Framing 40mm on M4?

[matt fury]

So my quest for a 50 has taken me to the doorstep of a 40mm Rokkor. It's just so damn cheap (compared to the other stuff I'm looking at) that it's hard to pass up without some serious consideration. But my nagging question is, what's framing like with only 35 & 50 framelines? I know that the 50 is way too small, but I hear that you can use the inside of the 35mm lines and you'll have it exactly...is this true? I'm not in love with the "guessing a distance between the 50 & 35" method. Are there any easy ways to frame the 40 fairly accurately? I don't need to print full-frame every time, I just don't want every exposure to be a total surprise.

 

[vrgard]

Others can opine better than I regarding exactly where their camera's framelines line up with their 40mm lens. In my personal experience, using a 40mm Rokkor on a Leica M6 where the Rokkor mount has been shaved a bit to bring up the 35mm framelines, I have found no problem using the 40mm lens and haven't really noticed exactly where the line gets drawn (pun intended). In other words, I shoot knowing that I'm not getting all of the 35mm frame but also knowing that I get most of it and have yet to have inadvertently cut off anything important in the resulting image. So, particularly given the wonderfully low price of the 40mm Rokkor combined with it's image taking ability, I say just mount it and shoot with it and adjust your viewpoint as needed if at all. (note: I'm not trying to be snippy with that last remark. I'm just trying to convey that in my experience it just hasn't been any problem.)

 

[ywenz]

isn't it always better to use the 50 lines for a 40mm lens? this way, you are never at risk of cutting ppl's head off.

 

[VictorM.]

Here's the framing on my M4-2 with a 40mm Summicron C at minimum distance (so the framing will be at its tightest). This is a standard size dart board. The edge of the board was just touching the inside of the 35mm frame lines. I sometimes have problems with cutting off bits here and there, but the lens is one of the best I have ever owned.

 

[matt fury]

Wow, thanks Victor, that's incredibly useful! Sorry if this is a dumb question, but would it be safe to say that the framing would be about the same on the left and right sides?

 

[VictorM.]

Yes, the left and right are cut off about the same...but it's funny, when I used a Canon 35/1.8 on an M2, I was forever cropping slightly in the darkroom.