Okay, this is going to get me into some serious trouble.
First of all, I've decided that I own enough OM gear. I know this is an
unfamiliar concept. I mean I only have 3 bodies and 9 lenses. I'm nowhere
near the complete set of lenses or bodies. Worse still, I'm actually
considering selling off a few items.
I am however looking at purchasing some more camera equipment. At the
moment, I'm considering 2 options.
Option 1, A rangefinder kit. Mostly looking at Voightlander. A used M3 would
probably be nice for the more accurate focusing but for the same price I
could probably get 2 Besa R2's and have the advantage of having brand new
bodies that load film like a normal modern camera. In terms of lenses, I'm
mostly looking at the Voightlander line of lenses because they're extremely
affordable and are still reputed to be very high quality. Plus in the
future, should my wallet ever get so heavy that it impedes my ability to
walk, I can "upgrade" to Leica bodies and/or glass (probably glass first)
and bask in the Leica glow. This option appeals to my terrible weakness for
chrome camera equipment, the option to have a chrome body with all chrome
lenses is extremely tempting (unfortunately, there's no chrome R2, not too
sure about the Olive colour). The advantage I see with going this route is
that it gives me the option to get some of the widest lenses ever produced
and I'm primarily a 35mm shooter anyways. I'd envision selling off some of
my OM wides and sticking with the OM's for mostly macro and tele work
(although I'd probably keep at least 1 lens that's wider than 50mm for times
when I'd want to only be carrying a single system). The disadvantages I see
with this is that it does duplicate equipment I already have and I have
limited rangefinder experience so I'm not sure yet how it would suit my
style of shooting. I suppose the continued advancement of digital and
predicted demise of 35mm also counts as a disadvantage (idealy, I'd love to
see Voightlander come out with a Besa D digital rangefinder, they're
probably crazy enough to try it).
Option 2, A medium format kit. I already have a Mamiya M645 with an 80mm
lens but I'm considering selling it. Currently, I'm leaning towards 6x6 and
am looking at the funky Kiev's or those rebuilt by Hartblei (most likely the
Hartblei because their branded ones are modified to work with Hassy backs
which means in the future a digital back could be done). If I go with one of
the models that take the Pentacon 6 mount, then I've got a wide range of
lens choices. This option appeals to the fact that I was a Russian studies
major and I love funky former Soviet camera gear. The advantage I see with
this option is that it's not an overlap with existing gear (I'd sell the
Mamiya). The disadvantages are that I primarily shoot 35mm, weight, and if I
want to do roll film I can always put the roll film back on my Arca-Swiss
4x5 and get nice juicy 6x9 shots with a wide range of adjustments (or for
the same amount of effort, get a 4x5 shot). I suppose another disadvantage
here is that I currently only have a 35mm film scanner so at least a flatbed
with transparency adapter would be necessary here for doing any digital work
with the shots.
Looking for some advice here. I suspect part of the list will just suggest
that I stick with OM but where I'm discussing the possibility of selling
some of my OM gear I can see how that might bias list members towards the
first option.
--
Andrew "Frugal" Dacey
frugal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.tildefrugal.net/
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