Sleeper compacts

steveo_mcg

steveo_mcg

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Some old 35mm seem to have developed something of a cult following, the MJU II for example, does any one know of any decent 35mm compacts which haven't accrued such a premium on ebay. The 90's p&s era kind of passed me by.

The XA for example is apparently excellent and occasionally comes up reasonably priced.
Trips can go for silly money.
The WERRA is another interesting looking camera but goes for more than I'd (personally) like to pay for a compact, plus its a bit big to sling in the bottom of a bag.

I quite liked the Ricoh but never really got on with it for reasons I'm not sure I can explain.


Olympus really seems to have nailed the compact market but surely someone else was in the game?
 
The red dot Agfa Optima Sensor compacts are nice, but I've noticed that the asking prices have been creeping up for clean examples.
 
Funnily enough I was just looking at the Werra myself. An interesting looking camera with a very good lens or set of lenses depending on the version. Very stylish in a 60's kind of way and they seem to be reasonably cheap... I'm tempted.
 
I have a nikon zoom 700 I think it's very nice
 
I love my Pentax zoom 90. Much prefer it to the mju.

I've had it from new since the late 80s and it still works faultlessly.

It is noisy though.
 
Before our mju 1 we had a Mamiya U which I thought was really excellent. May need a bit of DIY on the soft cover over the shutter button, but a nice lens on a simple zone focus camera.
 
For me, unless a compact camera really is very compact (eg mju-ii, XA kind of size) you might as well use one of the smaller SLRs with a nifty fifty on it, such as an OM or a Nikon FG. Not much difference in size but a world of difference in capability.
 
Cheers guys I'll keep an eye out for something along these lines.

TheGreatSoprendo said:
For me, unless a compact camera really is very compact (eg mju-ii, XA kind of size) you might as well use one of the smaller SLRs with a nifty fifty on it, such as an OM or a Nikon FG. Not much difference in size but a world of difference in capability.
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That's why I moved the FED on and probably contributed to my not using the Ricoh 500, there is really that much in it when you look at an OM and a 50 or 28,
 
I should have mentioned the Werra, there are a few on the evil bay for under £50. Excellent Tessar 2.8/50 lens, and some of them are rangefinders as well. Those Sofia photos were taken on my Werra 1... It's a whole different experience as a camera; the lens hood reverses and screws over the lens as protection, and wind on is by turning the whole lens barrel.
 
@ steveo-mcg I have some p&s stuff knocking about that I could do to clear out so if something interests you, consider it yours. ( We'll sort out a suitable freebie / clasifieds thread if needs be)

Without searching, I think there's possibly Canon sureshot and Pentax offerings ......Let me know if you want me to go "digging"
 
Asha said:
@ steveo-mcg I have some p&s stuff knocking about that I could do to clear out so if something interests you, consider it yours. ( We'll sort out a suitable freebie / clasifieds thread if needs be)

Without searching, I think there's possibly Canon sureshot and Pentax offerings ......Let me know if you want me to go "digging"
Click to expand...

Cheers Asha, I think all I really want is something I can chuck in with the LF gear so I can do quick work or record shots with out spending half an hour setting up the view camera. Small, tough and reasonably sharp.
 
steveo_mcg said:
Small, tough and reasonably sharp.
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That's me :D

I'll grope around :naughty: and let you know what i find in thé deep dark depths of my camera cupboard...spiders, spooks, haggis ..:nailbiting::D
 
Never thought of the Werramatic as a compact. To me those were mju's etc.

Nevertheless since we are on the subject I still have a hand me down Werramatic, but not used it for years. Beautifully silent shutter.

Bit more info on them:-

http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/werramatic/
 
shreds said:
Never thought of the Werramatic as a compact. To me those were mju's etc.

Nevertheless since we are on the subject I still have a hand me down Werramatic, but not used it for years. Beautifully silent shutter.

