1. cheap, if it's broken, fix it yourself and get a another 2. leica copies were plentiful and a whole trove of lens are availible, Ebay is a good source for them. 3. mechanical, no selenium light meter to fail and electronics to corrode over time. 4. made of metal and fairly heavy compared to most digital cameras, such as my ditital camera.

1. poor viewfinder, very tiny and a chore to view/focus in the dark. 2. easy to block the rangefinder window with right index finger. 3. hard to rewind film mechanism, it works, but hard to use. 4. russian quality control, it's hit and miss, especially with the lenses.

Bought an old FED 2 off of Ebay as a cheap entry into the world of Leica scewmounts. Camera is in good shape, with a working, complete shutter, only a few small dents on the bottom panel detract form an otherwise fine old Russian rangefinder.

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Olympus C-3040 Minolota XG-7

Low price, incredible 50mm lens that just comes with the body, reliable, bright finder, no light leaks (cloth-shutter rangefinders traditionally had problems with this).

Heavy, selenium meter, quircky shutter speed selection, parts impossible to find, no strap lugs,

Incredibly quirky, yet indearing - this camera was challenging to get to know, but has been a faithful friend. As one who mostly shoots SLR-style, I wanted to be able to learn and appreciate the rangefinder way of doing things and this was my first foray into that world. It was very cheap and included the Industar 61/d lens (50/2.8) which puts my "modern" general-purpose zooms (28-80) to absolute shame. The workmanship is a little strange (big design tolerances), but overall is very solid.

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Zenit SLR