10 years of JCH: 10 Favorite Rangefinders
Time for something a little bit different. Seeing as it is 10 years of JCH, I have decided to make a list of my 10 favorite rangefinders for the latest video. I hope you enjoy it.
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Cheers
JCH
Bellamy, your ‘surprise’ at your own figures is hilarious, brilliant adjudication.
Looking forward to a similarly witty assessment of SLRs, I think my FM3a may well win it.
Thumbs up for JCH and its fabulous achievements, keep going.
One more great video.
For me this is the Leica M3 ;-)
Bellamy,
A great list and you’ve avoided the no you are wrong comments. However, can I add some cameras to your list, making it a 13 long list. I’ve been using rangefinder cameras as an amateur photographer for around 35 years. My first (and not on your list) was a Fujica 645, a folding bellows 645. It was one of 3 Fujica 645 models, the others had fixed wider angle lenses. It was plastic, not robust and had operational issues such as remove lens hood before collapsing the bellows (a bit like a first version of the 670). I replaced it by a Mamiya produced Plaubel 670 (on your list). It looked the part, the lens was great, but the folding tongs mechanism went out of true and so I replaced it with the New Mamiya Six (not on your list), my third folding bellows camera, but with the bellows hidden by a plastic cover. The 3 lenses were amazing, essentially a Biogon 50mm, a Planar 75mm, and a Sonnar 150mm. It suffered from wind-on mechanism breakages, but I kept this camera for 29 years. I also had 3 Mamiya 6MFs. I prefered the 6×6 format as it was more usable – the camera was kept horizontal during shooting and the negatives fitted files, whereas the Mamiya 7 required vertical shooting and the 10 shots never fitted standard files. I would replace the 7 by the 6 on your (my!) list. I went later to Leica and currently own an early M4P, a titanium M6 and a new MP. I get the impression that currently the most loved M is an M6. The only other camera (I haven’t owned one) that I believe should be on someone’s list is one of the Canon range, probably a Canon 7, if only because of their lens range.