My first rangefinder

[T42]

I was in Tokyo last week and bought a new Zeiss Ikon and 50/2 Planar from Fujiya. It's the first rangefinder camera I've ever held. I had a couple of tough choices: black or silver? ZM 50/2 or M-Hexanon 50/2? Fujiya had sold out of silver so that made things a bit easier. New M-Hexanons with the built in hood were tempting but the ZM with the matching hood ($58!) allowed the camera to sit level and not tip forward under the weight of the lens. I thought about getting the ZM 25/2.8 and just shooting with the 28mm frame lines but the 28 frame seemed a bit tight + the 25 was much more expensive. The ZM 50 is great, especially with all that space outside the frame.

After using point and shoot camera over the last few years the 50mm view is like a zoom lens! Still getting used to focusing – a couple of times I’ve used the distance scale on the lens to save time, especially in good light where a smaller aperture can be used. I’m wondering if any of you guys ever slightly front focus if you’re in a hurry or if the subject is moving about. To be honest, when I first looked through the viewfinder in the shop I was somewhat underwhelmed by the rangefinder patch but the more I use it the clearer/brighter it becomes. So far I’ve been shooting in AE with a +/- exposure so I can focus on focusing.

Here are a few pictures from Tokyo. Fuji 400NPR. Scan Dual IV, resized, no adjustments, just clone/stamp tool. 1. my first frame 2. guy reading Manga on the platform at Shinjuku station 3. a fortune teller in Ginza.

Thanks again to everyone at RFF.

 

[Charlie]

Nice shots. Looks like you are having no problem warming up to a new system.

Regards,

Charlie

 

[PeterL]

Hi Andy,

Manual focusing is always a bit of a drag, I find. I love it because it slows me down when I want to be mindful of the picture I'm taking. But when I don't want the hassle, I tend to switch to hyperfocal focusing and/or zone focusing. You can basically select a region that will be in focus (with hyperfocal, it's a region that goes all the way to infinity) and just snap away.

Here's a link I found while googling that describes both:

hyperfocal & zone focusing

Edit: I forgot to congratulate you on your purchase of a camera that I also would love to have. Have lots of fun with it !


Peter.

 

[Kyle]

Congratulations! Thats not a bad camera to have as your first RF 😉

Nice shots, btw. Welcome to RFF!

 

[JoeFriday]

welcome to RFF, Andy! that's a great package you got started with.. occasionally I think of parting with my M3 and picking up a ZI.. and the more I read posts like yours, the more tempting it gets!

 

[back alley]

zi AND an m3...😉

welcome andy, nice camera!

joe

 

[sbug]

There's nothing like really taking the plunge! That's an excellent choice and those are some nice shots. I've found that manually focusing is rarely an issue unless it's a dim interior and I'm trying to capture kids (do they ever slow down? 😉 ). You'll probably find focusing to become less of a distraction as you become more familiar with the camera.

 

[T42]

Thanks everyone for welcoming a new boy to the 'old school'. Plunge, exactly...can't go swimming if you don't want to get wet. Guess I'll take that attitude with focusing - only thing is is that the viewfinder is so clear the rf-patch almost begs to dialed in + I like to shoot in low light which lowers the margin for error. The T3 and GR1s are very forgiving with their auto-focus and wider depth of field but I'm going to plough on and not fret so much about human error. I confess that I have taken a few frames of the lens cap (yes, it is difficult to get off with the hood attached) and even blazed away once without even thinking to focus a la p&s.

OT: one of the reasons I didn't pick up the 25, besides trying not to burn my credit card dry was because I also bought a Ricoh GR digital with the 21mm wide adapter. It was one or the other. If anyone is interested I've posted a report on the GR here: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1013&thread=18338848

 

[Kyle]

Great shots!

 

[robert blu]

Welcome to this Forum, Andy ! and nice shots, I' specially impressed by the one of the guy reading in the train station. Hope to see more. I'll also look later at your report on the "tempting" Ricoh !
ciao, robert