Nikon F2a, 85mm f1.8 K
While my favourite Nikon film camera remains the FM2n, the F2a is my second favourite and in some regards the better film shooting experience. It’s bigger & heavier and has a truly amazing finder, but lacks the 1/4000 max shutter of the FM2n. I had a nearly mint F2a in black and really wish I’d held onto it. It’s simply difficult to beat the shooting experience of the F2a, it’s just pure zen, as close to a meditative shooting experience as I’ve ever had with a small format camera.
I’ve had a few rangefinders over the years and mostly never bonded with them, I am fundamentally a SLR guy. The Bessa R was the one that lasted quite long in my bag, it might actually be the 135 format camera that I owned the longest. While it certainly is no Leica M, it’s compact and nice to shoot and it brings much of what I love about the Cosina SLR’s to the rangefinder experience. That’s not too surprising since it is a development of those Cosina SLR’s. The only weak point is the use of M39 screwmount, which was solved with the R2 and later bodies, which are M mount.
I got great results and shot a lot with it. I’d love to have another, or even better an R2 or R3 so I could pair it with the new M lenses from 7ARTISANS and TTARTISAN.
Mamiya 645 Super, lens unrecorded
I shot more film with this camera than any other single camera I owned. It is big, heavy & clunky without giving the massive negs of the larger MF cameras. But it delivered for roll upon roll of film. I honestly think my best body of work was shot with this camera and I miss it. I should have set it aside for a while rather than selling it
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