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on Jan 21, 2021 21:21:22 GMT
Posted: Jan 21, 2021 21:21:22 GMT
Hi folks,
I just spent a couple hours fuming over some snobbish Nikonians in my other camera forum who defamed my wonderful modest Yashicas, refusing to acknowledge that a Yashica FX was never in the same league as an F3 or an Fm2n (and never intended to be).
One of those chaps wrote that he had three FX-3s and that each of them after a while started firing the shutter while he was winding the film lever. Never had any such problem with my half dozen Fx-3s, which is why I would be very interested in your take on that issue.
Many thanks in advance for your feedback.
Michael
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Status: Long, long time Contax and Yashica user; glad to be here and hope to contribute.
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on Jan 22, 2021 11:10:56 GMT
Posted: Jan 22, 2021 11:10:56 GMT
Hello Michael,
I have a few FX-3s and they've never missed a beat. Just 2 changes of light seals and 1 change of mirror dampers since being bought decades ago. The shutter is one of the most reliable I've encountered and there's no way Contax would have used them for the original Preview camera if there were any such issues. I've not heard of a wind-on triggering firing before, least of all in a FX-3's mechanical shutter.
As for FX-Ds, good ones remain a pleasure to use BUT I have several that have developed faults with the metering, shutter & mirror cycling as well as AE failures.
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on Jan 22, 2021 15:40:41 GMT
Last Edit: Jan 22, 2021 15:42:41 GMT by xkaes
I stumbled across an (unintentionally funny to me) on-line "blog"/story/review last night that relates to this -- in an "odd" way.
Seems the author, many years ago, started out with an old manual-everything Minolta SR-1 SLR. He loved it and never thought he would want a different camera. But as cameras changed and "improved", he moved up the Minolta line in a hop-scotch sort of way, and loved all of them until he ran across three Minolta X-370 (Chinese) cameras which all died shortly after purchase -- I'm sure it was the infamous dead capacitor problem.
So he gave up on Minolta, and somehow ended up with a Contax RTS. Then he REALLY fell in love, but he was unhappy with the results -- he never mentions what lenses he used.
At the end of this "odd-yssey", he is now in love with an old Pentax Spotmatic -- never learning a thing along the way, yet trashing Minolta and Contax cameras as he goes.
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Status: Failed treatment for L.B.A. and G.A.S,
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on Jan 22, 2021 17:15:01 GMT
Posted: Jan 22, 2021 17:15:01 GMT
I've gotten bad and/or non-functioning used cameras from every maker there is, so no one is immune by brand alone. I doubt that anyone, at any time, could point to any camera brand or model (or any other product type), and say that it's perfectly designed, or perfectly made, and will never fail. It's not just about brands either. Owners trash their gear, no matter how well it's made, or who made it, so there's no such thing as stupid-proofing or break-proofing a product either.
On the flip side of it, there are bound to be compromises and/or unforseen consequences that later cause problems. One case in point is the plastic gears in FR bodies to advance the film counter, where the RTS had metal gears. I don't think anyone expected the massive failure of those plastic parts, but it happened just the same. It was later corrected, and most other makers had similar issues, and most were usually addressed and fixed in later production runs, or updated models. It's a side effect of manufacturing and model progression, that generally, no one gets to escape from.
One of the first professors I had pointed out a simple fact to me early on about choosing gear. Once camera makers decided to move away from a universal lens mount (M42), they forever doomed their respective companies to become partisan product producers, and forced their customers to choose what company 'camp' they wanted to live and die in. He wisely advised me to identify the lens family I was drawn to that would produce the 'look' I couldn't do without, and base any brand loyalty based on the glass family that gave me the best images. Whatever was behind the lens was secondary by a large margin, and by choosing badly on lenses, I'd never be happy with anything I produced - no matter who made it, or what it cost. Brands may only matter at the optics end of the equation, and you have to learn to live with the good or bad mechanics and electronics that follow behind it.
And... "Fanboys" don't seem to be capable of critical thought, so I dismiss them at every turn. It's not worth my time to get anyone converted to a new brand religion.
Long and short of it... there's no globally accepted 'best' or 'perfect' gear, and there's only what's best and works perfectly for me (or anyone), as the photographer. Any other point of view would suggest that the person behind the lens couldn't possibly make any difference, and success or failure, or creative vision or ability, is only in the hands of the manufacturer of the product in your hands. That's a ridiculous notion that I can't/won't accept.
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on Jan 22, 2021 19:35:58 GMT
Posted: Jan 22, 2021 19:35:58 GMT
I remember going out on "shooting excursions" with my long-ex-brother-in-law. I had a meager Minolta SRT102 with 35mm, 50mm, and 80-200mm Minolta Rokkor lenses. He had his "far superior", Nikon F2 -- with Soligor, et. al. lenses. We took pictures of the same scene, and later compared them. It could have simply been technique -- shutter speed, f-stop, focusing, etc. but my pictures were SOOOO much better.
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on Jan 24, 2021 1:38:49 GMT
Posted: Jan 24, 2021 1:38:49 GMT
Thanks, guys, for your prompt and elaborate feedback!
