M3 and a 40mm lens

[Ljós]

I noticed the post by Roland (really appreciate it!) is focused at 0.7m.

I'm guessing the discrepancy of using the entire viewfinder will be reduced when the scene is further, say 1.5m? Any comments?

Actually, no, the further away you focus the bigger the discrepancy gets.
A "hands on" way of getting a feel for this phenomenon is by using any SLR (or camera with live view): pick a spot and center the viewfinder, focus from near to far and watch how the magnification of the lens changes. At infinity you will get quite a bit more of the scenery before you in the frame than at the nearest focus distance.

Greetings, Ljós

 

[ferider]

Actually, no, the further away you focus the bigger the discrepancy gets.
A "hands on" way of getting a feel for this phenomenon is by using any SLR (or camera with live view): pick a spot and center the viewfinder, focus from near to far and watch how the magnification of the lens changes. At infinity you will get quite a bit more of the scenery before you in the frame than at the nearest focus distance.

Greetings, Ljós

Maybe this is too much detail: if you run the numbers, a lens that is 40mm long at infinity, reduces its field of view by about 2% at 2m, and 6% at 0.7m.

Roland.

 

[Ljós]

Maybe this is too much detail: if you run the numbers, a lens that is 40mm long at infinity, reduces its field of view by about 2% at 2m, and 6% at 0.7m.

Roland.

Roland,
for uss RFF nerds there is no such thing as "too much detail" 🙂 Thanks for the picture and the numbers! 🙂

Greetings, Ljós

 

[Monochrom]

Hi i use all teh time my rollei sonnar on the m3....i use the FL for precise shooting...to compensate i get closer enough for the lines to be touching the subject...then i never miss a shot.

Very doable....😀

 

[rulnacco]

I've used my 40mm Rokkor-M for a few days now. I still find the 35 framelines on the M6 give me more ease in composition, and a slightly better idea what will actually be on the film than using the whole viewfinder of the M3, although that certainly is doable. I got the same results Roland demonstrated above--even at 2-3 metres, I got a little more on the film than I could see in the whole viewfinder, and you have to look around the edges a lot more than you do with the 35 frames on the M6, where everything fits nicely inside a box that you can easily see all of in the viewfinder.

I followed a hint on another thread and put a bit of gaffer tape over the frameline illumination window, making the 50 framelines disappear. That definitely helps composition a bit--you don't have the relatively thick framelines cutting through your view of what's going to be on the film.

 

[boomguy57]

The 50mm framelines I find easy to use with a 40mm lens. I just use them, and figure there will be a bit extra on the side that I can crop out if I want later.

Then again, I'm not super anal retentive about it so I usually don't remember when I get my film back 🙂

 

[_goodtimez]

If you want to remove the framelines of any M, just blank the frame illuminator with black tape !

 

[FujiLove]

I've just bought a 40mm Nokton and stumbled across this thread when trying to work out whether to use 50mm or 35mm frame lines. The interesting thing for me is that the M3's 50mm frame almost exactly matches the width of the cropped image when printing on 8x10 paper, at least for the closely focussed image that @ferider provided. I added 8x10 and 12x16 frames so you can compare the viewfinder with the negative. I'd be interested in seeing if this changes at longer focus distances, but if not, it seems that the 50mm frame lines are the one to use if your end product is going to be a 8x10 print.

 

[jmilkins]

Nice one - the thread that keeps on giving!