If you want to play with a rangefinder 35mm camera for the experience of seeing what it's like, any of the Canon Canonets or Minolta HiMatics are available for nearly nothing and have decent lenses.
The Cosina/Voigtländer RFs are based on the same chassis that was sold as the Nikon FM10, Olympus 2000 and a couple others. Good, simple, reliable shutters ... a little crude ... and good viewfinder optics in the models that have them. A simple Bessa-L (no viewfinder) is good body to fit a wide angle Leica Thread Mount lens and a viewfinder onto, will take excellent pictures, and costs around $130. Add a Voigtlander 40mm Nokton f/2 lens ($350) and a viewfinder ($130 or so) and you have an excellent picture taking tool. Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
