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first week with a rangefinder (56k be warned)


ian_kennedy1

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i traded my nikon d100 for a bessa r2 and a 50mm f1.5 because i had

a bad case of rangefinder lust after a friend brought over her m7

and 50 f1.0.... anyway, here are the results of my first couple of

test rolls last week.... uncropped and unretouched, shot on fuji

superia 400 'grocery store' film and processed at a drugstore

minilab.

 

comments welcome.

 

<img

src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/feb13_12.jpg">

 

<img

src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/feb13_2.jpg">

 

<img

src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/feb13_3.jpg">

 

<img

src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/feb13_4.jpg">

 

<img

src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/feb15_13.jpg">

 

<img

src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/feb16_08.jpg">

 

<img

src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/feb16_14.jpg">

 

<img src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/test6.jpg">

 

<img src="http://www.starkitten.com/photo_dir/bessa_test/test8.jpg">

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hey, those works for me - especially the bathroom scene ;-) (you just had to do it, right?)

 

cute kid, by the way! and nice punch in the photos, that film/dev combo certainly provides highly saturated photos, but I for one thinks it looks cool!

 

as someone said, now, stay away from this forum or you will soon upgrade to first a M6TTL, then a M7, tons of lenses, discuss the advantages of brand X strap over brand Y etc. etc.

 

You are off to a great start! Congrats!

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ian,<p>

Excellent start, and as someone previously said, <i>a good case for the bessa r2 and a 50mm f1.5..."</i><br>

btw, i like that last photo the best. keep up the good work<p>

fwiw, if you ever come across any of jay's strange remarks, ignore them as he's goingthrough a period of ego inflation.

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yeah, i still suffer from leica lust, but i seriously doubt my wife would go for it... i sold her on the bessa because it was a trade and the bang to buck ratio of the voigtlanders is high.

 

andrew - the difference between the d100 and bessa is huge, as you might imagine. not the results necessarily, as there isn't much you can't do with a nice dslr and some time on your hands, but everything else. i was really wanting to get back to an all manual 'think carefully' type of shooting. i have a minolta st-202 and mamiya c3 which i love, but neither offered the combination of portable, unobtrusive, and well-engineered that i was wanting...

 

digital photography is great and i will likely pick up a d70 by the end of the year, but i think the bessa will be my everyday body for a while.

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Ian, you are a wise man listning to your wife/including her in your buying decisions. that's more than the bulk of us do around here - for obvious reasons...

 

I too gave up on DSLR a few weeks back (Canon 10D in my case) so I can relate to your decision.

 

Now, keep'em coming!

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Ian, very promising beginning there. Nice photos and, yeah, nothing I can see that suggests you need to upgrade anything ever.

 

It's funny, I see something that I noticed on my first rangefinder roll: everything's framed just a tiny bit high. I think it's caused by not reframing quite fully after concentrating on the focus patch in the center. See it? No matter, you'll quickly adjust.

 

Where do you live that you get both live chickens and good drugstore scans in the same place?

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thanks everyone - i'm actually rather surprised to be receiving praise from such great shooters.... (beau, your folders are *amazing*).

 

chisso - all of these are shot with the 50mm nokton, most of them pretty close to wide open if shot indoors. i'm used to having the exif info ready to tell people more technical detail, but this was just two test rolls.

 

beau - we live in a suburb of atlanta called peachtree city, but we are moving next month to athens, ga (kinda a homecoming) where i suspect i will be shooting much more.

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Great photos Ian. I live on the other side of Atlanta (Cartersville)

and would be very interested in knowing what lab you used (if it's

a chain). I use Leica and for work a D100 and I must say I wish

we were still shooting film sometimes (except on deadline when

digital is a godsend) so I could use my Leica more. Have fun in

Athens! The Rome Tribune News is looking for a photojournalist

if you know of anyone who might be interested. The job is posted

on the GPA website (gapress.org).

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dayton - believe it or not, these were all processed at eckerds. i loved the d100 - nearly all of my shots at <a href="http://www.starkitten.com">http://www.starkitten.com</a> and <a href="http://www.slipphotography.com">http://www.slipphotography.com</a> (which, if i ever get motivated will look more like the as yet unfinished <a href="http://www.starkitten.com/slip_photo/">http://www.starkitten.com/slip_photo/</a>)were shot with the nikon. it felt weird sending it off, but it has more than paid for itself in the past year and a half, and with the d70 just around the corner, i thought i should try to get as much value out of it as i could. plus, i was at the point of wanting a rangefinder where it was starting to hurt not having one.... also, i plan on doing some photoblogging with a leica-wielding friend who lives in l.a. on http://www.fiftymillimeter.com in the near future.

<br><br>

adnan - rest assured that there was likely a golfcart no more than 50 yards beyond any of those photos. ;)

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