First Impressions Why did I get this chunky heavy camera in the first place? I bought some M42 lenses and used them (with adapter) on my M6 and a Ricoh GXR before I started to buy M and L39 lenses. Despite the fact that these lenses were cheap (a Porst 2.8 35mm, a Porst 1.4 55mm and a Porst 2.8 135mm) I liked what I got with them. But at a certain point I put them away because I got smaller, lighter and different lenses more suitable for my Leica M6 and Bessar R. But I kept t

First Impressions The Minox 35 ML does not look like anything special. And it was not untill I had developed the first role of black and white film that I realized that I finaly found what I had been looking for during the past two years. What I had been looking for was a small pocket camera, easy to handle which fits into the pockets of my trousers and takes good photos. A back up for my rangefinder camera in situation where I needed an innocent looking or even better invisi

First Impressions I loved her right away when I took her out of the box. She is nicely designed and feals well in your hand. She looks like a hybrid between a modern camera and a classical rangefinder. And that is what this camera actually is. My camera came with a flash but I hardly use a flash even when I shoot indoor. I use mostly Ilford HP5 since you can push (or pull) it easily by two stops. You can chose between P, A and M mode. Even in P the Hexar uses your selected ap

First Impressions I had read a lot about the quality of the lense and what great pictures it would take and that Terry Richardson would use them for fashion shootings. But I was still a bit disappointed when I held this piece of plastic in my hand after I got it of the ebay package. It is definetly not a design piece. Especially when you are used to Rangefinder Cameras. But this first disappointing impression turned out as a big advantage as I found out after a while. I use p

First Impressions The CLE (Compact LEICA Electronic) is much smaller than I thought was one of the first thing that went through my mind when I held her in my hands for the first time. And she is definetly a child of the 80ies. A very boxy design that reminded me of the first (point and shoot) camera I got as a birthday present from my parents when I was 11 or 12. I expected something of the size of my Leica M6. Especially since the CLE is actually a Leica, just with a diffe

First Impressions I think it was in 2000 that I used an XPan (and a rangefinder purposely) for the first time. I worked as Art Director during those days and Hasselblad Germany was my client. I used it on two occasions: for a small campaign with the Asian model (see the example shots) and on a journey to Egypt. I wrote an article about using the camera on that trip and shot the photos for the article. I remember one phrase I used untill today: "... you can also use it as a ha