Focus illuminator for RF?

[piero2025]

Hello friends,

I just got my beautiful Bessa R, and I wondered how to focus at nighttime, when using a flash or even in bulb mode.
I figured, I could attach one of these hyper-powerful, zoomable mini LED flashlights to the camera, turn it on with a click just the time to focus and then turn it off.

Does it sound like something that would work? I am very new to rangefinders.

 

[kram]

If there is enough light to photograph something, there is nirmally enough to focus on, or an object at a similar distance. With wide angle lenses can always guess the distance, comes with practice. Have done this with a 40mm lens.

 

[OlivierAOP]

You could shine a laser through the eyepiece and the dots would converge where the lens is focused. Fun experiment but not practical.

 

[JoeV]

You could shine a laser through the eyepiece and the dots would converge where the lens is focused. Fun experiment but not practical.

Or shine a laser dot on the subject and it should be visible in the rangefinder patch? Just be careful what you shine it on!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Buy graflex with rangefinder unit which has flashligh RF beam. I used to have one. Focus with it, take note of the distance, adjust lens distance on R for the same.

Or realize what if you can't focus because it is dark, you won't have correct exposure anyway, even if you are pushing @6400. This is even more practical note from my years of using film RF, including R.

Or use tripod, release cable and light meter app on the phone. Degerming how many seconds you will need to expose for the aperture allowing to use DOF scale instead of RF focusing,
Put camera on the tripod, frame, adjust focus scale to have object in DOF and use B, release cable to make an exposure.

Anything on the distance, like magnificent landscape, needs no RF, just slide it to infinity (all way to the right, if you are holding camera in front of you)