Intro: new "L" owner

J

JohnR

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Dec 2, 2005
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Location
Sydney, Australia
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Hi folks 🙂 I am about a roll and a half into my new Bessa "L" with 25/4 CV lens. OK it's not really a range-finder but I assume it's OK to talk about here anyway... The main problem I have had so far is forgetting to set the focus properly :bang: Yeah I know I'm an idiot. Not having a reminder in the finder makes it more difficult than I expected.

I live in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney. I'm mostly interested in photographing the flora (the Angophora costata and the spotted gum are incredible trees) and some cafe life. Purely for fun... see you soon with some pics (I hope!!) 🙂

JohnR
 
Yeah it got me too.

I had years with SLR's where the focus is obvious, then almost ten years with a Leice Minilux which handles the focus for you.

I went back to a rangefinder and... focus problems. I felt like I was Homer Simpson with my nice expensive camera and a roll of out of focus shots. Doh!

You are not the first person to make this error. I claim that prize!
 
Hi John - welcome to the forum! We need more Aussies in here!

I'm looking forward to seeing some shots with that combo - how about some Darling Harbour weekend shots? I came this close to buying that lens recently. Have you discovered how to use the depth-of-field scale yet? My only lens near that focal length is a 24mm slr lens, but at f16 the depth-of-field (the range of acceptably sharp focus) is from 0.65m to infinity! Stick to fast film, small aperture, and use the DOF scale and you'll never have focusing problems again!

(Apologies if this is old news to you!)
 
nemjo said:
Be carefull with RFs.
You can leave tha cap on them. Even when perfectly focussed...
Click to expand...

Heh, I probably would have done that as well if it weren't for the TTL metering... !

Anyway, nearly done with the first two rolls. First time in seven years. Enjoying the 25mm "perspective" so far 🙂 Chris, yes, let's meet up sometime. Lemme see how these rolls come back, in case it's a complete disaster :bang:
 
Be careful John. I started with an L and a 25. Then, well, I just HAD to see, so I got an R. What about a normal view? Ok, let's add the 35 skopar.

Hmmm, this is neat. Wow, what a great year end bonus! Now I can get the M6. I really do like the 25 wide. I wonder what happens if I try the 15? The 12 now? Now I want to buy the 12?!?

Hey, that's awfully cheap for a 35mm Summicron. Nut's, my kids don't need braces, their teeth will fall out in 60-70 years anyway. I'll take that one too!

Anyway. Forgetting focusing, leaving the cap on, etc etc, one of the main problems I have is deciding whether I want to decide which lenses to bring for the day, or whether I can walk all day carrying all this crap without having to stop in the ER at 5 o'clock.

Welcome to the fold. You're gonna love it

d
 
Hi John

Welcome to the forum and hope to see some of your shots soon. Welcome also to the don't forget to focus and remove the lens cap club. I have no TTL metering so I still get blank frames. Sydney is a wonderful city.

Bob
 
ducttape said:
Be careful John. I started with an L and a 25. Then, well, I just HAD to see, so I got an R. What about a normal view? Ok, let's add the 35 skopar.

Hmmm, this is neat. Wow, what a great year end bonus! Now I can get the M6. I really do like the 25 wide. I wonder what happens if I try the 15? The 12 now? Now I want to buy the 12?!?

Hey, that's awfully cheap for a 35mm Summicron. Nut's, my kids don't need braces, their teeth will fall out in 60-70 years anyway. I'll take that one too!
Click to expand...
Heh. That sounds awfully like my story.

My name is Mark, and I'm a GASaholic. I haven't made a photography-related purchase in... 5 days.
 
This year for me has been like ducttape's story too. Two camera bodies and four lenses, all in a four month period, and I sold just one lens that I wasn't using much. Luckily I've managed to stop. 🙄

 
JohnR said:
The main problem I have had so far is forgetting to set the focus properly
Click to expand...
It's indeed easy to forget, but fortunately, there's a lot of DOF. So you'll still have a fair share of keepers.

There is a school of thought that says that for an optimum sharpness balance throughout the near-far range, you should always focus at infinity and close down far enough to resolve nearby detail. When focused at inifinity, items that are larger [Thanks to NickR. for spotting an error here, I had originally typed 'smaller', see his mail below] than the physical aperture size are still resolved even if they're closer than infinity.

