Hi, I have a very similar camera a Konica C35, it has been languishing in a dark dry cupboard for maybe 20 years. Whilst watching your excellent video I retrieved it from its resting place. I had done a potentially stupid thing by leaving the meter battery in place, thankfully all is ok, and the meter responds perfectly, phew! The film speed range is only 25 to 400 asa/ISO, shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/650th, apertures from f14 [?] to f2.8, so not as versatile as yours. The lens is a Konica Hexanon f2.8, the focusing rectangle is just as dim as yours seems to be, but in auto mode it is automatically at 5m or 15 feet to infinity. Like another of your commenters, I'm going to run a film through it 😁🧐thanks for the reminder for these great little cameras. PS I have a vague memory of also owning Cosina camera, which had/has a very similar spec., wherever it is 😇😁. Cheers from Wales,
I bought one of these for my retired mother to take on the many trips she took. She was not a camera person, but she could set film speed and shutter speed as required, using the auto-exposure mode. After ten years or so, she started having trouble seeing to focus, so we replaced it with a nice Nikon all auto point-n-shoot. One Fall, she called to tell me that she had lost the little Nikon, so to look for a replacement. When I visited the following Spring, it turned out that she has dropped it on her deck, and it had fallen into a large planter. It had been there for at least five months, over Winter, with constant rain or snow (Pacific NW). Dried it out, and replaced the battery and film. It worked fine. It's not that hard for the RC's lens to be better than the lens on an XA. The XA lens is an optical dog. Not as bad as the tiny Coke bottle using on the Mju, but neither was installed with the idea that the user would be taking anything more serious than 3x snapshots from Walmart.
Great little camera, so handy to take everywhere! I found mine a few years ago for 20€ at the garage sale. The little spring that activates the speed recall in the viewfinder was wandering around in the unit... Even if it's not the most important thing, I was able to open, repair and, at the same time clean the viewfinder and rangefinder. And after a good cleaning, it's night and day! I think your camera needs a good cleaning too... I've added a light yellow filter on the lens to protect it, and gain a bit of contrast. The lens is good, but a little less at 2.8. For that the Rokkor of my Minolta 7SII is better... Last VERY IMPORTANT THING: Be careful with the strap attachments on these old cameras, they can break at any time! I had it around my neck when it happened, and it's a miracle that by reflex I was able to catch it... If I'd been on my bike, it would have fallen on the road, and maybe even been run over by a car! 😱 I'd like to find a case that screws on the bottom, like the one that came with the 7SII, with an integrated strap. I see on amazon that some people sell leather cases for the RC, but they're quite expensive, and without a strap or attachments to fix one...
I purchased one of these about 6 months ago and have been so happy with the results. My only flaw is that I need to get better at adjusting for lighting. I have a National flash as well; the indoor flashed photos come out great but sometimes even on the most sunny of days I get dark photos. I think I need to adjust my settings.
The 35RC is definitely a gem of a mechanical compact 35mm rangefinder. I just wish it had one more shutter speed on the slow end. The "flashmatic" mode mechanically couples the aperture setting to the focus ring. This automatic flash mode made sense back when the common color negative film was .rated @ ISO 64 and flash units did not have an auto thyristor control to vary the flash output. On a non variable flash the photographer needed to know rated guide numbers of their flash unit for different ASA/ISO films to properly set the GN lever on the camera's lens barrel..
Thank you for your review. I'm looking to buy one, looks like a really good and great camera. I use Yashica mg-1 rn, but it's large and metering system is not that good IMO
This is a difficult slow camera to use. But the quality of the photos are very good. I mean I tested it on a 15 year old expired film and the photos came back crisp clear. Unreal.
Hi, I have a very similar camera a Konica C35, it has been languishing in a dark dry cupboard for maybe 20 years. Whilst watching your excellent video I retrieved it from its resting place. I had done a potentially stupid thing by leaving the meter battery in place, thankfully all is ok, and the meter responds perfectly, phew! The film speed range is only 25 to 400 asa/ISO, shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/650th, apertures from f14 [?] to f2.8, so not as versatile as yours. The lens is a Konica Hexanon f2.8, the focusing rectangle is just as dim as yours seems to be, but in auto mode it is automatically at 5m or 15 feet to infinity. Like another of your commenters, I'm going to run a film through it 😁🧐thanks for the reminder for these great little cameras. PS I have a vague memory of also owning Cosina camera, which had/has a very similar spec., wherever it is 😇😁. Cheers from Wales,
I bought one of these for my retired mother to take on the many trips she took. She was not a camera person, but she could set film speed and shutter speed as required, using the auto-exposure mode. After ten years or so, she started having trouble seeing to focus, so we replaced it with a nice Nikon all auto point-n-shoot. One Fall, she called to tell me that she had lost the little Nikon, so to look for a replacement. When I visited the following Spring, it turned out that she has dropped it on her deck, and it had fallen into a large planter. It had been there for at least five months, over Winter, with constant rain or snow (Pacific NW). Dried it out, and replaced the battery and film. It worked fine.
It's not that hard for the RC's lens to be better than the lens on an XA. The XA lens is an optical dog. Not as bad as the tiny Coke bottle using on the Mju, but neither was installed with the idea that the user would be taking anything more serious than 3x snapshots from Walmart.
Great little camera, so handy to take everywhere! I found mine a few years ago for 20€ at the garage sale. The little spring that activates the speed recall in the viewfinder was wandering around in the unit... Even if it's not the most important thing, I was able to open, repair and, at the same time clean the viewfinder and rangefinder. And after a good cleaning, it's night and day! I think your camera needs a good cleaning too...
I've added a light yellow filter on the lens to protect it, and gain a bit of contrast. The lens is good, but a little less at 2.8. For that the Rokkor of my Minolta 7SII is better...
Last VERY IMPORTANT THING: Be careful with the strap attachments on these old cameras, they can break at any time! I had it around my neck when it happened, and it's a miracle that by reflex I was able to catch it... If I'd been on my bike, it would have fallen on the road, and maybe even been run over by a car! 😱
I'd like to find a case that screws on the bottom, like the one that came with the 7SII, with an integrated strap. I see on amazon that some people sell leather cases for the RC, but they're quite expensive, and without a strap or attachments to fix one...
Great video, thanks for opinions and user tips , instead a classic description
I purchased one of these about 6 months ago and have been so happy with the results. My only flaw is that I need to get better at adjusting for lighting. I have a National flash as well; the indoor flashed photos come out great but sometimes even on the most sunny of days I get dark photos. I think I need to adjust my settings.
The 35RC is definitely a gem of a mechanical compact 35mm rangefinder. I just wish it had one more shutter speed on the slow end.
The "flashmatic" mode mechanically couples the aperture setting to the focus ring. This automatic flash mode made sense back when the common color negative film was .rated @ ISO 64 and flash units did not have an auto thyristor control to vary the flash output. On a non variable flash the photographer needed to know rated guide numbers of their flash unit for different ASA/ISO films to properly set the GN lever on the camera's lens barrel..
what a great video - taught me alot
Thank you for your review. I'm looking to buy one, looks like a really good and great camera. I use Yashica mg-1 rn, but it's large and metering system is not that good IMO
You won’t regret it! They are a really solid camera to have around, and the lens on them is great.
Thank you for this !!
This is a difficult slow camera to use. But the quality of the photos are very good. I mean I tested it on a 15 year old expired film and the photos came back crisp clear. Unreal.