Autocord vs Rollei - for street, protrait, and landscape

[jack_lam1]

Thanks Scott for your reference to Karl. Just sent him an email.

 

Jeff: My rational is that if the meter is good enough, I can go out to shoot with just a camera and leave my handheld meter at home. When I'm in street shooting mode, I can use the meter to take a general reading of that location. Then I can click away and compensate if necessary. Wouldn't that be great if I can just go shooting with just a black box in my hands?

[jack_lam1]

When I'm not confident that my sunny-16 skills is good enough for slides, and when I want to go minimal and don't want the bulk of a lightmeter (my sekonic L-608 isn't tiny), it is when a decent lightmeter on a camera comes into play.

 

Not sure if it is the case with the autocord though.......

 

Well, if the autocord can't offer a decent meter, then I will need to accept the fact that a TLR and a handheld meter has to be chained together and I can't go lighter than that.....

[scott_kathe1]

Hi Jack,

 

I got a little Sekonic L-208 Twinmate for about $100 and it works great for normal light levels. At very low light levels it isn't that good but it has incident light metering is very small and is not too much money. If you need a different e-mail for Karl let me know:)

 

Scott

[david_m]

Focussing on the Autocord is always awkward due to its bottom lever. The knob on a Rollei or Yashicamat is much more ergonomic. However, the best focussing mechanism is on the Ricoh Diacord. All are comparable optically, you wont be able to tell the difference. None are lightweight.

[mikem77]

A Mamiya C220, with 80mm lens, only weighs about 200-300 grams heavier than a Rolleiflex and is slightly bigger all around. But the flexibility of interchangeable lenses makes up for this IMHO.

[diego_k.]

Just a small contribution. First of all, Im not a big fan of TLR (my main cam for years was the M6MF), I had a Rollei 2.8D, and recently picked up an autocord from a friend's "dusty old cameras" wall memorial. Took me a few days of cleaning to get it working again, but it is a nice little camera, smaller than the 2.8 rollei, both because of the lens (3.5) and the lack of focusing knob on the side, makes it a nice 3 fingers operation all in the front of the camera. As far as lens quality..... 1/30 F3.5 handheld.... It wouldnt be my mayor concern. All in all I find it a nice little cam, good results, and can be had dirt cheap nowdays.