Tried and true faster focusing for the street with a 50mm.

Coldkennels said:
Considering a good chunk of early Leica street photography was shot with a 50/3.5 Elmar... shooting wide open with that isn't going to lose you a lot, especially at the sort of working distances you use for street shooting.

I don't get this thread at all, though. What's wrong with zone focusing and/or the muscle memory of constantly using a good tabbed lens? It's not rocket science.
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& we've yet to see the actual statement. "A Pro In London" search on youtube brings up all kinds of unrelated stuff.
 
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Richard G said:
This is the most confusing thread I’ve ever seen on RFF. Raid’s maximum aperture - aperture number, smaller aperture; backing up, backing off, either with the feet going backwards, or backing off from infinity focus; or backing off from close focus. And each successive correspondent contributes as though the othe inhabitants of this unexpected Tower of Babel were all perfectly intelligible. It’s partly that we are all sufficiently informed and clever and experienced to make something of this mess.
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What is unclear about using the term Maximum Aperture?
Deardorff38 said:
Like any rule..... meant to be broken.
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It was several RFF members who attended with me the special 90 minutes+ presentation by Peter Karbe. I also do not take his comment about using lenses "always" wide open as a mandatory rule to follow. In many scenes, I favor apertures 8~11 for clarify across the entire image. On the other had, images can look nice when using lenses wide open. The modern lenses such as the CV 50/1 are very challenging to use wide open.
Rules are meant to be broken. I understand.
 
raid said:
What is unclear about using the term Maximum Aperture?

It was several RFF members who attended with me the special 90 minutes+ presentation by Peter Karbe. I also do not take his comment about using lenses "always" wide open as a mandatory rule to follow. In many scenes, I favor apertures 8~11 for clarify across the entire image. On the other had, images can look nice when using lenses wide open. The modern lenses such as the CV 50/1 are very challenging to use wide open.
Rules are meant to be broken. I understand.
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Raid, is the CV f1 a lens you would choose for street photography in general?
 
Yes, I do. I use different lenses for different effects. The CV 50/1 is an amazingly execllent lens at any aperture chosen. It main negatives are size and weight. The CV 50/2 APO is another amazingly excellent lens. It also is a heavy lens. I have tiny 50mm lenses that Brian S adapted for me to M mount, so I have other options. My favorite lens may be a Zeiss Sonnar 5cm/1.5 in ltm mount. It is small and light.
 
I apologise Raid, I so clearly ignored the detail confirming you said what you meant. But I can’t agree with Peter Karbe. That was Thorsten Overgaard’s contention too.

With street photography one doesn’t need hyperfocal focussing to include infinity to be sharp.

So is this backing off then that one should return the lens to infinity before the next shot, so you know where the tab is and you can more quickly pull it to 5m rather than leave the focus at 1.5m after shooting John Lennon’s Patek Philippe in the shop window and then seeing Yoko unexpectedly getting out of a car at the next corner you miss the shot because you can’t find the tab. Is it perhaps Alan Schaller who made this proposal? To me this would make sense and ties in everything Coldkennels says, as it is precisely the 50 Elmar, and especially my 11 o’clock Elmar, where I lose the focus lever when I’ve been in close, delaying a shot. It’s a shorter lens mount rotation from infinity to 3m than it is from 0.7m to 3m. If you can find the tab even.

To summarise: cross that street with the lens at infinity so you always know where the tab is, and then back off the focus distance from infinity to the zone focus distance, which is a very quick movement. This is Leica photography but with an added human element procedural set up step.
 
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raid said:
Yes, I do. I use different lenses for different effects. The CV 50/1 is an amazingly execllent lens at any aperture chosen. It main negatives are size and weight. The CV 50/2 APO is another amazingly excellent lens. It also is a heavy lens. I have tiny 50mm lenses that Brian S adapted for me to M mount, so I have other options. My favorite lens may be a Zeiss Sonnar 5cm/1.5 in ltm mount. It is small and light.
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Raid, you do have unique personal preferences for your travel lenses. (the 50mm f1 & the 16mm)
Bill the original poster hasn't checked back in to clarify his statement. "f11 .... 1/500th of a second....& back off to focus."
I'm not much a 50mm user... first of all if street photography was really my thing.... * a lens with a focus tab. 100%.... and a 35/28/21..... my 50s mostly gather dust.
 
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Years ago, at a photo exhibit opening, we were standing around chatting. "We" included the photographer, one of those Magnum guys with his M6 and Summicron hanging around his neck. Someone asked him why he was not using an automatic camera. Without losing eye contact, he quickly diddled with aperture, shutter speed, and focus. Never looking at his camera, he handed it to the questioner, asking "how's this?" It was perfect. Mr. Magnum said it was about the only camera he used, so he just knew how it worked.

