I almost bought one of these last week. My husband and I were talking about film cameras on the way to work, and then he got a phone call, so I wrote up an email.
Later in the day, after writing down my thoughts, I happened to find a Leica CL + 90mm lens, so that's what I bought. I'll now have 15mm (M), 28mm (Screw) 35mm (M), 50mm (Screw), 135mm (Screw) and now will add 90mm (M).
Here's my thoughts at the time as I was working things out:
I was talking about the film camera issue: wanting a film camera, preferably one that would use my existing lenses, so I can take the B&W film class and have a smaller film camera than the beast of a Nikonos.
I've narrowed it down to six possibilities.
1&2) Get a fixed lens rangefinder. There's two here: a) Canonet QL 17:
Canon QL17 GIII b) Yashica Electro 35 CC:
Yashica 35 CC -- they're small. Finding one in great working shape is the hardest part.
3) Get a third-party Leica Screw Mount body. This would be able to use three of the five lenses I have (28mm, 50mm, 135mm) but not the two M-mount lenses (15mm and 35mm). A Canon 7 is most promising:
Canon 7sZ
The above three run (in really good working order) $100-200. The first two have more advanced features as they were significantly later cameras, but of course they can only use that one lens.
4) Get a Leica CL or Minolta CLE, both of which were manufactured by Minolta in Japan and thus generally shunned by Leica collectors, but are readily available. Street price is $450-$600, but it'll tend to hold its value. This one can use all my lenses, but I haven't found one yet.
Leica Minolta* CL
It's a bastard child of the M-mount family, but it's also about as small as options 1 & 2.
5) Konica Hexar RF, the only third-party Leica-M mount camera made without Leica's approval (after Leica's patents expired). They cleverly added all kinds of things that Leica had not over the years. These are fairly common on the used market, but they have held their value pretty well. They range $600-800 on the used market.
Konica Hexar RF
6) And a distant outlier, the Leica M5.
"Just don't buy an M5. That is the unpardonable sin." Prices for these are all over the map (though the lowest I've seen one sell for in good working condition was around $800), but they're the most expensive.
Leica M5
I have been considering all of these, and here's my feelings:
0) Because my M8 doesn't use Leica lenses at their intended focal lengths (long story, but essentially a 28mm lens becomes a 37mm lens and all others are also multiplied by 1.33), it'd be nice to have a body that did use them at their intended focal lengths. I'd get two different looks out of one lens (digital vs. film differences aside).
1) I don't expect to use a lot of film, thus a higher-end film camera would likely not earn its keep.
2) The Canon 7 can't use all my lenses and I prefer M mount lenses, so even though it's inexpensive, it's a silly idea. The M mount lenses even for the same lens style have later lens design improvements in the glass due to technological advancements in optic design.
3) The Leica CL/Minolta CLE is small and I like small. The only downside to the size is that my 15mm lens may be difficult to keep fingers out of shots with that lens. And as it's not digital, I may not know that until the film's developed.
4) If I were to justify the value of the M5, I might as well leap to the next generation and get the M6 TTL, so I shouldn't get either.
So I think my choices are, in order:
1) Leica CL/Minolta CLE if I can find one with a working meter at the right price. 2) Hexar RF 3) Either the Yashica or the Canonet 4) Fallback plan: Canon 7 5) The M-bodied Leicas should I go crazy.
The feature lists and quirks will drive you crazy, and it's taken a fair amount of work to even get to this short list.
