new rangefinder cameras

[Mark_Bishop@ipc.co.uk]

What to make of all these rumours about new rangefinder cameras? What will be
coming out, when and at what price?

A friend in the trade confirms the Contax G2 at Photokina rumour to be true. It
will have *much* improved focusing (I bought one when they first came out; it
was truly dreadful, being incapable of rendering sharply a stationary, two-
dimensional object which contained heavy contrasts and was well lit) and some
added-value features, at or around the list price of the current camera.

I don't know whether the Nikon rangefinder story is true. I know the editorial
staff of Amateur Photographer, which broke the story, quite well, and trust
them. If anything, they are *too* cautious when it comes to taking a flyer on
reporting rumours, so the fact that they have published this story makes me
think there is substance to it. 

I certainly hope it is true; I own a 35Ti for snaps and the lens quality, though
Japanese in subjective factors, is ultimately very high and the Matrix metering
is quite superb. If Nikon produced a really well-made body which offered a
choice between optical rangefinder and multi-zone AF focusing, Matrix metering,
shutter, aperture or metered manual exposure, ultra-quiet in-built winder with
auto bracketing and a zooming viewfinder that supported a top-quality lens range
from say 24mm to 105 which incorporated a very good, ideally Aspheric, 35mm
optic, then I for one might be tempted to part with a substantial sum of money.

As for Minolta, I too remember their pro-series cameras of the 1970s with
fondness; I also remember selling the plastic trash that passed for Minolta's
early AF SLRs when working in a camera shop during my University vacations in
the mid/late 1980s. The failure rate on early Dynax models was not good, and the
talking compact (AFS-V) was one of the least reliable photo products produced
outside the USSR. Still, I guess the advent of the TC-1 tiny compact proves they
are serious about producing quality gear again.

Does anyone else have any gossip on the new rangefinders, especially any detail
on what Nikon may be planning?