Focusing?

[MarkoKovacevic]

Hey all,

I haven't been using my 50mm lens on my Leica iii at all lately because I find it difficult to focus perfectly(I shoot a lot of portraits with it) through the RF, and instead I have been using my 15mm, which hardly requires focusing.

Any tips on how to focus more accurately? My lens is perfectly adjusted, so no worries there. My RF is also accurate. Maybe I just need to pay closer attention while focusing? - the 15mm has made me soft.😀

 

[gilpen123]

This is what I do; for posed portrait shots, focus on the eye nearest you or the bridge of the nose, this will ensure you have the part where focus is needed and gradually soften towards the edges. For critical focusing since my eyesight is not that good, when I see the focus point is aligned I'll try to do minor adjustment by moving the focusing tab or ring a little bit left or right and confirm focus. For candid or street shots, set your distance scale to say 3 meters and guesstimate your subject to be at the same distance you set then when you raise the camera to your eye, adjust a bit and make sure you have the smallest possible opening. Of course wider FL will make your DOF wider thus the need to focus accurately is better achieved. I use 28/35 for this purpose under overcast conditions but be prepared for some distortion.

 

[Luddite Frank]

Which 50 are you using ? Are you shooting it wide-open ? If so, try and stop-down as much as possible for max DOF.

Gil mentioned a classic tip on focusing: near-eye / bridge of nose.

Is the "target area" of your portrait out of focus, or is your DOF too shallow ? ( If target is fuzzy, you probably need to focus more carefully.)

From reading my various Morgan & Lester "Leica Manuals", it seems the "classic portrait lenses" for LTM were the 73mm Hektor, 85 mm Summarex, 90 mm Elmar, and the 90mm Thambar, with its center-spot filter.

These lenses afford about 1/2 the DOF range of the 50 mm prime lenses...


It may be worthwhile for you to shoot a test roll with your favorite 50 mm lens, using a statue, bust or other "fixed" head, and a tripod, and run the gamut of EV, from wide-open to fully stopped-down, also using a tape-measure to accurately plot your "film-to-target" distance. Record your exposure data for each shot, so that you can review the results, and see which aperture gives you the results you desire.

This will give you a benchmark for that particular lens, so that you can better "pre-set" your portrait shots.

( How certain are you that your 50mm lens and RF are properly calibrated ?)

 

[MarkoKovacevic]

My 'target area' is out of focus. I'm certain my RF and lens are calibrated, i just had the lens [Jupiter 8] CLA'd recently, and i focused on a close, simple object[stick] and it was perfect. I'm having trouble with portraits because the face is so complicated and there is not a simple line to focus on, rather a lot of complicated things.

 

[MartinP]

It might be handy initially to focus by the finger then, as the subject inevitably moves a little, to lean slightly forwards or backwards yourself to keep the focus you want. This is assuming that you don't have the subject in a head-brace and the camera on a tripod of course ! The 'pop' effect, when the relevant body-part is at maximum contrast, might also be easier than concentrating on over laying the two images within the patch ? I must admit to having tried this generally with (large) animals, and not people though - maybe humans can listen to instructions not to wriggle.

 

[MartinP]

Ooops, is the Leica IIIc a model with separate v/f and r/f eyepieces ? That would make it slightly more tricky, but not impossibly so.

 

[MarkoKovacevic]

Yep, separate. I'm having trouble with having a complicated focus target, eg the eye.

 

[elmer3.5]

Vf

Vf

Hi, i had a III-f and had a few problems with it.

I managed to put a red film on one of the rf windows (right one) to get more contrast, it helped a considerably.
Also I covered the built in viewfinder cos it was very distracting when using the accesory vf.
With the 50 elmar, required more practice changing eyes. After selling it i really miss she!

With these modifications easy and accurate focusing was achieved very quickly.

Since rf is like 1.5 mag it´s very complicated to focus on closer subjects, sometimes the red film plays against when used under low light.

Bye

 

[John Shriver]

You may need the half-silvered mirror in the rangefinder replaced. Both images should be equally bright.

I presume you've adjusted the diopter on the RF window for best sharpness for your eyes.

It is also quite possible that the camera body is out of adjustment in some way, either flange-film distance, or rangefinder calibration. Send the lens and camera together to a Leica expert.

 

[MarkoKovacevic]

My RF is perfectly aligned, very bright, and the diopter is fine. I think it's just the complicatedness of the face, and that I'm not taking that much care in focusing?

 

[Al Kaplan]

Some subjects are difficult to focus the a superimposed rangefinder - continuous patterns for instance. The Leica rangefinder is unique in having sharp clearly defined edges on the focusing patch. Try using it a split image rangefinder with part of the thing you're focusing on inside the patch, part outside.

Another thing to try is based on image contrast. When the images in the patch align there's a sudden jump in contrast, but it seems that some of us see it while others don't notice it at all.

 

[Nikon Bob]

I have had problems if I do not take care to have my eye in the proper place on the RF window and that has thrown the focus out a bit at times.

Bob

 

[MarkoKovacevic]

ry using it a split image rangefinder with part of the thing you're focusing on inside the patch, part outside.

Too bad I can't take most of the advice, as my Leica has separate VF/RF windows.

 

[Luddite Frank]

Too bad I can't take most of the advice, as my Leica has separate VF/RF windows.

I have a III for my daily shooter; once you've focused correctly, shifting your eye from the RF to the VF window shouldn't change focus...

I find enough "peripheral view" in the Rangefinder window to use the RF as a "split-image" finder, as Al describes... I try to find vertical lines in the subject area to aid in focusing.

My normal rig for shooting is the III (1934), Elmar 35 (uncoated), and a Nikon Varifocal finder. I leave the finder mounted on the camera, even when chucking it into the bag when done shooting.

I tend to use the acc'y finder even when shooting the 50mm prime lens.


How close to the subject are you when you're trying to shoot "portraits" ?

 

[MarkoKovacevic]

I'll try to start looking for vertical lines to focus on then! I'm around a meter and a bit away - my portraits are pretty close up.

 

[Luddite Frank]

Hmmm, not much DOF to help you that close; focus carefully, and stop down to 5,6 or 8, if you can.

 

[payasam]

I've used a IIIc (and also a Zorki 1C) at f/1.5 with tolerable results. I did what Gil advises.

I should think that Al knew that he was speaking of a camera with two eye-pieces.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Mukul, I was shooting Leicas for 6 or 7 years before I could afford an M body, and for another year or two I still had a LTM body also. The two eyepiece thing isn't that big a deal. At least they're right next to one another. With an accessory finder in the shoe it gets more irksome. Still, I think that learning to use the backwards image in a twin lens reflex is a bigger challenge.

 

[MarkoKovacevic]

I agree with Al - separate finders are really not that big of a deal, though I would enjoy being able to 'see outside the framelines', as you can on most M bodies.

 

[Al Kaplan]

A lot of seperate finders have a bright line and you can see beyond that. With a bit of practice you can look through the finder with one eye for framing while keeping tabs on the rest of the world with the other eye, even if the magnification isn't the same.