Bit more info on them:-

http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/werramatic/
Click to expand...

Very interesting resource, Ian. My Werra 1 was black and had a 50mm f/2.8 lens; I'm pretty sure it said Tessar rather than just T, so that probably narrows it down a lot according to that page. However, I lost it or gave it away 20+ years ago, so can't check! No lightmeter, fixed lens. I really liked it. The hair in the film gate is the only problem I can remember with it, and if I'd spotted it at the time I could probably have easily fixed it. (Noticed when scanning old negs, see the Ancient shots from Sofia and Thessaloniki in the Photos from Film section.) The Werramatic sounds like a real quality piece of engineering, from the write-up, but I guess that could as easily mean a fragile device that fails for arbitrary reasons, depending on which part of the Soviet economic cycle it was built in!
 
Just had a look at the Werramatic which will be the 'E' version.

Also says 'Tessar' on the standard 50mm f/2.8 lens which was interchangeable (but never had anything to interchange it with!) and it has a needle light meter visible in the viewfinder...massive step forward for me in those days.

I didn't get on with the rangefinder as you had to be so careful to avoid chopping bits off, and I once mis-loaded the film so it didn't advance beyond a couple of frames, although the advance mechanism kept on going and I lost a very important days worth of irreplaceable shots, so when I moved up to an SLR, the Werra got 'parked'. I certainly never considered it to be 'fragile' but I certainly took good care of it and didn't throw it around. (hence the reason why I still have it today).
 
I didn't have a rangefinder, and didn't know any different as far as the viewfinder was concerned, never having used a SLR. It's a couple of years since I scanned the negatives, but I don't remember too many blank frames from leaving the lens cap on. I was fairly devastated that my entire set of Acropolis photos from later that year was out of focus; I reckon the focus must have been set at around 6 feet! A rangefinder might have helped avoid that!
 
Back to the main topic, the problem I have with the more compact cameras is really, when I think about it, one of their design aims. They are just too automated, and hence, for a film shooter now, too uninvolving. My mju II is a nice camera, easy to carry around with an excellent lens though a fairly awful viewfinder. But it is just too automatic, and being film, there's no way to check what it has done until much later. [ Heresy] To be honest, if I want that level of automation, I might just as well use a digical compact. It's not all that compact, though still coat-pocketable, but my X10 gives me excellent shots in P mode for record purposes. [/ Heresy]:exit:
 
ChrisR said:
Back to the main topic, the problem I have with the more compact cameras is really, when I think about it, one of their design aims. They are just too automated, and hence, for a film shooter now, too uninvolving. My mju II is a nice camera, easy to carry around with an excellent lens though a fairly awful viewfinder. But it is just too automatic, and being film, there's no way to check what it has done until much later. [ Heresy] To be honest, if I want that level of automation, I might just as well use a digical compact. It's not all that compact, though still coat-pocketable, but my X10 gives me excellent shots in P mode for record purposes. [/ Heresy]:exit:
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Agree partly Chris. I too have a mju-ii which I rate very highly (apart from, as you say, the viewfinder, and also the auto flash which is annoying to have to turn off every time you open the camera up). It is otherwise an excellent design in my opinion, great to handle and capable of fantastic results. If it had an aperture selector it might be near to perfect. However there are other compacts that do allow a degree more user input (eg aperture priority mode, and visibility of what shutter speeds are being used), while still being beautifully compact. However most are hideously expensive even now. The Nikon 35Ti is a great example. One exception price-wise I can think of is the Olympus XA, which is pretty affordable, though I'm led to believe that the rangefinder can be difficult to use. I'm not familiar with them, but I guess the Minox and Rollei compacts might be alternatives too.

Here's a camera I didn't know existed until a few minutes ago...this write-up certainly makes me want one:

http://www.35mmc.com/27/09/2014/minolta-tc-1-eccentric-beauty/

But then they seem to sell for around £300 !!!
 
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