Killing time at Jimmy's

[RBSinTo]

Taken earlier this spring in Kensington, here in Toronto.
Jimmy's is a popular coffee shop in the Market that has a recessed front door inside a little alcove with benches.
I was sitting in the alcove across from a couple busily engaged in their phones. I liked the composition and the light, so setting my lens to hyperfocus, I placed the camera on the bench beside me and got this shot.
Converted to black and white in Photoshop.
Nikon S3 rangefinder
Cosina Voigtlander 21 f4 in Nikon S mount
Fuji 100 ISO colour slide
5.6 @ 1/125th

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[rpcrowe]

Well done... I like everything about this image...

The Nikon S3 is one of my absolute favorite rangefinder cameras of all time, exceeded only by its big brother, the Nikon SP. IMO, the handling (especially focusing) of these two cameras beat the pants off their direct competitors which were the M Series Leica Rangefinders. The image quality of all these cameras was and is superlative.

During the Vietnam War, photojournalists often carried three or four cameras with different focal length lenses because there were no decent zoom lenses available for still cameras in that era. Many of my friends used Nikon F Series SLR cameras for lenses 50mm and longer while they used Nikon or Leica rangefinders for their wide lenses.

Me? I was a "multi-framer" which was slang for cinematographer and I used either a Bell and Howell Model 70 (Filmo) with a turret and three lenses (my choices were 10mm, 15mm and 25mm) or an Arriflex with 12-120mm Angenieux zoom lens...

[DanK]

a very striking image. Well done.

[ionian]

I really like this one - great composition.

[RBSinTo]

John, Richard, Dan and Simon,
Thanks for the comments.
Richard,
I typically carry one of two kits: A trio of motorized film SLRs (chosen from Nikon F2, F3, FA, FG, FM-2) with either primes or zooms, or my rangefinder kit which consists of four bodies, (Two Nikon S3s, a Cosina Voightlander R2S Bessa, and a motorized Nikon F) with an array of CV and Nikon lenses (21, 25, 35, 50, 85, 105, 135) as well as a Nikkor 180 2.8 for reach.
When I need to get wider than 21mm, I also have an Amedeo Nikon f-S adapter that allows me to use either my Vivitar 17 or 19 mm lenses on any of my rangefinder bodies.
I also have a Nikon SP body but find I prefer the simplicity of the S3 viewfinder over it.
Because I always considered Leicas to be unjustifiably overpriced and overhyped, I never bothered with them.
Robert

[rpcrowe]

When I passed through Japan on my way to Vietnam, the local camera shop was out of Nikon cameras. So, Instead, I purchased a Canon FX which just could not handle the humidity and dirt of Vietnam. Dong Ha, Vietnam was the only place in the world that I have ever seen rain drops raise dust...

As I said, I was a cinematographer and was always searching for a small camera that I could carry for my own memory shots. I never found a decent one. However, I did get a Minolta 16mm sub-miniature film camera. The results were not very good so I traded it for an AK-56 (Chicom copy of the AK-47) with a folding stock which I carried on quite a few jobs in Nam. Although a bit heavier, the AK-56 beat the pants off the WW-II vintage .30 caliber M-2 carbine that our unit issued us...

[mknittle]

Very nice Robert.

[scully]

now that's the way to do "sneaky"

[mugge]

I love it. Colour would not be.
Cheers Ole

[Rebel]

Nice shot Robert, great light

[Sergio M.]

Robert,

I really like the background and light on this shot. The diagonal the people are on really makes it easy to go from one face to the next. Well seen and captured.

Sergio

[thegman]

Excellent.