Things I learned

[Carriage]

So my Fed 5B arrived and I've run a roll through it and thankfully (surprisingly?) is seems it's all working without light leaks. I did adjust the rangefinder which seems to be pretty good now.

There are some things I've noticed that surprised me and may be worth mentioning for people new to rangefinders and perhaps give a chuckle to the more experienced.

Compared to my SLR it's way easier to tell which way to move the focus ring as the double image makes it clearer which way out of focus it is compared to a microprism. I've not seen this advantage mentioned anywhere but it may be more a reflection on my ability with an SLR.

It's difficult to focus on horizontal lines. Is there a trick to this other than find some vertical lines? Do all rangefinders move horizontally (when held landscape) or do some have some trickery to improve them?

Parallax error is a worse than I was expecting. e.g.

From memory the centre fountain was in the focus spot.
Also this one.

Fairly certain the top of the flag pole was at the edge of the finder and all of the text was in view too. Also, I don't remember the street sign and so much of the roof on the right.


It's certainly different but overall I'm pretty pleased and am keen to put some more film through it.

 

[btgc]

>It's difficult to focus on horizontal lines. Is there a trick to this other than find some vertical lines?

All lines are vertical as long as you hold camera accordingly.

 

[Santtu Määttänen]

>It's difficult to focus on horizontal lines. Is there a trick to this other than find some vertical lines?

All lines are vertical as long as you hold camera accordingly.

My solution has always been to tilt the camera to roughly 45 degree angle, focus and correct it to be level. That tilt is enough to focus on horizontal lines.

 

[Carriage]

That's a sensible idea that I feel should've been obvious. Thanks guys.

 

[Daleyab]

Goulburn by any chance?

 

[Whateverist]

>It's difficult to focus on horizontal lines. Is there a trick to this other than find some vertical lines?

All lines are vertical as long as you hold camera accordingly.

😀

Well put.

I've only ever seen horizontal RF patches - which makes sense since the two rangefinder windows are on a horizontal line.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Early Leicas (hockey stick version) had vertical RF's (FODUA) and worked that way. Or rather, the FODUA could be fitted and worked vertically but the later ones were horizontal.

Regards, David

 

[ww2photog]

Speed Graphic RF patch is vertical if I remember correctly

 

[David Hughes]

And the last Praktica SLR's had a diagonal one - or rather a RF patch on the screen, from memory. Very useful too.

Regards, David

 

[BillBingham2]

Speed Graphic RF patch is vertical if I remember correctly

You do.

I've seen some LARGE vertical rangefinders used for artillery. When you are looking a tree line it's easier to adjust for up and down vs. side to side (same problem as the original poster mentioned but much further away).

I used to turn my SLR sideways for the split screen. Much less after I switched to a P screen, but every once in a while it was required.

B2 (;->

 

[Ko.Fe.]

FEDs doesn't seems to be problematic in terms of light leaks.

Parallax without corrected frame-lines is one problem, for framing.
Another problem is how objects are aligned within the frame. It is not what you see in VF. But RF guys like me never take it as the problem. 🙂

 

[johnnyrod]

You could stick some translucent tape (Scotch tape in the US) over where the film plane sits, then the image is projected onto the tape - set the shutter to B and hold it open with a cable release. You can then look at the VF image and the film image and get a handle on how the two go together. I don't have much experience but it does seem odd to notice parallax error over about 2m away. I need to do this with my Ikonta because the viewfinder seems to have less coverage than I'd thought.

Re. focusing, it's hard to tell if the centre fountain is in focus? Your other pics will tell you. The lens may need collimating. Anyway don't forget that the DoF can get you out of some trouble with accurate focusing, and that you get twice the distance behind the subject as in front in the DoF.

 

[Carriage]

I don't have much experience but it does seem odd to notice parallax error over about 2m away

In all likelyhood some issues could be me misremembering/not holding the camera properly. These were hardly scientific.

In terms of focussing it wasn't that my images were out of focus, it was just hard to tell if the double image was lined up. Once I got it sorted, I think they all turned out okay. The turning the camera a bit trick will help.