How do you focus with your M?

hi there!<br>

here is another one of my R-System-User questions:<p>

After I recently had the opportunity to get a M7 in my hands (which I'd like to buy some

day when the budget allows it), one question remains for me, because it is so different to

SLR:<br>

How do you focus with your M? I mean, of course I managed to do it and know how it

works technically. But I found it to be so difficult with only the little rectangle in the

middle. So what is your approach for focusing? Some kind of "zone focusing", or do you

first focus the main subject and compose the photo afterwards then shoot?

<br>

Instead of what I heard and read before (fast focusing with a rangefinder), I really found it

pretty difficult and - for me - very unusual. I hope you know what I want to ask, thanks for

any replies and explanations.

Center the part of the subject you want in focus, turn the lens until the images align, compose and push release! After awhile you'll stop thinking about it. It's easiest to keep the lens at infinity so you always know which way to turn the lens to focus when focusing. Don't be fussy, turning it back and forth. When the two images come together you're there. Period. I prefer tabbed lenses for 50mm and shorter. Not only are they easier to turn (with one finger!) but after some practice you subconciously know about where they're focussed just by feel. Have faith. It WILL get easier. And as you age and your eyesight worsens you'll still be able to tell when the images come together even when you can no longer see if your SLR image is in focus without glasses. I speak from experience on that one!

There are several techniques:

 

1. Raise camera to eye; choose point of focus; find focus by turning lens barrel from position you left it in last; compose; click

 

2. After shooting recent frame or series of frames reset your lens to either infinity or minimum distance; when you want to focus on the next subject you only have to turn the barrel in one direction

 

3. Anticipate or estimate distance of subject; set focus by scale on lens barrel; raise camera to eye; choose point of focus; adjust focus from estimated distance

 

In fact you could apply all those methods to SLRs, too.

Markus, I realize your difficulty. I used the R7 exclusively before i switched to the M6 recently. It takes a bit of practice to get the rangefinder to superimpose the 'ghost' image of the focusing target. All I can say is that it takes quite some hours of practise to get focusing fast and accurate. Deviation from the 'WYSIWG' system of the reflex R, the M system represents a very interesting way of photography..

 

Anyway, I first meter the important area of my picture before I focus on the composition itself. Just think of it as a rangefinder, and not a thru the lens system. This really makes you think hard before pressing the shutter release..

 

Have fun... :-)

<i>And as you age and your eyesight worsens you'll still be able to tell when the images

come together even when you can no longer see if your SLR image is in focus without

glasses.</i><p>

Well, an argument to buy a M immediately, because my eyesight is already worse. ;):)<br>

Very helpful answers, thanks.<p>

The biggest difficulty I encountered was to focus on a lampshade with a 90mm, because

on the lampshade (complete in black) there only was a pattern of lines I could focus on. It

was nearly impossible without experience with a rangefinder. On the R I simply would have

fucused by telling a blurry image in the viewfinder from a sharp one. With the M, I had to

get the lines "together". Wow... ;)

Markus after an SLR, focussing with a rangefinder camera can be a bit of a challenge

to start with. But be forewarned once you have become acquainted with it you will

never go back to the tunnel vision of an R or worse.

 

I�m just like all the other M freaks and I like to think of myself as a later day Cartier

Bresson so I steadfastly refuse to use the RF mechanism that I paid many hundred of

dollars for.

 

On a serious note, I tend to use the DoF scales and set the lens at the hyperfocal

distance to maximise DoF for the aperture required. Occasionally I refine this to more

typical �zone focussing� (I do dislike that term) where approach the subject and make

the exposure when I�m in the �zone�. This pre-focusing allows me to work more

fluidly and lets me concentrate on the subject. The advantage of doing this with and

RF as opposed to an R is that the view remains in focus throughout.

 

Where the plain of focus is important, ie with large apertures, longer lenses and

where I�m trying to restrict DoF I use the RF.

 

There is a good thread on this subject recently posted on the new Street and Doco

forum, Zone Focus by Herbert Villa

 

Craig

Markus, with mainly horizontal lines in the RF patch you will get accustomed to turning the M to quickly focus diagonally. Turn it back, compose and click! :-) I find myself obsessing about focus much more with SLRs.

