My First Rangefinder
I had recently acquired my first rangefinder camera, a Nikon from the 1950’s, and tested it with a roll of TMax P3200. After confirming that the camera was functioning and advancing film with no leaks or other issues, I decided I needed to shoot a roll of color during the day. I loaded a roll of Kodak Portra 160 into the Nikon and rolled off to Four Till Four’s Cars and Coffee: Porsche Day. There were a variety of Porsches and colors to be found and made an excellent test bed for the lens and shutter speeds.
The camera I purchased is a Nikon S2. These were the rangefinders Nikon made around 1955, a few months after Leica’s M3. The lens is a 50mm (labeled as 5cm) F/1.4 - a nifty fifty with low-light capability. The lens is not in great condition, but I bought this camera as something primarily to take to events or casual shooting, as well as for a particular characteristic. Wide open, the lens exhibits a soft, ethereal quality that suits my style of portraiture. Stop it down to F/2.8 and lower and I find it to be surprisingly sharp. Alas, it turns out that the gear of the era is of excellent quality - they just needed better film technology.
Learning to use a rangefinder over traditional through-the-lens focusing was pleasantly intuitive. I quickly found myself to be rapidly finding focus after bringing the bright, wide viewfinder up to my eye. This was in part due to the excellent focus wheel in the upper corner of the camera. It allowed easy one-handed operation of the camera; something great for when you have a coffee (or in my case, a hot cocoa) in your left hand while trying to get a shot with your right; something all too common at cars and coffee.
Getting used to the shutter button’s position near the back of the camera took a couple rolls of shooting. I had to consciously move my finger back in the beginning. Additionally, not having an in-built light meter does dash my confidence. I find myself occasionally guessing exposures based on experience. I have not used Sunny 16 as of yet. I do carry a small light meter in my bag that I used to meter many shots on this roll. With the latitude in Portra, I wasn’t too concerned about missing exposures, and so I simply let myself enjoy shooting; and the S2 is indeed a fun camera to take out.
