By Heinz Richter
A couple of days ago I received an email from Leica Store Miami with the question, ’Why A Rangefinder?’ It made me think. I have used rangefinder Leicas all my life and the question never really came up as far as my own use is concerned. But it is a valid question none the less.
Ever since the introduction of professional caliber SLR cameras, the use of rangefinder cameras has steadily declined with the result that the Leica M cameras are the only survivors of the breed. But they do have a loyal following.
SLR cameras have all but been replaced by mirrorless cameras, where the mirror housing and the pentaprism has been replaced by an electronic viewfinder which receives its information directly from the sensor. Like with the previous SLR cameras, the viewfinder displays what is actually registered by the sensor.
In addition, virtually all cameras today, with the exception of the Leica rangefinder models, do offer automatic focusing. Combined, all those features are a considerable blow to a rangefinder system. Yet the Leica continues to thrive. Why?
Let’s look at some of the main arguments, one of which is the viewfinder. Instead of displaying what is actually received by the sensor, the Leica viewfinder has a fixed image size where the field of view of the lenses is outlined by illuminated frames. Not as accurate as with an SLR or mirrorless camera, but very useable.
However, the Leica M viewfinder has one huge advantage. The overall viewfinder image shows more than what is actually recorded. The user is not limited to just the field of view of the lens. This allows you to see the subject before it enters the actual image frame as well as everything surrounding the subject. With an SLR or mirrorless camera, it is quite possible to miss items that might be advantageous to be included in the shot.
But what about close-up and long lens work? Any lens put on and SLR or mirrorless camera can be observed through the viewfinder. That definitely used to be a drawback of rangefinder cameras. But beginning with the Leica M250, all digital Leica M cameras can be equipped with an electronic viewfinder of their own, allowing easy use of long lenses and close-up work. But the greater size of even mirrorless cameras is eliminated when not necessary with lenses from 28mm to 135mm.
Which leaves autofocus as the only other major drawback. But how much of a drawback actually is it? None at all when it comes to lens size. All Leica M lenses are substantially smaller than equivalent autofocus lenses for the simple fact that an autofocus mechanism adds size. Any SLR or mirrorless camera is also larger for the same reason and because they all have built-in viewfinders. In addition, a rangefinder has the advantage that the camera user can chose where or on what subject to focus without needing to rely on an automated system. ‘But autofocus is a lot faster’ is the argument most often heard. Is it?
With the advent of autofocus one little trick to speed up focusing of our cameras has all but been forgotten. I am talking about hyperfocal lens settings with the help of a depth of field scale. Most lenses available today no longer have depth of field scales and thus make focusing via hyperfocal settings impossible. Fortunately, most Leica lenses still offer this advantage and its application can overcome the lack of autofocus to quite an extend.
That is because the vast majority of the Leica M lenses are non-zoom lenses. That is the reason why to this day all of them have a depth of field scale. Many photographers and picture takers have no idea what a depth of field scale is, and if they do, they rarely know what to with it.
It is a known fact that the aperture setting on our lenses, the f-stop used to take a picture, determines how much of what we photograph will be in focus, how much depth of field there will be. The smaller the aperture, the more depth of field. That is what a depth of field scale is all about. It will show the distance from the point closest to the camera to the point furthest from the camera that will be in focus.
Effectively one third of the total depth of field will be in front of the point of focus and two thirds will be beyond it. If applied correctly, this can actually greatly improve the sharpness of our photographs. Imagine taking a picture of a mountain scene. The mountains are obviously far enough away to constitute infinity as far as the focus settings on our lenses are concerned. Subsequently it seems to make sense to set our lenses to infinity to make sure the mountains are in focus. As a matter of fact, with any camera, this is exactly what will happen.
However, let’s remember the above rule which states that two third of the depth of field is beyond the point of focus. That means in our mountain scene, two thirds of the depth of field will be wasted. The depth of field scale will help to prevent that, if properly applied.
Our exposure settings will always be a combination of shutter speed and aperture. Once we or the camera determine the correct exposure settings, we will know what aperture the picture will be taken with.
Back to our mountain scene. Instead of setting the infinity mark opposite the focus mark on the lens, all that needs to be done is to set the infinity mark opposite the marking of the aperture we are using. That will still give proper focus to infinity, but it will greatly increase sharpness in the areas closer to the camera as indicated by the other aperture mark on the depth of field scale.
It is a fact that the smaller the aperture, the more depth of field we will have. But we shouldn’t indiscriminately use the smallest aperture all the time, because this can easily lead to the necessity of too slow a shutter speed which in turn can lead to blurry pictures because of camera movement.
Why do all of this instead of just using the rangefinder and focus on our main subject? Because you can greatly increase your speed of operating the camera. Using the depth of field scale and setting the lens as explained above, using hyperfocal setting, will eliminate the need to focus altogether and thus make the operational speed of your camera that much greater.
What about the opposite? What if we want to minimize depth of field, to make sure the background is out of focus? Here too the depth of field scale can be of help just as well. If using a smaller aperture will lead to a greater depth of field, it stands to reason that a larger aperture will do the opposite. The depth of field scale will once again display the range of focus from the point closest to the camera to the one furthest from the camera.
Are there any other advantages to a Leica rangefinder camera? Yes. For instance, Leicas have always been some of the quietest cameras available, and the latest models of the digital Leica M cameras have nearly silent shutters.
Of course, ultimately the choice is up to each individual. But the Leica rangefinder cameras are not anywhere near the anachronism many like to make them.
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