A photo guru told me how every picture needs to have a 'nose' as he put it, a beginning - someting which should catch the eye first, the 'focus point' of the image. The little rf patch forces me to look out for this most important thing in the frame to focus on. This thing (preferably an eye) is always something easily focussable, something contrasty, hence something of visual interest. Somehow the ground glass and split prism of my slr would be more forgiving in this respect: its easier focussing on less contrasty things makes it easier to pick the wrong this to focus on. (I wonder if anyone else has the same experience or maybe it's just me - or maybe i've read it somewhere else long ago)

come to think of it, maybe it was the camera salesman who first tried to lure me into Leica by extolling (or making up?) the virtues of RF focussing... like, yes, it's harder to focus but that's good because therefore it will give you better pictures. I'm afraid a good salesman can sell me anything.

Markus, I also come from an SLR background and I was used to twiddling the lens back and forth. I found the M difficult to begin with. All the advice above is good but key for me was Al's always set the lens at infinity, only focus in one direction, and don't go back and forth. And as Lutz says, swivel the camera plane until you get something close to a vertical in the viewfinder. Once you get the hang of it, it really is much clearer and faster than an SLR!

Speaking of Henri Cartier-Bresson and focusing, I thought this

comment was interesting. It's from a 2001 thread about HCB's

favorite lens. It was written by David Kelly:

 

Having virtually internalized the depth of field of the 50 at all

apertures, Cartier-Bresson much preferred to shoot by adjusting

only that, keeping the shutter permanently at 125 and the

distance at 4 meters, which he marked on the lens with red nail

polish. "That's my life -keeping a certain distance from things,"

he told a questioner. So it was wise but also maybe a little self

-serving for him to state "It is by strict economy of means that

simplicity of expression is achieved."

Bill, interesting story. And it fits with another story about how badly exposed his negatives are, a hell to print!

"USE THE FORCE....MARKUS"

 

I'm only half kidding. After SLR focusing, you need to have a certain amount of

faith in your rangefinder focusing technique. These are all super

recommendations you are getting in this thread but you will only make these

techniques your own if you go out and practice. You don't have to wait until

you can afford an M7 to do this. You can purchase one of the dozens of small

rangefinder cameras produced in the 60's and 70's for very reasonable

prices. See Steven Gandy's site here: http://www.cameraquest.com/

classics.htm . Go to the "compact 35" link, pick out your favorite and get to

work. Many have AE, so you can focus on.....well....your focusing technique.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

D.P., well, they managed to get a few of them to come out. ;-)

 

I thought it was interesting that HCB estimated his normal

shooting distance at 4 meters (12 feet) and pre-set his focus

there. Of course, he's shooting mostly people and street scenes.

To me, it seems easier to pre-set focus at a distance like 4

meters than at infinity. Most candid people shots, I suspect, are

in the 4 meter range, so there would be less focusing

necessary, only a minor adjustment. I don't know why anyone

would begin to focus on a normal scene in the wrong direction,

even if they were in a big hurry. If the image is off to the left in the

rangefinder patch, focus to the right until it lines up. It's very

intuitive. But I can understand how it would be confsing with the

lampshade pattern mentioned above.

One aspect hasn't been mentioned yet: the "problem" of the moving focus plane when re-composing by tilting: If you work with very limited DOF and e.g. want best focus let's say in the eyes but want a composition where these eyes are not in the center of the frame, if you then re-compose by tilting your M by some degrees, such a tilt obviously causes the plane of focus to tilt as well, and by that obviously the focus plane does not run through those eyes any more, but is behind the eyes by a couple of centimeters, e.g. running through the ears.

 

With very limited DOF, this effect is very noticeable. There are several threads in the archives discussing this. One has to learn some techniques to avoid it, e.g. re-compose not by tilting the camera but by sliding sideways or up- or downwards, or when tilting, just also slightly bending back by those few centimeters.

