preston_merchant Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 Is there a medium-format rangefinder that offers a spot meter and interchangeable lenses faster than f 4.0? The MF landscape of cameras is new to me . . . Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_littleboy__tokyo__ja Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 Not that I know of. Every MF rangefinder I know of is f/3.5 or slower and with an averaging meter (the Mamiya 7II meter is a spot with the 43mm lens, but fat spot or averaging for longer lenses). There are a few f/2.0 lenses (and one f/1.9 lens) for MF SLRs, and many current MF SLRs have spot meters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_t Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 Spot meter: not that I know of. Interchangeable lenses faster than f/4. Sort of. The Mamiya 6 75mm is f/3.5, so that sort of counts. Baby Technikas have 100-105/2.8s, depending on vintage, presumably the VHR has something similar. But I think most people use the ground glass for these cameras, which are a bit bigger and clunkier than most RFs. There are usually only 3 lenses which couple to the rangefinder (although you can get others custom cammed if you can find the right person to do it), and the other lenses, coupled or no, are slower. IIRC Koni-Omegas and Mamiya Press cams had 80-100/2.8s but don't quote me on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_morris1 Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 The Plaubel Makina lens is faster, but it's not changeable.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al_kaplan1 Posted March 21, 2003 Share Posted March 21, 2003 Today's medium format rangefinder cameras evolved out of press cameras, which until perhaps 20 years ago were dominated by bellows type cameras such as Graphic, Linhof and Horseman. Gradually these have been overtaken by rigid body types like Mamiya, Konica and Linhof. The bellows models lack the stability and precision to accurately function with a rangefinder coupled high speed lens. Even with a rigid body design an 80mm or 100mm f/2 lens would be a huge chunk of glass and require a very large shutter. The easy option would be to use a focal plane shutter; it would greatly simplify lens design. It would also pretty much limit X-synch to 1/30 of a second. Factor in the extremely critical rangefinder required to focus these lenses and you have a VERY expensive camera. The primary market for medium format cameras is with "event photographers", those who shoot weddings and such. They want flash synch at all speeds. As more of these switch to digital it becomes a less attractive market for manufacturers of MF film cameras. Take a look at what's out there in 35mm and you can see the problem. A new Leica M6ttl, M7 or MP with one lens is about $4,000.00. Scale up to 6x7 format, factor in the much smaller producion runs and the R&D on a new series of lenses, you're looking at a $20,000.00 camera body with one lens that won't have the desired flash synch speed. Rumors of Leica working on such a camera have surfaced from time to time. The closest thing has been a couple of Fuji models, but slow lenses! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_morris1 Posted March 21, 2003 Share Posted March 21, 2003 That makes the $1000 Bronica RF645 kit look pretty good.... It's lenses are only f/4, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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