What really want is a tiny camera w/ fast 50 mm lens and good image quality. Is there hope for me?

[skip_williams]

The fast 50mm lens is the hardest part to satisfy, IMO. Most all the fixed lens cameras are 35-40mm in the f/2.8 range.<br><br>

 

The Olympus RD is the fastest that I remember, at f/1.7. Canon also made a similar Cannonet.

 

Try the Contaxt T, T2 or T3, all with spectacular lenses, very pocketable, capable of "manual focus". The lens is a 38/2.8 Sonnar. The Leica CM and Minilux are simliar with the 40/2.4.<br>

<br>- The Olympus XA is an alternative, short baseline RF, AE. Tiny.

<br>- Rollei 35? Great lens, but scale focus and unorthodox operation. Not for me. 35/3.8 or slower f/3.5 Tessar.

<br>- Minox 35? Scale focus too.

<br>- IIIf? Nowhere as usable as the T2/3, IMO. 40's technology doesn't match up to 70's designs for overall performance. A IIIf is pretty heavy too. Very cool, however.

[john_shriver]

Of course, the CL and CLE lack 50mm framelines anyway. But, if you want a collapsible lens, the CLE is the choice, no meter arm to smash.

[ronald_wills]

Actually the CL does have framelines for 50mm, and of course also 40 and 90mm.

[dave_powell2]

Another lesser-known possibility is the Agfa Super Silette (or the American-market Ansco Super Memar), if you can find one on eBay with the extraordinary 50/f2 "Solagon" lens. It's not as small as the XA, Rollei 35, or even the Leica/Minolta CLE...but it is lightweight, and does a great job (as do the other cameras mentioned here). No meter though...have to use Sunny 16 or a hand-held classic meter.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dave

[john_c16]

Ok, here's small and high quality, but probably not your film of choice.......the Pentax Auto 110. A few lenses to choose from and very small and quiet.

[35mmdelux]

Olympus Stylus Epic, fast 35mm/2.8 lens. Best compromise.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=131332&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

[gadge]

No.

[lutz]

What would you be ready to compromise in first and last? Bulk, weight, focal length (i.e. shorter), speed, rangefinder, automatisms, manual settings...?

[scott friedberg]

"The m series leicas are too big and heavy." As an M7 with 50 'cron user, I have to disagree ;-)

 

Like others have said, consider the Olympus Stylus Epic, it has a 35mm lens though. I sold mine a few months ago but I still regret it. It has great optics for such a small and cheap camera and it is a rugged and reliable little camera. Or, if you consider digital, the Fuji Finepix F30 is a nice small cam with good quality optics and hardly any color noise up to ISO 800.

[fred_c1]

Obviously lotsa people didn't bother to read the question before posting. ;-)

<P>

Just get the Nikon FG with the 50/1.8 pancake and be done with it: <a href=http://www.dantestella.com/technical/fg.html>Nikon FG: The little camera that could</a>

<P><img src=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Nikon_FG-20.jpg>

[fred_c1]

BTW, the FG X-syncs with flash up to 1/90 sec, NOT 1/60 as stated in the Stella page: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/emfgfg20/fg/spec.htm

[fred_c1]

OK, this is the correct photo for the FG (which is the same size as the FG-20):

<P><img src=http://homepage2.nifty.com/BEZZA/nikon/FG.gif>

[sw12dz]

Kodak Retina IIa, made in Germany. 120mm Wide, 75mm High and 40mm Deep. Weighs 572 grams. 50mm/f2 Schneider lens.<div></div>

[dave_powell2]

Good add, Stuart...Love that tough little Retina IIa!