Over the years, I have learned to use the DOF scale on the lens and I rely on it heavily. There's a reason it's there. When I was in school, I had to complete an excercise that has served me well over time. I had to set up ten objects each one farther away from me than the next. Then using only changes in aperture, the DOF scale and distance estimates, I had to take a picture of each object. It's great training. It's funny, even today when I focus I think of that excercise.

 

Of course, I still use the focusing patch. And then there's a sunny day along with F.16 which will always get you a lot of focus.

In my post above, when I said "If the image is off to the left in the

rangefinder patch, focus to the right until it lines up," I was

referring to horizontal composition, of course. Shooting vertical

with an M is a little more tricky. In that case, I prefer to foucs with

the camera in horizontal position, then turn it vertical to compose

the photo.

Most folks with manual focus SLR's still focus in the center, whether via microprosm, split image rangefinder, or plain ground glass, because it's hard to focus on the fresnel lens with all those lines it has.

Markus: Pay close attention to Christoph's post concerning tilting the focal

plane to recompose. As he says, as you come closer to your subject and use

wider apertures, some of the techniques outlined in this thread, begin to fail

miserably. Also, be aware of difference in perspective from the viewer to the

lens. The viewer adequately deals with parallax, but it cannot deal with the

change in the relationship between objects near and far. Try holding your

hand at an angle in front of your face, fingers pointing up. Now view it with

only one eye open. Notice the relationship between the fingers. Now quickly

switch eyes and observe the different relationships and spaces between the

fingers. With your hand still in position, switch eyes back and forth quickly.

This gives you an idea of change in perspective caused by not viewing

through the lens. You do sacrifice a degree of perspective accuracy with a

rangefinder. But if the rangefinder's primary strengths are of importance to

your work, this effect can be rationalized. I also have developed some

effective techniques for dealing with this phenomena involving an auxiliary

finder. Contact me off-line if you're interested.

Here's <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006a5w">one of the threads</a> dealing with the topic Christoph brought up.

Thanks for this question Markus and you guys - thanks for these answers. Speaking as a new rangefinder user these are all the questions that immediately came up for me. The answers here to ease focusing are a gift to me who has seen pictures in the last month that I really wanted pass right through my viewfinder without getting in the camera because I was wildly swinging from near focus to infinity looking for the focus in the little patch. Sometimes where I want the focus is not contrasty or vertical enough to focus it. Sometimes my focus point is moving and my hands and mind don�t automatically turn the ring in the right direction. All the while the entire scene is visible in the viewfinder. That�s a major difference and advantage over SLR. I think sometimes my eye gets off axis I think but I loose one of the frame lines and end up cutting off people�s feet. And my hand automatically turns the camera portrait when I see a vertical composition and then I have to turn the camera back horizontal to focus it and the back to portrait to snap. I spite of all these obstacles I am amazed that I am able to capture something I like. There�s a qualitative difference with shots from the Leica. I can�t pinpoint it yet. The world looks different to me through Leica lenses and I like the way it looks. The focused image is tack sharp when I can manage it and the bokeh is peerless.

You can quickly learn to focus your camera no matter which way it's positioned. You can just as easily align two horzontal images, a roof or the horizon, for instance. Just practice! You don't even need fil to do that.

I know it will become automatic in time, like riding a bicycle. Right now I am still falling down a lot but the thrill when you make all the way to the bottom of the hill is exhilarating.

For about ten years I used an M6 with the same 35mm Summicron, complete with a focusing tab. For dynamic scenes I'd estimate the focus and composition with the camera away from my eye (particularly easy with a 35mm where the distance between you and the subject is similar to the distance covered by the long side of the negative), I'd roughly set the focus by touch using the focusing tab. Then raise the camera and shoot, only refocusing for a second shot.

 

For street photography at f8 it was faster and more sure footed than any auto-focus system I've ever used.

 

Then I got more money, bought more lenses, and discovered the focusing tab settings aren't the same across all lenses! It's a good argument for keeping it simple with a stripped down outfit that you know intimately.

Thank you all, i am amazed. I didn't expect so many answers. Now I print this thread! ;)