Re: Hello from newbie in MD.

[Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>]

> Hello, I'm Lattie Smart.


Hi Lattie! It's great to have you joint his list... enjoy your
contributions to P-3D and looking forward to your postings here.

> I also want a "real" TLR. Greg Erker has pretty much convinced me to go
> for a Diacord. I've heard a lot of nice things about the Autocord. I don't
> want to spend much more that $100 and want to accessorize it and stick
> it on a slide bar.

I would beg Greg to find the camera for you; it's a running joke around
here that he has the luck of the lens gods behind him. He finds $30
ricohs that look like $200 rolleis... :-)

Both the Diacords and Autocords have Tessar-type lenses, as do any of
the Yashinon-lensed Yashicas and Xenar-lensed rolleicords (post war only
to get coated lenses). These are fine lenses. The Diacord will be the
least expensive of any of these cameras, largely because the Ricoh name
was not a premium brand and people are generally ignorant of how good
they are.

If you want cheap and portable, you can also look for a post-war Agfa
folder w/solinar lens or even a post-war Zeiss Ikonta with a Novar lens
(triplet but quite sharp stopped down). Either of these cameras should
be well under $100, but they will be a bit funkier and less sharp than
the TLRs because the rigidity/parallelism on folders can't be as good
and because they are front cell focusers.

Some of the Autocords you will come across will have meters in them...
they will be very likely be dead/non-linear/useless at this point.

If you really want funky, do what I did and get yourself a $13 Holga toy
120 camera with plastic 60 mm meniscus lens to do cha-chas with... lots
of distortion, abberation, low resolution and other great fun!


Cheers,

Eric G.


Eric G.