40mm Framelines

Harlequin565

Harlequin565

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Ian
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So I have a Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 Nokton (Leica M mount) which I absolutely love to bits. The handling is marvellous and when I got it, I figured I could guestimate the framing on my M6 by just going "a bit outside" the 50mm framelines. It's not great on my M3 because that fills the frame with the 50mm frameline so seeing wider is trickier. Using the M6 is "ok", but it does require me to engage a part of my brain when I'm framing and all too often I'll use the 50mm framelines forgetting I've got the 40 on.

So I'm looking for a box to stick on the back of the lens that will actually show me the 40mm framlines. The only candidates I'm aware of are the Bessa R3 and the Leica CL/Minolta CLE.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these cameras (price vs quality vs reliability, pros, or cons) or any other options out there with 40mm framelines that I'm not aware of?

Thanks in advance,
Ian.
 
I had an R3, stunning camera, can't fault it and I would have one over a Leica, nuff said. ;-)
 
Andysnap said:
I had an R3, stunning camera, can't fault it and I would have one over a Leica, nuff said. ;-)
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Was it an A or an M? Just wondering if dead electrics on an A = dead camera.
 
I have an R3a and use it with a 40mm Nokton. I love using it but as a glasses wearer (or as Andy says, spe-ca-ta-cles! ) I do find it difficult to see the frame lines properly as I can't get my eye close enough to the viewfinder. I often have to focus with my glasses on and then remove them to frame the image, which is a massive ballsache.
 
How does taking your glasses off make your balls ache?:D

Ian, it was an a.
 
Harlequin565 said:
So I'm looking for a box to stick on the back of the lens that will actually show me the 40mm framlines. The only candidates I'm aware of are the Bessa R3 and the Leica CL/Minolta CLE.

Does anyone have any thoughts on these cameras (price vs quality vs reliability, pros, or cons)
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When I did my One Camera One Lens One Film trial (for 6 months, rather than the recommended year), I got a Leitz Minolta CL with a Minolta M-Rokkor 40/2. It's dinky small, and I quite liked it, in many ways. The lens was fabulous, but that's by the by for this discussion. I do remember reading that because of the short rangefinder base-line it was not recommended for lenses wider than f/2, and I think the same would be true of the CLE (which I once held but never shot with). The CL was sometimes a bit annoying loading a film; I think you had to take the bottom off. I do remember dropping the top half of the camera off after loading a film and not fastening it together properly I was holding it via a monopod attached to the base!). However, the most annoying feature was the "light-meter on a stick", which sometime would fail to deploy, meaning I had to shake the camera a bit after noticing no meter reading. After a couple of shakes I would remember to check the lens cap, as some of the time that was the problem.

Anyway after a couple of months I got fed up with it and bought a Bessa R3A. Much bigger, but I loved that camera! The only reason I sold it after the OCOLOF was done was because of the horrendous price of M mount lenses. I've been idly thinking of getting another one (probably easier to focus a rangefinder with slightly failing eyesight?), but I'm put off by the R3A in the classies that's nearly 3 times what I sold mine for!
 
I guess I was hoping someone would come up with a £400 camera that would hit the mark. That R3A in the classifieds was more than my M3!!

As a side note, has anyone bought from Japan on eBay? I've heard several people say it's worked out well for them.
 
I've bought loads of esoteric stuff from Japan via eBay, Amazon.co.jp & direct... But then I can read hirigana & katakana directly and get most of the kanji so it's possibly a little less scary for me :)
 
Harlequin565 said:
I guess I was hoping someone would come up with a £400 camera that would hit the mark. That R3A in the classifieds was more than my M3!!

As a side note, has anyone bought from Japan on eBay? I've heard several people say it's worked out well for them.
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Never ad problems buying from Japan Ian….Just be awatre of import duties and ensure that you know which courrier services are involved with the parcel in each country so that you can keep track (punn intended!)
 
Well that's promising guys, thanks.
 
Harlequin565 said:
So I have a Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 Nokton (Leica M mount) which I absolutely love to bits. The handling is marvellous and when I got it, I figured I could guestimate the framing on my M6 by just going "a bit outside" the 50mm framelines. It's not great on my M3 because that fills the frame with the 50mm frameline so seeing wider is trickier. Using the M6 is "ok", but it does require me to engage a part of my brain when I'm framing and all too often I'll use the 50mm framelines forgetting I've got the 40 on.
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I suppose the other problem with the M6 is that the framelines are a bit undersized even for the 50mm at infinity, so they must be far from ideal for a 40mm. The 35mm framelines are apparently closer, which is why some people butcher their lens mount with a steel file so that the 40mm brings up the wider framelines instead. Using an elastic band or something to hold the selector at 35mm, or just moving it manually, is a less drastic solution! Voigtlander did of course make a couple of 40mm accessory finders, including a rather nice metal one that goes for about £150 new. But then you don't have automatic parallax correction and will have to switch finder to focus (as with a screwmount camera).
 
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I've bought a few things from Japan with no problems but I have always bought from established camera dealers. As others have said you need to factor in about 20-25% on top to cover import charges and the frankly ridiculous Parcel Fraud charge for NOT delivering your parcel......:banghead:
 
Harlequin565 said:
Was it an A or an M? Just wondering if dead electrics on an A = dead camera.
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Ian, I'm pretty sure you'll have seen the Cameraquest site for all things Leica and Voigtlander, but the short answer is that
The R2A / R3A offer faster shooting with Aperture Priority -- a big plus for street photography or quick moving events. The disadvantage is like virtually all other electronic shutter cameras, dead batteries mean a dead camera.


The R2M / R3M have mechanical shutters, which means no Aperture Priority AE. Dead batteries mean no meter, but you can continue to take pictures by setting the exposure yourself. In my opinion the R2M / R3M have the best metered manual metering display of ANY Leica mount rangefinder. In addition, the R2M / R3M shutters are noticeably quieter than the earlier mechanical shutters of the Bessa L, T or R2, but yet not as quiet as the cloth shutters in the Leica M series.
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https://www.cameraquest.com/voigtrwhich.htm
 
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