Originally Posted by
25.4TPI
I’ve got a thing for old, nothing fancy rangefinders (and Thomas McGuane novels). The Yashica Electro 35 was inherited (closet find), the others acquired. The ME1 is very light and often comes along on backpacking trips. Fits in a hip pocket just right. Nikon is just plain reliable, and the Soviet Leica knockoff could use some fiddling.
Years ago, when digital cameras were starting to take over, I got bitten by the rangefinder bug. Never owned anything fancy, just a lot of simple fixed-lens cameras because they were cheap and plentiful. Most of them required some repair and adjustment, which I handled myself, thanks to the internet. I got pretty good at calibrating the rangefinder to properly focus the lens. I started with a Petri 7s and gradually added more to the mix, including a Yashica Electro 35 GSN, Minolta Hi-Matic 9, Argus C3, Kodak 35RF, B-A Auto EE, Olympus ECR, Canon A35F, and Olympus XA. The XA could slip into a jersey pocket and survive the fall when I missed the opening.
