My friend has a Leica M6, and one of his favorite things to do is to take
candid shots. The camera is small enough and if the lens is wide enough,
you can take a snapshot without looking through the viewfinder.. for those
waist level candid shots since the M6 is so quiet..
Well... I have tried that a few times, cranked the focus out to infinity,
mirror lockup, and now my OM1n is about as quiet as any other rangefinder...
I've taken a few candid shots like that, which have turned out great...
Mirror lockup is wonderful, I don't know why most cameras don't have it..
Albert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Brokaw" <jbrokaw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 6:43 PM
Subject: Re: [OM] Rangefinder?
> on 11/24/01 6:16 AM, Henrik Dahl at hdahl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > Could someone explain the Rangefinder philosophy/technique in simple
> > phrases ;-)
> > I know what they look like and so, but what's good/bad/special with
them?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Henrik Dahl
>
> You need to take a look through a Leica M6 viewfinder and fiddle with the
> focus, then this will become more clear. Rangefinder shows you the frame
> with some of the surroundings, so you can see 'outside the frame' and
decide
> if you want to recompose the picture.
>
> The rangefinder (high quality rangefinders mostly) allows you to focus by
> superimposing the two images in the focusing frame, or by using the
'break'
> in the image at the edge of the focus frame. Note that this is highly
> dependent on the quality and alignment of the rangefinder, but a Leica
will
> almost always allow both methods.
>
> In very low light environments the rangefinder can be easier to focus than
> an SLR viewfinder, especially where you are using a relatively slow SLR
> lens. Focusing a 28mm 2.8 on an SLR in low light is fussy, but a
rangefinder
> with a 28mm 2.8 will have a viewfinder very much like looking through a
> glass window. Very little light loss through the viewfinder... The
downside
> is that even with so narrow a lens as a 28mm you will likely need an
> auxiliary viewfinder for composing the image. You still use the regular
> viewfinder to focus, but then you have to change finders to compose the
> picture. Therefore most rangefinders are suitable for only moderate
> wide-angle to moderate telephoto lenses, typically 35mm wide to 135mm
> telephoto.
>
> At the telephoto end of the range you can run into possible focusing
> inaccuracy due to insufficient rangefinder 'base length'. Base length
> directly correlates to the accuracy of focusing... and it is limited by
the
> size of the camera body. Here again, Leica is about the best you are going
> to get... but even Leica fans will admit that the accuracy in the long
focal
> lengths is not as good as an SLR.
>
> Rangefinder cameras can be MUCH quieter than an SLR because there is so
much
> less happening... no mirror flipping around and no aperture closing and
> opening. For this reason they can be useful for candid picture taking. For
> portraiture where you might be using a short telephoto lens, the
viewfinder
> being 'on' all the time means you see the expression *during* the
exposure,
> so you know if somebody blinked.
>
> I love my OM's but I would someday like to have a nice Leica system as
> well...
> --
>
> Jim Brokaw
> OM-1's, -2's, -4's, (no -3's yet) and no OM-oney...
>
>
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