Focus with a viewfinder camera?

First, let me say that the wealth of knowledge on this site is truely

staggering! Thank you to all of those who are willing to lend their

expertize to sometimes difficult subjects and questions. Special

thanks to Mike Elek and Matt Denton for past assistance.

Second, I blame all of you for my classic camera addition. Know I

can't even look at a camera that isn't fully manual and fully

mechanical!!!

 

Know here is my dilemma. I am the proud owner of now 2 beautiful

AkArette II camera's. Here is an clip from a German translated

website (some of the only info on the web at all about these cameras):

(*Thanks to Matt Denton)

 

Aka is the acronym of Apparate & Kamerabau (Manufacture of cameras

and movie cameras). This company had one very short lifespan (1946 -

1960). Its manufacture is overall of good quality.

This camera is with interchangeable lens. Its finder is double and

thus makes it possible to adapt to the 50 or 75 mm.

 

There is a picture at this address: http://www.collection-

appareils.com/appareils/html/akarette.php

 

Both cameras are in good shape and working. One has a 5omm Westar

3.5 and the other has a 50mm Xenar 3.5 (nice!) However, these are

not rangefinders. They only have a viewfinder. How in the world are

you supposed to focus with an adjustable lens with only a

viewfinder? I will post a few pics once I test these cameras, but

would like to know if there are any 'rule-of-thumb' advice out there

beside keeping you fingers crossed, hopping on one leg and spitting

east in hopes that the pics are in focus, especially at shallow depth

of field f-stops?

 

Will I be shooting blind, or is there something I can do to help

ensure I get sharp photo's. (And yes, I've thought of always setting

the focus to infinity, but that wouldn't be as fun!!!)

You can buy an auxiliary rangefinder. Or you just make your best guess -- lots of trial and error involved with that method.

 

The little rangefinders generally will cost you about $15 or so on eBay. As always, make certain that it's accurate.

Is there a depth of field chart on the lens? Also, there might be marks for the hyperfocal distances. If not, get this information in paper form and tape it to the camera to go by. This will get most of pictures taken. If you really need super critial focus, you either need to measure somehow or use a different camera.

Shoot fast film at f8 or better, and take your best guess on the distance. Show us the results.

When I got my Rollei35 SE, I had to learn how to guestamate focus distance. I kept marking off 5,8, and 12 ft and slowly, very slowly trained my eye to remember the distance. I can get with in a few inches, and as said above, F8 or smaller helps covers the distance you might be off.

Here's an easy way to measure the distance, courtesy of Martin Tai:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003HEV

If you like to be at the near end of the focus scale, a shoe mount rangefinder is the best option.

 

Otherwise, try to memorize two or three distances, like 8 feet and 12 feet, learn to use the DOF scale, and you can manage.

I try to visualize distance in terms of things I'm familiar with: My own height, the length of an 8-foot sheet of plywood, the length of my living room, etc..... give it a try, I'll bet you can guess closer than you think.

 

:)=

I agree. The first three cameras I used for any length of time (about 10 years) were a Kodak Vigilant, Monitor, and a Retina Ia. When I finally bought a IIa with a rangefinder it seemed a useless accessory. I am out of practice now but you should rapidly gain estimating experience. I recently bought an Agfa Solinette and am getting used to estimating again. It may be a lot quicker than trying to use a rangefinder, especially in bad light.

Thanks everyone for your timely responses. I will be shooting a roll of Tri-x today, guestimating distances and using the homemade rangefinder from the instruction of Martin Tai. I will have results posted by the end of the week. I can't wait to see how contrasty the pics come out!!!

If it's an important subject, you can always bracket as you might do with exposure. Also you might get out a tape measure and compare the settings with a measured distance as recorded by the camera. Also take a picture with the camera set at infinity of a view with many objects from say 25' to infinity, like a street with a row of houses. Have fun.

My third real camera was a Rollei 35T. I found that guessing distances was much easier than expected, and I rarely muffed a shot by misguessing. Give it your best, Jay, and I think you'll be surprised at how good you are.

 

Get a 20-foot tape measure and measure the distance from you to different objects in a room. First guess and see how close you are.

Plenty of good suggestions here already, and they work, as I've proved to myself with a Retina I. (Wish I was as good estimating exposure as I am estimating distance!) You might want to check out this web page which provides a very approachable write-up of both hyperfocal and zone focussing methods: http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/marine/569/rusrngfdrs/focusing.html

Hi Jay

 

One of the things I've noticed is that the scale on many zone focusing cameras is not a precision indicator. I guess the philosophy in design was that the photographer using these cameras would rely heavily on depth of feild. For that reason all the pocket rangefinders I have accumilated over the years now gather dust in a sideboard drawer. I don't use them at all. I do use the cameras and here are a couple suggestions.

 

Knowing DOF range of your lens is more critical to sharp pictures than knowing the exact distance of your subject. If you don't know the DOF range of your lens there is a freely available DOF calculator you can download, just google DOFmaster. I'm to lazy to look up the URL and tag it here. But if you don't find it let me know and I will post it.

 

As others have posted use a peice of ground glass to adjust your focusing scale. If your experience is like mine when you've adjusted infinity you'll be off the 6ft mark. My suggetion is to adjust 6ft to be accurate because this is the zone around which you'll be calculating DOF most often. If this puts infinity at say the 50ft mark it really won't matter too much since most infinity shots are taken in daylight and well stopped down.

 

For shots that require a shallow DOF, a second camera is the best way to go, one with ground glass or a precision coupled focusing system. Note the word precision because many are not. SLR's and 35mm rangefinders with a reputation for performance will fit the bill, as well as many TRL's in MF, and a handful of top end folders with coupled rangefinders which are accurate at every distance and bright enough in the finder to make them useful.

You can make a simple rangefinder for yourself<p>

 

The following picture is my viewfinder Minox B and Minox C converted

into "rangefinder" cameras"

<center>

<img src="http://www.photo.net/bboard/image?bboard_upload_id=15182584"><P>

</center>

 

For instruction on how to make a paper rangefinder, see

<a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=003HEV">

How to make a paper rangefinder using your pair of eyes</a>

The advise helped very very much. I took a few pictures (with the Xenar) simply to test the shutter speed/lens quality and distance estimate. I am please to say that I am addicted to this classic camera and will be using it camera for much more than the occasional snapshot!!!! Soooo contrasty and sharp!!!!!

 

I would post some pics in this post, but I can't figure out how to get the photos in here....

Jay wrote:"I would post some pics in this post, but I can't figure out how to get the photos in here"<P>

Jay, first of all, you need to get your pictures scanned:<P>

<UL>

<li> scan the original negative with a film scanner, such as Canon FS4000, Minolta 5400 etc

<li> Or scan the prints with a flatbed scanner

<li> Or scanned by photo lab which offers scan to disk service

<li> Or ask a friend to scan for you

</ul>

 

You must scan the picture to jpg, jpeg or gif file format, this

forum does not accept tiff, bitmap format.<P>

When you get the jpg picture files, you can upload here