Originally posted by CWRailman All this discussion about the Q verses Q10 or Q7 and the naming of the new Q-S1 brought to mind another camera that wore a S designation on it’s body.
In the 1970’s, the Konica S series was a sensible alternative for those who did not want to sell their car or get two or three months behind in their rent payments just to purchase a Leica which at the time was the street shooters dream camera. After a bit of saving, during my financially strained years, I was able to afford this Konica S3.
Small in size this Konica rangefinder camera has a lens that was highly rated for it’s time. My newly acquired Black Q7 in this brown “never ready” type case reminds me a lot of the time I spent wandering the streets and parks in Chicago using the Konica S3 to capture images on bulk loaded rolls of Plus X film. Note the wear on the Konica case that protected the S3 which is in pristine condition. ( I still have two 100’ rolls of Plus X in my freezer purchased from Central Camera in Chicago and dated 1989.)
Unfortunately I never quite got the hang or had the eye to be a successful street shooter and that may be why I so admire the work of those who have posted their street shots in this forum
I am wondering how the Q series of cameras is ranked among street shooters today.
Denny
It
should rate very high. My understanding is that the phrase "
f/8 and be there", which is often attributed to famous street shooter Arthur "Weegee" Fellig, reflects the fact that the lens used by street shooters of the time gave a good depth-of-field when set at f/8, so a winning strategy was to set your camera at f/8, then pick the corresponding shutter speed and a middle-distance focus, so you'd be ready to take a picture instantly without having to worry about the technical details. People sometimes complain that small-sensored cameras like the Q-family don't produced
any bokeh, let along good bokeh, but that is just the flip-side of the fact that a Q-family camera will have a good-depth-of-field without our having to do anything about it. You and I disagree about a tilting LCD, but my primary reason for wanting that is to allow me to be more discrete when taking street pictures since part of the idea is to record the activity without disturbing it; I've practiced holding the camera a foot or two lower than my face and then taking advantage of the fact that modern LCDs can be viewed at a fairly sharp angle, but I don't quite have that mastered yet. I also like my yellow camera for that purpose, because it looks more like a toy than like a serious camera.