Some people here have talked about prefocusing tabbed Leica short lenses and focusing by feel, something I practice often, but with only limited mastery.

I was looking at an old Schneider movie camera lens, and notice how smooth yet precise the click stops on that tiny lens were.

In concept, one could provide click stops on any (tabbed Leica) lens, at say the 10, 3, 1.5 and 1 meter distances, each click stop very soft, and preferably with a different feel (or different sound/pitch to the click), so that you could tell by feel or sound alone, where the lens had been focused, approximately.

The idea is similar having frets on the fretboard of a guitar, (as opposed to a violin, which has no frets and so is harder to learn to play.)

Assuming I am crazy enough to experiment with an old/used lens, is there any modification you can think of (sticker dots maybe?) that will let me determine exactly where the lens is focused, by tactile sensation/feel alone?

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), January 17, 2001

Answers

My Voigtlander 25mm lens has that system .(except the clicks all feel the same) It will click in place at 1 meter,1.5 meter,and 3 meters. Being a 25mm , at f8 everything is in focus from 5 feet to infinity when focused at 3 meters, so they didn't put a click any further up on that lens. It would be interesting to see how they actually did this.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), January 17, 2001.

I think this is good thinking! But I think also that with the shorter, tabbed lenses you may only need two, possibly three positions. I think "straight down" on the 35/2 or 50/2 make a good position. Good question... can't wait for the others to contribute.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), January 17, 2001.

A friend of mine who met Josef Koudelka some years back told me he used a variant of this technique - except instead of clickstops he had the lenses locked at a certain hyperfocal position with metal shims (small wedges jammed into the barrel) so he never had to focus. He apparently carried four bodies (Leica M) with lenses set to different focus points. That way he just picked up the body he wanted and shot.

Maybe someone who knows Koudelka can confirm? Seems he's only using a Linhof panoramic camera these days.

Sounds like a technique that'd work better with Tri-X than Velvia, unfortunately. Life is definitely harder for the colour slide photographer! I can't see it being practical for anything longer than 24 mm.

For myself, I'm an obsessive refocuser. And I don't regret it - my results are always in focus.

Rob.

-- Robert Appleby (laintal@tin.it), January 17, 2001.

Who not us the rangefinder or ground glass to focus the camera on the subject? My Leicas have nicely made rangefinders for that purpose, which I use all the time. I suppose if my eyesight was bad enough, I might seek some help, but even my myopic and astigmatic eyeballs can focus a rangefinder okay. I can't imagine lugging around four cameras just to get sharp focus at four distances. It all sounds too much like doing it standing in a hammock.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), January 17, 2001.

Well, I assume he had a variety of lenses on those cameras, not just one focal length focussed at four different positions! However, I tend to agree. Of course if you're photographing a crowd scene from inside the crowd this might be a good system. And it may have been a temporary expedient, I don't know. I suppose you could have little wedges machined and tap them in when you needed them.

Certainly the clickstop idea is not a bad one, and it really pays off when you get to something like the Voigtlander 12/5.6.

-- Robert Appleby (laintal@tin.it), January 17, 2001.

The simplest and least-invasive way would be to put small dots of model paint at the hyperfocal points for the various apertures. But neither this nor click-stops would work for closer distances where you need DOF between two distances other than infinity. The DOF scales and the rangefinder, when used together, provide the most complete focusing system.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), January 17, 2001.

Very interesting topic; and I´m sure every Leica M user can speak of an unique technike, after time of using this cameras, focusing is the part of the prosses of photographing that takes longer to master, specialy if you use diferent lenses. For a wile my main and almost only lens was a 35/2.8 on an M3, by moving the focusing tab I was very close to the point of focus I was looking for, without looking at the camera, (a technick very well described by Al Smith in a previous question in this site),but when I wanted to move to newer lenses like summilux or summicron, I had to learn it again, and when using a 28 and a 50 in combo I decided to try other ways. The clicks, like in f stops for focusing is s great idea, but a great deal to make too. In my last vacations I came to an idea I haven´t try; it consist in using some masking tape or other sticking material to put in the base of lenses and in combination with the focusing tab or other sticker in the focusing barrel match them at diferent distances; all depends on how many diferent lenses you´re using.

I was deligted in reading Robert Appleby´s contribution on Koudelkas technick; he uses one lens; you can see in his pictures; i´m not sure if it is faster to pick out a camera from where ever you carry them or just move the focusing tab; any way to me no other photographer has make me feel as Koudelka has, but that´s another history.

Great topic Mani.

-- Roberto Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), January 17, 2001.

Keith, Jay:

What I was getting at was really assisting the ability to focus (approximately by feel), in the second or so that we spend in lifting the camera to the eye, by which time the focus would need to be adjusted only slightly as you would already be in the ballpark. And if the moment did not allow for that final adjustment you would be zone focused already.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), January 17, 2001.

Yes, Mani, and it also would help to reduce the length of time the camera needs to be at eye level, thus minimizing the risk of tipping off the subject who is about to be photographed. In fact, with a wide angle lens, the camera might not need to be brought to the eye at all; maybe just aimed approximately. Practice would make, if not perfect, at least good enough. I like the click-stop idea better than just marking with paint. I'm thinking that one of the old lenses, maybe a collapsible Summicron or Elmar, might be easier to do this with. Maybe something like a spring and ball bearing detent anchored to the mounting flange?

Nice Idea--

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), January 17, 2001.

I agree that Mani's idea about the clickstops is neat and could be useful. But isn't this unobtrusiveness thing a bit of an obsession among Leica-ists? I personally believe that if I were to paint my cameras pink and yellow stripes it wouldn't make any difference to the quality of my pictures.

I believe the best pictures come about when there's a contract between the photographer and his subject that allows both to get on with what they're doing, rather than when the subject is unaware of being snapped. Very few of my pictures are of people who are unaware of being photographed, indeed in the conditions in which I normally photograph this would be close to impossible. But after you've shot half a roll of film most people just get on with their lives and let you get on with taking pictures.

But maybe that's another thread...

Rob.

-- Robert Appleby (laintal@tin.it), January 18, 2001.

Why not just get an auto-focus, auto everything? I enjoy composition, and running some calc's in my mind. It helps me, a not so talented s'bug, get some interesting work sometimes. And if I want to work candidly, I put on a tele-photo lens. PN

-- Paul Nelson (clrfarm@comswest.net.au), January 19, 2001.

Of course, another approach would be to substitute icons for the focusing scale numbers. Four should do it. How about: 1. a mountain range; 2. a bunch of people; 3. one person; 4. a flower.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), January 19, 2001.