I almost always shot with a ZI and 28mm Biogon, so tried his technique. I always kept the aperture and shutter set to the current lighting situation and subconsciously adjusted the focus as I moved in and out of crowds. At any time, I knew where everything was set. I carried my camera in my hand so knowing I was already set as f5.6, 1/1000, focused at 8 feet, or whatever, I could make one instantaneous tweak and shoot in a fraction of a second. I never had to start from scratch.

One thing I didn't count on was developing macular degeneration and ending up relying on auto everything since I can't read the dials or focus now.
 
Richard G said:
I apologise Raid, I so clearly ignored the detail confirming you said what you meant. But I can’t agree with Peter Karbe. That was Thorsten Overgaard’s contention too.

With street photography one doesn’t need hyperfocal focussing to include infinity to be sharp.

So is this backing off then that one should return the lens to infinity before the next shot, so you know where the tab is and you can more quickly pull it to 5m rather than leave the focus at 1.5m after shooting John Lennon’s Patek Philippe in the shop window and then seeing Yoko unexpectedly getting out of a car at the next corner you miss the shot because you can’t find the tab. Is it perhaps Alan Schaller who made this proposal? To me this would make sense and ties in everything Coldkennels says, as it is precisely the 50 Elmar, and especially my 11 o’clock Elmar, where I lose the focus lever when I’ve been in close, delaying a shot. It’s a shorter lens mount rotation from infinity to 3m than it is from 0.7m to 3m. If you can find the tab even.

To summarise: cross that street with the lens at infinity so you always know where the tab is, and then back off the focus distance from infinity to the zone focus distance, which is a very quick movement. This is Leica photography but with an added human element procedural set up step.
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No harm done, Richard. I don't follow Thorsten Overgaard. I get too many marketing emails from his shop. I don't want to attend any workshops.
Peter Karbe may have meant to say (maybe) that when it is applicable and useful to do, use your Leica lens wide open because they have been designed to perform well wide open. Either way, it was very special to sit in the same room as Peter Karbe.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Years ago, at a photo exhibit opening, we were standing around chatting. "We" included the photographer, one of those Magnum guys with his M6 and Summicron hanging around his neck. Someone asked him why he was not using an automatic camera. Without losing eye contact, he quickly diddled with aperture, shutter speed, and focus. Never looking at his camera, he handed it to the questioner, asking "how's this?" It was perfect. Mr. Magnum said it was about the only camera he used, so he just knew how it worked.

I almost always shot with a ZI and 28mm Biogon, so tried his technique. I always kept the aperture and shutter set to the current lighting situation and subconsciously adjusted the focus as I moved in and out of crowds. At any time, I knew where everything was set. I carried my camera in my hand so knowing I was already set as f5.6, 1/1000, focused at 8 feet, or whatever, I could make one instantaneous tweak and shoot in a fraction of a second. I never had to start from scratch.

One thing I didn't count on was developing macular degeneration and ending up relying on auto everything since I can't read the dials or focus now.
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Good luck, Bob. Sorry to hear about your macular degeneration. I am glad that we have cameras with Auto !
 
Deardorff38 said:
Raid, you do have unique personal preferences for your travel lenses. (the 50mm f1 & the 16mm)
Bill the original poster hasn't checked back in to clarify his statement. "f11 .... 1/500th of a second....& back off to focus."
I'm not much a 50mm user... first of all if street photography was really my thing.... * a lens with a focus tab. 100%.... and a 35/28/21..... my 50s mostly gather dust.
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Well, the 50/1 can also be used at smaller lens openings such as 8~11, but the 16mm Hologon is fixed at F 8 and at F11 when used with the ND special filter.
 
wrs1145 said:
I apologize for the redundancy if mentioned here before, but here's a method for fast focusing that I picked up on YouTube recently: from a Pro in London Set aperture at f/8 or f11, then back off to focus. Set shutter speed at 500. Voila! that's it.

Best of luck,
Bill
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Sorry, I'm lost in translation. What is "back off to focus"?
I'm just trying to understand how it is related to rangefinder 50 mm lenses....
 
Ko.Fe. said:
Sorry, I'm lost in translation. What is "back off to focus"?
I'm just trying to understand how it is related to rangefinder 50 mm lenses....
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Me too..... "back off to focus" still hasn't been explained KF.
 
back off to focus ...................... could he have meant to write "do not refocus" and use the set distance for F 11 or so?
 
raid said:
back off to focus ...................... could he have meant to write "do not refocus" and use the set distance for F 11 or so?
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Raid, unless Bill explains what he meant.... it's anybody's guess isn't it.
 
raid said:
back off to focus ...................... could he have meant to write "do not refocus" and use the set distance for F 11 or so?
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F11 on 50 doesn't give everything in focus. It is two zones.
But if we would take earlier HCB approach of four meters and more with 50, it will do.
 
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