How to deal with tab-less RF lens?

[Ko.Fe.]

I guess, here is no point to have focusing tab on RF tele lens like 90mm.
Even at 50mm, I could still accept those focal length RF lenses without focusing tab, I don't use f16, but wide apertures. And DOF at large aperture for 50mm isn't deep enough to be comfortable with scale focusing at f1.5.

But RF lens without focusing tab in the range of 35mm and wider doesn't work well for me.
I like to focus not by the scale, but by position of the tab. Most of the time it is accurate enough with wide lens at f2-f2.8.

Plus, if it is dark, I can't see the scale and sometimes it is not so easy to focus with RF patch. Well, I can't see the scale even under good light now sometimes, because my eyes needs glasses for it more and more often.

Few weeks ago I took the LTM Ultron 35 1.7 for indoors reportage and after tabed Skopar 35 PII it was slowing me down. I was looking at the scale, checking RF and it was like losing the moment.

I don't like "put saddle on the pig" solutions a.k.a extra rings with tab to put on the lens focus ring or ugly tabs made from the clay.

Any tricks for quick focusing of tab-less RF lens?

 

[jsrockit]

I like to focus not by the scale, but by position of the tab.

I agree... I always knew, on certain lenses, that if my tab was right under the lens it was at about 5-6 feet.

Honestly, even thought you say you don't like them... these don't look as bad as ones in the past....
https://www.lenstab.com/shop/

 

[B-9]

+1 for the lens tab or #TAAB on Instagram.

I've watched these guys grow, their product is killer, the prices fair!

Check out their Instagram page for examples of their Tab on all sorts of lenses (not just rangefinder either!)

 

[Scapevision]

Can't you use zipties?

 

[tyrone.s]

Can't you use zipties?

Luke, this is your father's ziptie, a tool for a less elegant generation. 🙂

Sure, they're non-permanent. But I've always been tempted to drill and tap a thread hole and turn up a little tab much like the ones some Voigtlander lenses have. Alternatively JB weld a little rounded aluminium tab on. Since I hate selling things, I wouldn't be worried about devaluing a lens.

 

[mdarnton]

I bought a bunch of lenstabs and put them on everything that doesn't have one. I even considered putting one on my 90mm Summicron. I find the position a great clue to where I'm focused, before I put RF to eye.

 

[hepcat]

I've never gotten on with tabbed lenses, so every one I have is tab-less. I always found the tab was just in my way, and if it was an infinity lock, the focus point I wanted was just at the spot you can't easily get to just before it locks.

The trick on a tab-less lens is to return the lens to one stop or the other before you set the focus, and then learn how much 'turn' it takes to get to the needed focus range. It may sound goofy, but instead of your tab being your reference spot, the ends of the scale become your reference points. And, of course, you choose which end of the scale you start at by your likely distances you'll be focusing. You'll find it just as fast as you're used to tab focusing.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Thank you, hepcat.

 

[taemo]

I bought a bunch of lenstabs and put them on everything that doesn't have one. I even considered putting one on my 90mm Summicron. I find the position a great clue to where I'm focused, before I put RF to eye.

do you have the new Voigtlander 35mm and 50mm by any chance?
Thinking of giving the Mini Taab a try on my 50mm 1.5 Nokton ASPH

 

[Dante_Stella]

You just suck it up? Lenses without focusing tabs (<50mm) seem to be in the distinct minority, and if you don't want to stick a tab on one, just get another lens. if a lens is not usable the way you want to use it, it's a fatal defect, and there are always alternatives.

I'm not sure that tabs ever made a difference to me personally, and if anything, physics and biomechanics are not on the side of precision focusing with a tab. If you want to drive a rangefinder with precision, you need a large diameter focusing ring and a slow-rate lens. The fact that you have to turn that outer ring further per unit of optical unit and RF cam movement also cuts down on the slack in the system. With tabs, the focusing rate has to be fast, and you are using your least coordinated finger to pivot a very small-diameter tab. What could go wrong? It should not be a surprise that tabs are often absent from lenses 50mm and longer.

But one trick to use in low light is to mark a colored dot at various points on the focusing ring. They can either be colored according to distance or aperture for hyperfocal distance. One thing that I have not tried yet, but that should work well, is to use Noctilumina or another glow compound in the engravings of the focus and aperture ring.

If the issue is your eyesight, you can buy multi vision reading glasses at a drug store. There are now ones as mild as +1, fading to 0.5 in the middle and 0 at the top.

But as much as you probably don't want to hear it, it sounds like you may be better off with an AF system. I've started to have issues with RFs, and part of it is bad hard-contact fitting, but the way human eyes get in your 40s, difficulties are all but inevitable.

Dante

 

[DavidKKHansen]

Yes, lenses above 50mm don't have tabs... and shouldn't either. However, it's annoying that Leica is being inconsistent with focus tabs for their 50mm lenses. Some Summicrons have them, some don't...

Interestingly, Voigtländer lenses below 50mm have in recent years been released without tabs. I think it's due to the fact that they sell most of their newer lenses to mirrorless users, so a tab in that sense is not wanted.