Scale focus a 50mm?

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Colman

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Somehow or the other, I let myself get sucked into buying a Bessa-L and a 15mm on eBay. Great - love the camera and the lens. Then (as you do!) I buy a 25mm Snapshot Skopar. Cute. Easy enough to scale focus.

Now I'm looking at a 50mm Summitar. Does anyone have any experience focusing something like that by scale? I will be buying an M-mount rangefinder at some time in the not too distant future, but will it be practical on the Bessa-L in the meantime?
 
it depends on the distance and the f-stop you use. it's easy to focus it you use f 8 or smaller, but to focus accurately from 1 - 3 meters at f 2...that seens tricky. i'm doing exercises with a leica I with the 3.5/50 elmar and try to avoid f3.5...for low distances i use my arm (70 cm) and I know how tall i am, so i can define this distance...
you'll need a lot of exercise..
 
I'd say that unless you like playing with the camera to est of your visual acuity or depth perception abilities, forget the idea of using a 50 on a scale focus camera. Why punish yourself that way? Jeez, you can probably score a Bessa R for $200. Make yourself happy.
 
januaryman said:
I'd say that unless you like playing with the camera to est of your visual acuity or depth perception abilities, forget the idea of using a 50 on a scale focus camera. Why punish yourself that way? Jeez, you can probably score a Bessa R for $200. Make yourself happy.
Click to expand...

Yup. Dedicate the Bessa L to the 15mm. Exercise your visual "muscles" in other ways, rather than judging precise distance.... Scale focusing a 50 wide open at close range is tricky.
 
Well, many people including me, have no problem scale focusing the Rollei 35S (that's 40mm f2.8), so for not moving objects, and after some practice, it might work.

But the longest i use on my "new" Bessa L is 35mm.


That is just wide enough to compensate some focusing error, but long enough to be usefull for street and portraits...


So get a Bessa R (and there are some good iii-bay offers at the moment, one including a f2 50mm)!
 
With my Standard Leica I must guess the focus distance as there is no RF. This camera usually was sold with an Elmar 5cm/3.5. It's not too bad to guess the correct distances.
 
The OP was asking about a 50mm Summitar, which is an f2 lens... he'll be fine if he stops it down. Success rates via scale focusing wide open will be higher with a 40mm 2.8 or a 50mm 3.5.
 
There have been scale focus 50mm cameras since the day Barnack made his first Leica. They weren't f2, but nothing prevents you from stopping down. So basically, yes it's possible to scale focus a 50mm just like in the 1960's..

That said, the common print sizes when scale focussing ruled were different from today. If you look in old photo albums, you'll see that enlargements for 35mm film were in the order of 2.5x3.5 inch (6x9cm). With these small print sizes, focus guessing errors are not so obvious. But at present day enlargement size 4x6 inch (10x15cm), they're obvious. You have to close down a lot more than f3.5 to hide that the plane of focus isn't where the subject is..
 
Scale focus is a long-standing practice, now fading due to prevalent AF. Many medium format folding cameras were scale focus, though the lenses weren't fast. My old Kodak Junior 620 has a 105mm f/7.7 lens with scale focus, and my first 35mm was a Regula with 45 or 50mm f/2.8 and no RF... then my Olympus Pen D2 had a 32mm f/1.9 with scale focus too.

It's a matter of observation and practice to assess subject distance with reasonable accuracy, but one can use other aids too. I recall that a common accessory for the Minox B was a smooth metal chain that one could use to measure close subjects. A longer string with knots at intervals can be used with other cameras, and this same string can serve as a steadying device for slow shutter speeds, attached to the tripod screw and then you step on the other end to put some tension on the cord.

You can get pretty good at judging distance adequately with a little practice, useful even now for zone focusing in fast street action.
 
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