Back to Basics ? Non rangefinder Fed ?

[dee]

It's strange , having been seduced by Leicas and like-a-likes from Zorki and Fed , I am intending to buy an adapter for my24 / 28 / 35 mc /md Rokkors for my treasured M 8 , which means a return to '' primitive '' scale focusing , eased by the instant imaging .

Following intensive practise , with the M 8 , i am prompted to buy a Zara Fed or even a Leica 1 , which could be a kind of release from the constant worry over the precise focusing point . it would make no difference in reality to using a rangefinder , but there is something satisfying about the simplicity ...

Any comments ?

dee-mented ?

 

[mnmleung]

Dee, I am currently using a Nikon D50 with manual focus AI / AI-S lenses. I often guess distance (scale focussing) rather than try to focus via the finder when using 20mm and 28mm lenses. I use the histogram sometimes to determine exposure. I think this is similar to what you are talking about. I like it, because it separates the focus / exposure from framing and timing. Ming

 

[wolves3012]

Dee,

I often use hyperfocal distance to save the time of focussing, on a wide-angle lens it's very useful. Scale-focussing or hyperfocal focussing is plenty good enough for many situations. I think I spend too much time determining exact focus in many situations, where I lose sight of the fact that focus is truly accurate in a flat plane only. So far I've had few shots where bad focus was a serious issue...go for it!

 

[payasam]

Simplicity is often a virtue, but we should not forget that the R/F of the Leica II was taken to be what it was, a great convenience.

 

[QUAsit]

It is not `Zara` - it is `Zarya` (Заря)

 

[Nickfed]

I am intending to buy an adapter for my24 / 28 / 35 mc /md Rokkors for my treasured M 8 , which means a return to '' primitive '' scale focusing , eased by the instant imaging .

dee-mented ?

Go for it. Quite a lot of wide angle lenses made for rangefinder camareas have no coupling cam anyway.

An alternative is to have the satisfaction of having the RF windows obscured...

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=42411&d=1173971242

 

[350D_user]

Being hopeless with scale/guess focussing, I've taken to remembering a couple of hyperfocal settings. Basically, a 35mm lens, set at 20m, you're good for any aperture from about f2 onwards.

Well, it works for my Leica Standard anyway. 🙂

 

[dee]

Well , my M 8 is set up with adapter to screw lenses . So i shall buy a Minolta SR to Leica screw adapter for £ 62 - and practise on my M 8 - here the 1.33 magnification works in my favour , 'cos i retain the depth of field of the 24 mm , but get a useable 32mm lense , or a 28mm as a 37mm and that magic 35 mm f 1.8 as a nominally 47mm lense - all for '' free ''. This has relieved me of the worry of having to buy more Leica lenses to extend the M 8 experience ... and that 135 mm F 3.5 , is going to be a usefull long distance optic - even if it is restricted to infinity !

when I bought the m 8 , I had no idea that I could use my SLR lenses !

thanks to everyone .

dee