Classic rangefinders

The Auto S2's sliding lens hood attaches via a retaining ring that simply screws off like a filter.

 

And yes, other than it's great lens, the camera's best feature is the auto-parallax-correcting bright frame finder.

The hood that came with the S2 was slidable back and forth. It slid inwards so as to fit in the closed case, and forward to do its shading thing. It was not very deep, but deep enough to be effective with the 45 mm lens. It was held on by a screw-on retaining ring that could also accomodate a filter. The meter had a meter check buttion, and a readout on top of the camera as well as a freadout in the VF. One could lock the aperture by a half depression of the shutter release. Film loading is very easy. X flash synch at all speeds. Large parawllax corrected bright line VF/RF. Self timer. The only minor quibble I had was that the RF was a fairly short throw, and it was a little difficult to read the range, when one wanted to adjust the flash. The design of the camera was very well thought out. When I arrived in Vietnam, the conv entional wisdom among the old heads was that the best buys were Seiko wrist watches, Sony or Teak tape decks, and the Konica Auto S2. If you wanted to spend around $100-150 on a camera, that would buy a Canon Pellix, Pentax Spotmatic, Nikon F or a Super Topcon. Canonets P&S's were available but were considered to be quite up to the Konica. The Konica was my first ever 35mm, and I used Plus-x film because it could be locally processed. I bought a new Canon FT-QL with a f1.8 lens for $65 before I returned to the US. Tehy were marked down to $65 because they were delivered to the exchange with the mirros in the locked up position and the BX employess thought they were defective. I can think of nothing else to say about the Auto S2. If you can find one in good working condition (two of mine have a frozen film advance lever), they do not disappoint. Even without a battery, they can be operated with full control over shutter and aperture. I have rarely heard of any negative comments in the several years I have been following photo.net. The Auto S2 got a glowing test report from Amateur Photography magazine (you can order the report via www.oldtimercamera.com . I think that is the correct URL.

I like the Minolta 7sII rangefinders myself. They are small, durable and produce sharp images. I own to but they don't come as cheap as a lot of other rangefinders. I also bought a little Olympus 35 RC for my son to use. It takes great pictures also and has a much brighter viewfinder than my Minolta's.

 

If you go into my pbase account you will find two crops I posted to compare the image quality between the minolta and Olympus rangefinders. While the Minolta was better the Olympus look fine on their own. In fact my 9 year old just took a blue ribbon at the Utah State Fair with a picture he took with the 35 RC.

 

http://www.pbase.com/jhuddle/temp_stuff

"It takes great pictures also and has a much brighter viewfinder than my Minolta's."

 

Could it be an haze in the viewfinder as i've read somewhere that the 7s II's viewfinder are prone to hazing and need to be cleaned.

Someone asked earlier about a Bolsey B2. They are very nice little 35mm cameras, in my view. Small enough for a fat pocket, competent rangefinders, built like tanks (and equally attractive, I suppose) but relatively light. I have a B2 which takes quite good negatives, and a Jubilee (upgraded lens and fancier packaging on a B2) that does very nice work. In both cases the limiting factor on imae quality is probably my technique. I like them.

ron

It's nice to see that the old Argus cameras are still being appreciated even though they are pretty cheap on eBay. One of the best cameras I have is a somewhat uncommon 1950 Argus FA with an Argus anastigmat f/4.5. I didn't expect much when I shot a roll at the old fort beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, but the images were amazingly sharp with excellent contrast. I shot some test rolls with some old Leicas with Elmars and nothing was any better. Maybe I should adapt the Argus lens to fit an LTM body?

David

I see that this thread is getting veeeery long already, and probably the fellow who posted the original question quit reading it long ago...so I'll try to make it short.

 

The older 35mm cameras in my own collection that give me "wow pictures": Yashica Minister (f2.8) or Lynx 1000 f1.8 (not the 5000), Welti 1C (Tessar), Voigtlander Vito II (Skopar), Mamiya 18B, Beauty 35, Minolta A5, or AL.

 

Those are all completely manual cameras, thought some have (primitive) selenium meters. Avoid the models named xxx-matic, or xxx-automatic. Although many of these early-60s "automatic" cameras have good-quality lenses, most cannot be used manually, and the auto functions are very unreliable. Get an inexpensive hand-held meter like a Vivitar 45, or a Sekonic (with battery), and use the cameras that you can set manually.

 

As for the Konica S2, the usability and optical quality seem byeond question. I have several, and in my experience (compared with other Japanese RFs of the same vintage...especially the Canons) I'll say that the S2 is MUCH easier to repair, if there's a problem that requires disassembly.<div></div>

Try a Rank Mamiya. I bought one for ?5 and it's the smoothest, quietest,and nicest camera to use that I have.And it turns out very nice pictures. The meter on mine is accurate, and you could jump through the viewfinder, and the rangefinder is very clear. What more could one want? Cyril Lowe.

In my note about my Rank Mamiya, the price I paid for it should have read five pounds.

I agree with the Konica S-2 as a top choice. I'm still using the one I bought new in 1974. Also consider the Konica C-35. Though it is programed (no manual overides) it has a sharp lens and it will work with 675 hearing aid batteries. Finally, although outside the pre-70's forum a bit, consider the Yashica MG-1. They're usually very inexpensive. LIke the Minister, you get a 45mm f2.8 lens. Like the GSN, you get aperture priority autoexposure.