There are many wonderful advantages to using rangefinder cameras; cameras with optical viewfinders. They are quick to focus, very exacting at focusing wide angle lenses. They show you, with most normal lenses (down to about 35mm) what objects are outside the frame lines which allows one to anticipate a moment better. As in: "Oh. Look there's a nude bicyclist about to enter the frame from the left. Let's make sure to get her into the frame as well...."
Most rangefinder camera shutters have fast reaction times as well. But there are several gotchas that tend to snag the less attentive user. Or those who are new to the whole optical viewfinder thing. I own a handful of Leicas but only one is an optical rangefinder camera. The others work just like all the other mirrorless/EVF cameras on the market, complete with previews in the finders. I haven't shot with an optical rangefinder camera in well over a decade but with all my previous experience what could possibly go wrong?
Well....... let me count the ways.
The image at the top of the blog post is of three people in the Jean Talon market, shopping. I had previously been photographing some close ups of food. I pulled the camera up to my eye, momentarily forgetting that the finder would show a sharp image in front of me no matter where the focus was set. I would not be looking "through the lens" and was totally responsible for focusing. But since the finder image looked sharp, and I was rushing to get the shot, I just went ahead and snapped the image. And....it was perfectly focused for close up objects...but not the objects I wanted to be focused on. Lesson one is to always focus with the rangefinder or, alternately, use careful zone focusing. Don't rely on the sharpness of the optical finder for any sort of focus confirmation. Never. Don't.
I wanted to include an image to showcase my second caution but I was too lazy to spend time making a black, featureless frame so you'll just have to work with me and imagine that just under this type is a black rectangle. Okay?
And it would be a black rectangle if you made the same mistake I did when shooting in Montreal from time to time. On my first shot of the day I would see something fun and exciting, bring the camera to my eye, focus carefully, and then take the shot. I'd hit the "chimping" button to see what I got only to be confronted by a dark LCD. Then it dawned on me that I'd seen this problem ten, twenty and thirty years ago. I had left the lens cap on the lens. The optical finder just shows me what's in front of the camera but not what's coming through the camera. The optical finder works even if the lens doesn't.
My advice? leave the lens cap in the hotel room or take it off and put it in your pocket as you step outside the door. It's actually kind of embarrassing to have worked professionally for 45 years as a commercial photographer, bragged about the fortune I've billed for my work, and then to have that kind and patient person I've asked to photograph remind me that my lens cap is still on the lens.....
Yes. Embarrassing.
This exquisite portrait of a Tim Horton's, extra large coffee cup (not mine) is a good way to illustrate my last point about the vagaries of rangefinder cameras. As above, when you set the lens on your camera to f2.0 and shoot up close the finder will still show everything in the frame as being sharp. You have no confirmation that the background will be rendered into a silky warm bath of bokeh until you stop and review the file you've already taken.
By the same token if you comped the same scene and wanted everything in focus and set f16 as your aperture you still have no way to preview the actual effect, you can only check in after the fact to review it.
The finder is neutral to issues of depth of focus and depth of field. It's all on all the time.
Remembering these key issues will help you minimize your frustration. I wish I had written this and then read it before stepping out on day one of my trip and making each and every one of these common rangefinder camera mistakes.
One good point for optical viewfinders = they'll keep you focused on your game or slap you down hard.
Just sayin.
I haven't used a lens with an aperture ring (Pentax) in 30 years but I still find myself reaching up to twist the aperture dial now and then.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I did a quick audit of my Leica rangefinder focussing accuracy quite recently. I though they were all pretty much correctly focussed. I was wrong..... a modern digital camera will prove more accurate over time, at least for me. Not to say I don't really enjoy using rangefinders, as I do.
ReplyDeleteI went with Canon EOS back in the days of film. I have a Leica IIIa/f2 0 Sumar that is a display camera.
ReplyDeletec.d.embrey aka fotochuck@gmail.com
Kirk
ReplyDeleteBeen there! Done that! Not to mention the occasional rinse and repeat.
Welcome back to the rangefinder club.
PaulB
Another problem with optical rangefinders: parallax. When I was first experimenting with an old rangefinder camera after shooting SLRs for years, I took a shot where I wanted something in the foreground (I forget what it was) to line up perfectly with something in the background. It looked great through the finder... but it didn't line up on film, because the finder was an inch or two to the left of the lens and that was enough to mess up the alignment I wanted. I still don't know of a solution to that problem (well, other than using a camera that shows you the image through the lens). As with depth of field, you just have to estimate it, which I suppose one could get pretty good at with practice. But while rangefinders are fun, for serious work I'd rather use a camera that shows me what the lens sees.
ReplyDeletec.d. embrey, I thought you had said "goodbye" to the blog. Well, welcome back. We talk about photography here. All are welcome.
ReplyDeleteThe up side of the limitations of RF photographic gear, what with parallax, lack of depth of field predictability, the deliberate activity to make certain what’s wanted in focus is in focus, etc., is that the very deliberation slows me down and encourages me to think about what’s going to be in the photograph I’m about to take. It encourages me to consider how to get my perception of a scene or subject onto the sensor, the screen and ultimately a print. Meantime, lens caps were packed up years ago, for the very reason you encountered.
ReplyDelete