Newbie's questions

[alexM]

I am a very beginner with rangefinders though I shot a bit with SLRs.

The rangefinders have attracted me because of my interests in old- fashioned portraits and some landscapes. I am using Leica IIIc with 50/2 Jupiter 8 though a Canon 50/1.8 and Elmar 90/4 are on the way. I've been shooting TMAX 400 that I develop in TMAX developer 1:7.

I've heard the advice to learn one lens before progressing to the next. But what does it mean, to lean a lens? I could think of using it with different apertures, from different distances and in various light conditions, but what do you look for in the resulting images? What kind of conclusions does one make?

Thanks for any help,
Alex in Dallas, TX

 

[Godfrey]

Learning a lens has many facets to it, but to me mostly means to become very familiar with what the lens sees as compared to what you see through the viewfinder. Unlike a TTL camera, with an RF what you see when focusing and framing is not the same thing as what the lens sees. This means you need to really understand what the lens sees and how the focusing behaves so that when you previsualize what you want to photograph you'll get photos consistent with your mental image.

Then there are the usual facets of lens behavior ... At what f/stop setting does the lens sing? At what distance settings? How does it treat the in-focus vs out-of-focus transitions with different kinds of subjects? at different distances? Etc.

The only significant criteria of importance are:

• Are you getting the results you desire?
• Do you like the rendering that the lens produces?

Only you can find the answers to these questions. You need to shoot, thoughtfully, and study your results. Keep notes if that helps you remember what settings you used. Process and study your negatives relatively soon after shooting so that the memory of what you did, and why, is still vivid in your head.

Once you can pick up a lens and go out shooting without a second thought to whether or not you're going to get what you wanted, you've learned the lens sufficiently.

G