Question about Rangefinders

[ricohflex]

Yes, you can prefocus with an SLR using a wide angle lens. But at the point of exposure, you still do not know exactly what you had taken - because of the mirror.

You can use Canon RS SLR.
There is no mirror movement. It is a pellicle.
You see everything.

 

[Ben1223]

It is the best and easiest lens to learn to pre-focus. This skill is one of the keys to using a Leica well. To recap for those who may not already know this (most Leica photographers know this, I'm sure), it is simply to look at the distance to the object you wish to focus on and set the focus on the camera by feel, without having the camera to your eye and without using the rangefinder. Push the tab all the way to the right [directions relative to behind the camera of course] and you're on infinity; place the tab pointing directly down, and you're focused at about five feet. In between those positions, you can learn to eye the distance and set the tab for the focus that is proper for that distance. I did it by first shoving the focus to infinity, then getting the "feel" for how far I should pull it back based on what my eyes were looking at. If you practice this every night for five minutes in your living room, you get very good at it very quickly. Then, as you walk around looking at the world with your M, you can automatically change the focus continuously for whatever happens to catch your eye. Without ever holding the camera to your eye, you are always ready for a quick grab shot. And again, the slight WA focal length aids you here, by covering up errors with its more generous d.o.f. It is perfectly practical to use an MP / 35 'Cron combo all day without once ever referring to the light meter diodes or the rangefinder patch. In fact, I would go so far as to say that any photographer who carefully meters and focuses every single shot is simply not using the Leica correctly.

copied from an article from the web.

That is amazing. I'm assuming the tab he's referring to is on the lens?

 

[student]

Your friend must be really experienced.

Actually I do not dare to have the audacity to call this photographer my friend. But I have seen him worked, and he is amazing.

His name is Ralph Gibson.

 

[student]

You can use Canon RS SLR.
There is no mirror movement. It is a pellicle.
You see everything.

Yes, you are right. I have the Canon 1n RS. To my knowledge the RS is the exception. This is the only SLR that have this function. But the viewfinder is darker and it is damn heavy.

 

[kex]

yes,the tab is on the lens.

u can read the whole article at the link below

http://www.photo.net/mjohnston/column64/

 

[juggler]

Student, I guess that would be alright by some folks. With my SLR and RF cams, I sometimes shoot without looking through the viewfinder when using a wide angle lens.

Ben, I think the draw which rangefinders have over me is that it slows one down and think about the shot. Going back to the basics with manual focusing and manual film advance seems novel in this day and age of digital photography. Even the one and only digital RF, the Epson R-D1, still has a film advance lever which needs to be cocked prior to each shutter release.

I agree with this. I was brought up on the EOS system and everthing was auto-focus and auto-exposure. Even when manual mode is available, I didn't bother since the settings are digitally input. And I tend to shoot a bit mindlessly at times. With a manual camera (be it RF or SLR), it forces me to slow down and think a bit more. Even more so if the lens is fixed focal length so you need to move to compose the picture you need.

I hope that if I practise working under such constraints, it can help me be better in photography.

 

[Ben1223]

I got myself a Rollei 35B today. Hope the meter still works. The needle does move around when faced against different lighting. I'm hoping this would be a good cam to start learning scale/zone focusing.

Thx for all the input. Time to go back to basics.

PS. Any tips on how to compose with this baby? Will the viewfinder show what's going to come out on the photo?

 

[kex]

rf usually show more than wad the frame covers..

do not have very precise framing,have to allow some compensation.