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I'm looking for my first rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses. My budget is around 5-750$ and I would love to get a camera with one really good 50mm or 35mm lens. The less I spend on the body the more I can invest in one or two nice lenses. Therefore I've scraped the idea of getting a M-mount camera or any Leica at all. I strongly prefer cameras with an integrated light meter but I know that most of them are borderline unusable today. So maybe I should just ditch this requirement and finally start using external light meters? I just don't like the additional time it costs to set up a shot.
I thought a body with the m39 mount would be nice starting point because there are a lot of affordable and nice bodies and I especially love the sowjet rangefinder lenses. But since the sowjet bodies are not reliable and lack a lot of features I am currently looking at canon rangefinders and more precisely at the model 7s and the canon p (with the light meter add-on). I'm just a bit afraid of the ASA-Settings which are quite limited. I also thought about the Bessa-L but I dislike the idea of only using wide-angle lenses even though 40mm is not that wide.
Has someone tried one or both the canon p and the 7s and might share some insights about their strengths and weaknesses? Is the premium for the 7s justified?
Are there other bodies from canon or other manufacturers that might be worth to be considered as well which are more or less inside my budget?
If I'm going with a canon body are there notable differences between the canon 50mm lenses (1.8/1.4) besides the speed? Are the lenses worth it or might it be a better idea to buy just the body and a separate 50mm and/or 35mm lens?
Any pointers about the vast numbers of m39 lenses which are not too expensive? I'm looking to eventually get a set of 35mm, 50mm and one longer focal length for portraits.
(picture taken with my F3 and Fuji Pro 400H
