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  • Yes they are bulkier, sorry.
    Also "noisier", ok (but when is that really a problem).

    Noise can be a big problem. People on the street can get a bit annoyed by click-click-ratch sounds of an SLR (especially motor SLRs). Even rangefinders can be louder than one wants. Many companies made silenced cameras--- and not all were sold for espionage.

    I was responding to
    slower (slower to compose, focus, expose and advance) but also tend to demand a less fluid style and better lighting
    ..should have quoted more precisely.

    Rangefinders are fast to focus. That's the point of the split image feature--- why even many TLRs and press cameras (such as Graflex and Linhof) had them. Focusing is in maximal light and not stopped down by the taking lens. For composition one tends to have a number of discrete viewfinders--- or a zoom finder set to the focal distance-- and these are sharp and fully illuminated and not stopped down and no DOF blur--- RF photographers tend to be able to envision bokeh and focus depth.
    Advance speed.. If you don't lock up the mirror there is no way it can compete-- and even then. My oldest Robot from the 1930s can shoot at 4-5 images per second. I've even got a Robot Royal with burst modus and ít can take one image after the next (as many as 6 per second). The Nikon F6 with all its electronics and battery still gets edged out by by a fully mechanical 1950s Robot--- I even have an outboard wind-up booster motor and film magazine (10m, 30m, 60m and even 150m were made) should I need to shoot DSLR style. A Leica M can too get pretty fast.. Using an Abrahamsson Rapidwinder one can get 2, maybe even 2 1/2 frames per second.
    And modern electronic rangefinders with autofocus.. Contax G3 is f-a-s-t!

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