 

Dave

[peter_evans4]

<p><em>Just get the Nikon FG with the 50/1.8 pancake and be done with it</em></p><p>Or indeed the <a href="http://www.buhla.de/Foto/Konica/eTC-XHaupt.html">Konica TC-X</a> (375g) with the <a href="http://www.buhla.de/Foto/Konica/Objektive/e50_17.html">50/1.7</a> (210g). The body looks like crap but it's fairly tough and the (standard, hygienic) battery is only required for the meter. If you don't think it's tough enough, it's so cheap that you can buy a couple of spares. If you can put up with "40mm" (43mm, I've read), you have a <a href="http://www.buhla.de/Foto/Konica/Objektive/e40_18.html">lighter option</a>.</p><p>It's noisy, though.</p>

[karl_keung]

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0703/07032801ricohgx100.asp

 

this one looks nice too.

[MTC Photography]

For pocket camera which you can always carry around, I have several favourites:<P>

<center>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/5786356-md.jpg"width=500><P>

Contax T3 black<P>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/5786350-md.jpg"width=500><P>

Minox GT-E<P>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/5786365-md.jpg"width=500><P>

Minox T2

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/5786368-md.jpg"width=500><P>

Tessina 35<P>

</center>

[edlaurpic]

The minox shown above is incredibly compact and delivers terrific image quality. The contax is a little bigger, with some additional bells and whistles. I have both the Minox and the Contax and would probably part with one or both of them now that I have pretty much switched over to digital, but I haven't checked to see what they are worth now.

[msitaraman]

Leica CL with a black (not chrome) 50 Summicron. My vote for the optimal camera, going by your specs.

 

The 50mm requirement is the killer. Historically, there have been plenty of 40/45mm attempts at creating what you want. Leica's way of dealing with this was to create the collapsible M lenses. Alas, you cannot use them with a CL.

[MTC Photography]

The Minox 35 was Andy Warhol?s choice

[jose_angel]

My smallest and lightest choice is the Olympus XA2 - I pay this advantages with the limited a resolution capacity and coarse metering. Not advisable for chromes, wide latitude b&w films only.

 

My reliable metering and reasonably good image quality camera choice, the Nikon Ti28 (there is a 35/2.8 lens version) good enough for chromes (the meter is really astounding, like SLR`s matrix type) and high quality metal construction - Drawbacks: weight (althought is very compact), focusing mechanism (like all the AF mechanisms in this kind of auto-all cameras).

 

My highest quality image ever camera choice for the finest b&w work, even chromes (if you have enough skill to compensate the very good wide spot meter of the camera) - Leica M6 with Elmar M 50/2.8 - Drawbacks: The biggest and heavyest, almost like a small DLR camera. It is my most used camera for b&w work.

 

For color work (almost exclusively chromes), Nikon SLR`s + flash are my unbeatable choice. IMO, it is not worth to spend expensive chrome films with other cameras.

 

I have on my closet some other cameras like the small SLR Pentax Super A (very small and compact with a 40/2.8 pankake lens), Ikontas, more Olympus, Nikons and Canons, etc. All of them lacks interest, thought.

[Alex_Es]

The CL will take a 50mm lens. If you don't mind 35mm Contax T2, T3, Konica Hexar AF are

good.

[aplumpton]

IIIf with a VC Nokton aspherical 50 f1.5. The latter blocks the VF a fair bit, but you can always add the life size VC or Leica 50mm finder; downsides are no metering and separate VF, RF eyepieces. If you don't need operating speed with a fast lens, this is no problem. If you do, perhaps a Bessa R type (R3?) with M mount and a VC 40mm f1.4 might be a more rapid acting (but louder) camera for you, but the body size may be a problem.

[george_shihanian]

The CL will also be useful with many lenses, the 'standard" lenses in the kit are 40mm and 90mm, but you can use 28, or 35mm with guesstimating by using the entire viewfinder as a guide as to what will be covered.

 

Also, any Olympus OM body with a 50mm or, better yet- the 40mm f2 pancake lens will be very light and will seem like youre carrying nothing as compared to a 'modern' chunky 35mm autofocus film or digital body.

[www.withheart.ca]

WOW lots of ideas! Thanks to everyone who responded. :)