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Compact film body with 1/200 or 1/250 flash sync speed


fred_c1

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Have a look at the EOS IX; not the EOS IX7 (IX Lite). It has a flash sync of 1/200. It's very compact and well specified. They can be bought for next to nothing, USD50, GBP30, on eBay. They take all the EF lenses and EX flashguns.

 

The only drawback is that they use APS film and have a crop factor of 1.25.

 

Other than that, the IX is a lovely compact, metal-clad body, comparable with the EOS 50 (Elan II).

 

Henry

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Yes, anything with a good leaf-shutter has flash sync at all speeds (up to 1/500 or 1/1000). A compact rangefinder camera with a fixed lens and some kind of auto-exposure mode is a convenient and inexpensive option (e.g., the Voigtländer VF101 is very small). If you can live with hand-held metering, there are also leaf-shutter <abbr title="single-lens reflex cameras">SLRs</abbr> like the Contaflex.
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Hi Fred,

 

There are many good quality, fixed-lens rangefinder cameras with leaf shutters around, if one would serve your needs.

 

As mentioned, most of these will synch with flash at all their shutter speeds.

 

Yes, the Canonet QL17 GIII is a good possibility. It's a pretty full featured camera, with both fully manual and auto exposure modes, shutter speeds from 1/4 to 1/500, and a decent 40mm f1.7 to f16 lens. Metering covers ISO 25 to 800. One negative is finding lens hoods and filters for the somewhat unusual 48mm threaded lens. It has a standard hotshoe, with some simple dedication if used with certain flashes such as the Canonlite D.

 

A bit more compact RF camera I'd highly recommend is a Konica Auto S3, from the early 1970s. It's a bit pricey still due to desirability, but very compact and has a superb, slightly wider 38mm f1.8 to f16 lens, plus offers a unique and easy-to-use fill flash methodology. The Auto S3 is auto-exposure only, shutter preferred. It's got a Copal leaf shutter with speeds 1/8 to 1/500 sec. Thanks to a standard hot shoe, virtually any simple flash can be used with the Auto S3, so long as you set the Guide Number on the camera. Google for more info if you are interested. (Note: In Japan the camera was sold as the "C35 FD", but those are quite rare elsewhere in the world.)

 

Another interesting possiblity, I just picked up an Olympus XA in excellent condition for all of $10. It's got an even wider 35mm f2.8 to f22 lens. This is an extremely compact, very well made camera, auto-exposure only, aperture preferred. Unfortunately, it does not have a hot shoe and so is only usable with a matching flash like the A11 (which came with the camera I just bought) The electronically controlled leaf shutter speeds are 10 seconds to 1/500. Metering range covers ISO 25 to 800 film. The slightly later XA2 and XA3 are similar cameras, but with metering expanded up to ISO 1600, offer 1/650 shutter speed, but are both program auto-exposure only.

 

If you are open to the idea of a fixed-lens rangefinder camera, there are literally dozens of other possibilities with a wide variety of features and lenses possible.

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