) extras as multiple exposure capability,
and one or two sub-models even take a winder. ($35-75)
All three have solid metal construction, CdS meters inside the lens
perimeter -- good for filter usage, normal flash shoes located where
you'd expect them to, and each will cost a fraction of the exhorbitant
sums one has to shell out for even most basic of the Rollei 35's (the
latter have more shutter speeds though). No reliability problems either.
Of course, compared to the Rollei, the prestige quotient is rather low:
I would not recommend keeping these in the glove compartment of an
expensive SUv... oops, better not go there! :-) :-)
Cheers,
/Gary Schloss.
schloss@xxxxxxxxxxx
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
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