I most heartily agree with you, Randy--fanboy behavior and brand fetishism is for adolescents or fools and I guess being on this forum for most of us does not mean we're not aware that 'other moms have beautiful daughters too', as we say in German. As for me, I'm also quite fond of, for instance, Soviet Zorkis and Feds, Fujicas, or Ikoflex TLRs, and I recently discovered the wonderful Miranda TM. I'm not into analogue cameras for prestige, but for the fun of it..
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on Jan 24, 2021 14:44:21 GMT
Posted: Jan 24, 2021 14:44:21 GMT
I'm not familiar with the Miranda TM, but I have a friend who is a serious Miranda fan. I'll have to check out the 'other moms have beautiful daughters too' thing. BUT AT MY AGE? ?
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on Jan 24, 2021 16:29:46 GMT
Posted: Jan 24, 2021 16:29:46 GMT
Never experienced such a wind-on trigger-firing problem with either of the FX cameras I have, in fact, never happened with any of the Yashicas I have. Except for some design flaws, like the pad-of-death of the Electro 35G and the frame counter failure in the FR-I, all my Yashica cameras are fully working despite being at least 40 years old and, in my opinion, that speaks very well about the brand.
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on Jan 24, 2021 16:39:26 GMT
Last Edit: Jan 24, 2021 17:03:14 GMT by xkaes
Miranda, Petri, Konica, and Yashica, and others had a lot of trouble -- way back when -- trying to figure out their own (proprietary) lens mounts. Some started, of course, with the 39mm Leica mount, others with the popular Praktica 42mm screw mount -- big difference.
But others went with their own unique mounts, and succeeded -- Minolta, Canon, Nikon, etc. Yashica, Fuji, Konica, etc. tried to do the same. Some succeeded. Most did not. Pentax, with the K mount, was the only exception -- and to some the C/Y mount.
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on Jan 24, 2021 20:50:00 GMT
Last Edit: Jan 24, 2021 20:50:27 GMT by Deleted
I'm not familiar with the Miranda TM, but I have a friend who is a serious Miranda fan. I'll have to check out the 'other moms have beautiful daughters too' thing. BUT AT MY AGE? ? I went for the TM model because it has an M42 Thread Mount so I can use the lenses I already own (mostly Yashica, of course ) and don't have to open up yet another line of proprietary systems. The Miranda has a very solid look and feel and suits my own, personal sense of ergonomics.
As for the daughters ... it's never too late, xkaes...
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on Jan 26, 2021 2:39:47 GMT
Posted: Jan 26, 2021 2:39:47 GMT
Thanks, guys, for your prompt and elaborate feedback!
I most heartily agree with you, Randy--fanboy behavior and brand fetishism is for adolescents or fools and I guess being on this forum for most of us does not mean we're not aware that 'other moms have beautiful daughters too', as we say in German. As for me, I'm also quite fond of, for instance, Soviet Zorkis and Feds, Fujicas, or Ikoflex TLRs, and I recently discovered the wonderful Miranda TM. I'm not into analogue cameras for prestige, but for the fun of it.. One can take good photos with almost any camera if they know what they are doing. A late friend of mine thought I took better photos because I used Nikons, and he couldn't achieve the same results with his Chinon. I took him on one of my excursions to show him what I do when taking a photo, and that sometimes the simplest thing thing you do can determine whether you take a mediocre photo or a great one, like maybe taking three steps to the left to get a slightly different angle on the scene instead of settling on your first look. He started taking better photos after that.
I gave up on the Nikonians because of the snobbery.
PF
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on Jan 26, 2021 13:11:31 GMT
Last Edit: Jan 26, 2021 13:12:41 GMT by xkaes
>>"One can take good photos with almost any camera if they know what they are doing."<<
You obviously have never used a DIANA!!!
But that is exactly the point -- VERY out of focus, sort of, of course.
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on Jan 26, 2021 15:03:12 GMT
Posted: Jan 26, 2021 15:03:12 GMT
>>"One can take good photos with almost any camera if they know what they are doing."<< You obviously have never used a DIANA!!! But that is exactly the point -- VERY out of focus, sort of, of course. Diana, the goddess of the hunt ... poor eyesight is not exactly helpful in this pursuit...
Still, PF is right--if you know your camera and its potential quirks, and know what you are doing, you can even get great shots out of crappy gear. (That doesn't mean that crappy gear is the thing to go for, of course.)
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on Jan 26, 2021 20:49:42 GMT
Last Edit: Jan 26, 2021 21:01:31 GMT by ridgeblue99
>>"One can take good photos with almost any camera if they know what they are doing."<< You obviously have never used a DIANA!!! But that is exactly the point -- VERY out of focus, sort of, of course. Hey, I've got two Diana's, and at least two of its re-badge variants. And I've shot with even worse cameras. They give "interesting" results that sometimes can be classed as artistic. Here is an example album I did for Toy Camera Day back in 2014. flic.kr/s/aHsk51cKzH
PF
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on Jan 27, 2021 17:39:02 GMT
Posted: Jan 27, 2021 17:39:02 GMT
WOW!!
Some of us like the sharp pictures, some of us not so much. It depends on the time of day, I suppose.
I like my 120 Diana, and my Toko Tone (17.5mm)
They are both a lot less expensive than buying some Zeiss Softar filters -- to "adjust" my super-sharp Yashica/Tomioka lenses.
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