The needle aperture indicator display on the right is well marked.įitted with a PX675 type battery, the meter needle was responsive and the yellow-tinted rangefinder patch was clear and useable. I’ve attempted to show what you see through the viewfinder of the Vivitar 35ES and you’ll note that part of the lens intrudes, which isn’t ideal but I can live with it. I managed it with no problems using Jon Goodman’s excellent instructions The Vivitar 35ES viewfinder ![]() I also had to renew the light seals as they were in a poor state, so if you buy this model expect to need to do the same. I had to bodge a repair using a screw, but it does still work and it’s not that obvious. Unfortunately, when reassembling I over-tightened the cap over the film winder lever and it sheared off from the small threaded shaft which keeps the lever correctly aligned and in place. My first job was to clean the viewfinder which was a little hazy so removed the top cover and gently swabbed the appropriate parts with cotton buds which did the trick. It’s quite a compact metal camera with a reassuring heft, and the five bladed 40mm f/1.7 lens with six elements in four groups and 46mm filter thread looks good. The warranty leaflet has 1/78 printed at the bottom and I’m pretty sure this refers to the year of manufacture. I checked out image quality online for both cameras and eventually bought the Vivitar 35ES for £32.00 with original lens cap, case, instructions and box, all in nice condition. Furthermore, some stated it’s likely that the Japanese manufacturer Cosina made all three cameras. But I did notice from comments in forums that the Minolta Hi-Matic 7SII with an f/1.7 lens has close cousins in the form of the Revue 400SE and Vivitar 35ES which are more affordable, and if some reviews are to be believed share an identical or very similar lens. If you are prepared to accept a lens with a maximum aperture smaller than f/2 then there are some nice little rangefinders out there. ![]() I did consider the fab Yashica Lynx 14 with the monster f/1.4 lens, but it’s not exactly pocketable and prices for a good example are escalating. I researched the usual suspects such as the Canon QL17, Olympus 35RC, Yashica GSN, Konica Auto S2 etc, but they cost more than I wanted to pay. A few months ago I was looking for a small 35mm film rangefinder with a lens featuring a larger than average maximum aperture, ideally with full manual control or at least shutter speed priority for low light photos to avoid blurred shots, and preferably in black.
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