I now keep my 25/4 at infinity unless I work really close (1.5m or closer), but everytime I change scenes I refocus to infinitiy again. This routine gets me a good amount of keepers, even though like you I had the habit of forgetting to focus every shot.
 
Last edited:
pvdhaar said:
There is a school of thought that says that for an optimum sharpness balance throughout the near-far range, you should always focus at infinity and close down far enough to resolve nearby detail.
Click to expand...
Agree with the basic concept of leaving the lens at some near-optimal general-purpose focusing distance. But more effective than leaving it at infinity is leaving it at the "hyperfocal" distance. Opposite the distance scale of the lens, on either side of the distance index mark, there are f/stop marks going both ways. If you set the infinity symbol at the f/stop mark matching your actual lens opening, then you'll enjoy the maximum use of the available depth of field, which now extends all the way from infinity down to something relatively close (as indicated opposite the f/stop mark on the other side of the index mark from where the infinity was set). A good general-purpose walk-around setting... 🙂 Hmm, hard to improve on that description without an illustration! Just look at your lens and it might come to you! 😀

Oh, by the way, what's an "oompa loompa"?
 
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Doug said:
Oh, by the way, what's an "oompa loompa"?
Click to expand...
It's not that I want to hijack the thread, but here goes:

It's a race of tiny people in 'Charlie and the Chocolate factory' by Roald Dahl.

The Oompa Loompa moved from the jungle where they lived and couldn't find anything else to eat than bad tasting ground caterpillars to help in the factory where they're paid with what they enjoy most: cocoa beans..

RFs are to me what cocoa beans are to Oompa Loompas..

Back on thread: as Doug suggested, hyperfocal is a good approach as well, it depends on your shooting style, and whether you think a slight loss of resolution at infinity bothers you more or bothers you less than some loss close by.
 
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Ay yi, ducttape, I do have a tendency to "collect" but I am resisting it very hard..... not entirely successfully, you know there's this auction website where... 😉

Doug and Peter, thanks for the explanations, perhaps setting back to infinity after each scene would be a good habit for me to get into, to start anyway. Well, I'm back into the working week now 🙁 -- hope to get my prints by the end of the week. Then I can worry about scanners LOL

PS thanks to all for the welcome. I like it here!
 
My first RF images...

My first RF images...

Hi guys, some pics from my first two rolls... what do you think?

The scan is done from the negatives with my Canon MP760 all-in-one printer/scanner at home. So it's not a very good scan... anyway I hope it's the scan and not my negs... :angel:

(Ten minutes later...) Um, how do I get thumbnails to show up attached to my post? Anyway here's a link to my album:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=3820
 
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What's wrong with the scans? Ok, some are a little soft, but nothing that a little sharpening can't solve. Looks like the focus is correct though, and that's the most important bit of learning to use the non-coupled CV25/4, isn't it?

Oh, and I like the pictures a lot..
 
Instead of 'Quick Reply' (I think it's called) button under your post go into the 'Advanced Mode' (or similar wording) nearby.

Don't worry.

In the Advanced Mode there are extra options. And one of them is 'Attach Files'.
 
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pvdhaar said:
It's indeed easy to forget, but fortunately, there's a lot of DOF. So you'll still have a fair share of keepers.

There is a school of thought that says that for an optimum sharpness balance throughout the near-far range, you should always focus at infinity and close down far enough to resolve nearby detail. When focused at inifinity, items that are smaller than the physical aperture size are still resolved even if they're closer than infinity.

I now keep my 25/4 at infinity unless I work really close (1.5m or closer), but everytime I change scenes I refocus to infinitiy again. This routine gets me a good amount of keepers, even though like you I had the habit of forgetting to focus every shot.
Click to expand...

I think you mean larger than the physical aperture size.
 
pvdhaar said:
What's wrong with the scans? Ok, some are a little soft, but nothing that a little sharpening can't solve. Looks like the focus is correct though, and that's the most important bit of learning to use the non-coupled CV25/4, isn't it?

Oh, and I like the pictures a lot..
Click to expand...

Hi Peter, thank you, your comments are much appreciated. Perhaps "a little soft" is what I'm seeing. The software I have makes a mess with the sharpening, but I guess this is all part of the learning. I will do some more experimenting w/ the scanner and also printing.
 
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