I think you'd love a lovely, quiet rangefinder. They'd suit you're style of photography (some of what you do, anyway) very nicely.
You're right, Leicas and even Bessas are not cheap (I was lucky to be making a bit more money than I am now when I got my Leica a couple of years ago - I couldn't afford one now, and I got a cheap one!).
But, what I did, before I got my CL, was I bought a Yashica Electro 35 on eBay for under $20US. They're no Leica, but, they're not a bad camera at all. Big and clunky for an RF, they are ~very~quiet (leaf shutter), and vibration-free. Aperture priority with no manual overide, in fact, you don't even know what your shutter speed is (well, you can figure it out, but there's no display), they have quite sharp, fast lenses (f1.7!). Of course it's a fixed lens, but hell, I only have one lens for my Leica anyway.
There are a whole bunch of really good Japanese aperture priority fixed lens RF's from the 60's and 70's that one could get very cheap if you look around. The Canonets (okay, not so cheap), the Minolta HiMatics, the Olympus Pen (is that the name), and so on. Since millions of them were made, they go pretty cheap on the used market (of course, you have to make sure the meters work, always the Achilles' Heel of old cameras - and with electronic shutters, no meter, no shutter), but maybe they'd be worth a look?
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: Boris Liberman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Paul Stenquist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: PAW: The Piano Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 20:45:18 +0200
Hi!
I am not picky, I really am not. But I humbly think that just a little of light above the piano's top could be considered... It is a little tight for me...
But I am not being picky, ok?
Now, Shel, Paul, Frank - you're really not good, not at all. You make me want to have a quiet camera. Not necessarily Leica, but one that is real quiet. Which is a bad thing. I just wrote that my lust list is short. Now it is trying to get longer...
Very soon I will have two Kodak TMAX 400 processed. We'll see what I can show the club then <g>...
<mumbling something to himself about b/w photography...>
Boris
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