35mm body to supplement MF equip. What are you using?

Nikon Nikkormat.

Olympus OM.

 

I use the Om4Ti as a spot meter for medium format when I am not using incident metering with a hand held meter.

 

Has multispot metering and is accurate. It isn't manual, but is 'fairly manual' as you put it! I carry it with a 90mm macro which I use for detail/macro.

 

Not cheap and now discontinued, RIP.

OM1 plus 24mm, 40mm, 100mm, seldom used now. Rollei B35 and Zeiss Ikon Ikonta (35mm) folder for snowboarding.

Leica M Series, Contax SLR and Rollei 35 is what I use in 35mm. All have their uses and are of similar build quality and feeling as the usual MF stuff and not overautomated. The Olympus 35 RC/RD/SP is another nice 'low cost' option like the Canonet and Minolta Hi-Matic series.

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The new Contax N as someone mentioned already above might be interesting since you can buy the Contax MF lenses for the 645 and use them for the N-series. Which keeps the investment for another MF system (Contax) low.

I use a Canon EOS1 (PDB) together with my P67. Superb combo. Only use standardlens with both systems (90 and 50mm).

I'd think twice about the Canonet: retro fashion statements are one thing, practicality is another.I find the ergonomics of the small Nikon MF bodies like the FE-FM series to be near-perfect.The current FM3A shares this chassis--a very sweet camera.

Nikon F3 and Minolta X-700

I use EOS (1V) for long IS tele and bells-and-whistles AF, and digital (D60). Otherwise I use Leica M. I've still got a nice early Nikon F outfit, and used to have Leica reflex equipment, but IMO aside from the high-tech or digital reasons for EOS, and the size and no mirror-slap of the Leica, there's no reason for me to use 35mm in place of my Hasselblads.

1. Yes; I use it more often than I use my Mamiya C330f. It's an outstanding and very versatile system; I have lenses from 16mm fisheye to 300mm telephoto.

 

2. Minolta X-500 and X-570. But some of the lens designs (16mm fisheye, for example) are the same as Leica lenses, as Minolta made quite a few Leica lenses, so I guess it's close to a Leica.

I use a Minolta XD-5 and XD-11 for 35mm backup but almost never use them--I use my E-10 for events, family, product shots used below 8 x 10 and notepad uses, a Mamiya Universal and Super 23 for more critical work. My medium format system has enough redundancy as to not need backup, the 35mm is really backup for the E-10 (and I suppose a backup for my lightmeter too, as the Mamiyas are meterless.) About all I shoot regularly in 35mm these days is my Zorki + 12mm Voigtlander.

For travel, I carry a 500cm/2 lenses and a contaxG /2 lenses.

 

For photography near the road, I carry a pentax 67 system (2 bodies and 3 lenses) and a nikon system (2 motorized bodies and about 6 lenses). Yes I know I have too many cameras, but I worked hard for 40 years and I deserve it.

I use both Contax G kit and classic rangefinders to supplement my Rolleiflex, but I'm assuming your choice of the Canonet means you are trying to keep your costs down. Other posters have mentioned other cameras, so I'll answer your question directly:

 

I have two Canonet GIII's. I must really enjoy them because I'm on my second pair. I buy them cheap, have a good tech perform a CLA (especially the finder, which gets real hazy), replace the foam seals, make the adjustment to use environmentally non-mercury batteries, and put on a Hama rectangular lens hood using a 48 to 49 step up ring (49mm Screw-In Plastic Wide Angle Lens Hood with Cap $17.00 at B&H).

 

Seems like a lot work for cheap cameras, but film and processing involve more time and money in the long run.

 

These are great cameras for photographing WTO protest riots, hiking, wading in the surf, etc.: things you can do with this affordable camera that give you great pictures and reduce your fear of dropping the M6 and Summicron in the Pacific Ocean, or getting it snatched by an anarchist. My first two have died from 1) a long fall from a cliff when a williwaw (wind) blew the tripod over and 2) a swim in the Pacific from a sneaker wave. I use them as either back up bodies for my other cameras or in rough conditions. When I carry two, I load one with fast film, one with slow film.

 

The Canonet can flash synch at all shutter speeds with any auto-flash, uses a standard hot shoe and has a flash synch terminal. You can use a handheld meter and manually set the shutter speed and aperture. The Hama hood vignettes in the finder a little, but kills flare AND makes the exposed metering cell become much more accurate (heck, more people should use lens hoods on zooms and primes, period). This camera is not bad for flare without a hood, but edge contrast improves with a hood. I use hoods on my Zeiss lenses. Rubber collapsible hoods will intrude on rangefinders.

 

Very sharp, excellent color contrast, back ground blur is OK although F2-8 can have strange background highlights with pinpoint light sources (follow this link for an example of Christmas lights in the back ground):

 

http://www.not.contaxg.com/document.php?id=1262

 

Other inexpensive rangefinder cameras mentioned like the Olympus and Minoltas are nice, but I've just settled on the Canonets because I have a good source for them. Downsides to the Canonets are fixed lens, Canonet stuck shutter syndrome, and the shutter speed adjusted by stiff ring on the lens barrel. The meter bar in the finder can get lost in some lighting conditions.

 

I also like my later Agfa Karat 36 with Tessar-clone lens, but they're harder to find, have bellows, no meter, and no hot-shoe. I like the Yashica Electro GSN (cheaper than the Black GTN) but you can't manually set aperture and shutter speed. The "electro" shutter is stepless and the metering works very, very well. But it is bigger than a Canonet so for less weight and smaller size you could use a small SLR body, so no advantage there.

Canon FX,TX,AE1,A1,F1,F1n,T70,T90 and lenses ranging from 24mm to 400mm. I have only recently got into medium format (over the last 50 years out of nearly 30 years as an enthusiast). I tend to use medium & large format for most of my work but will carry a small 35mm set up if I am walking long distances or over difficult ground. I restrict my enlargements to 8x12 issues to keep the quality as high as I can.

 

Adrian