Ive been experimenting recently with estimating the DOF. Rather than focusing on my subject, mostly candid street shots, ive basically estimated how far the subject will be from me in the given environment and using the aperture setting and depth of field indicators simply made the shot without focusing on the subject.

Is this a common practice? Maybe as im new to the Leica it takes me just that little bit too long to get a subject in focus and wondered if this was a sensible way to go? Of course im not trying to treat the M6 like a point and shoot, im simply trying to utilize the ‘manualness’ of the camera to achieve an ends.

What do you think?

Thanks for any assistance.

Jason

-- Jason (jvicinanza@yahoo.co.uk), March 24, 2001

Answers

Since I shoot with Rollei 35 cameras (which only have scale focus) a lot of the time, estimating distance on whatever camera I'm using comes naturally to me. 50mm is a bit long for me to be comfortable doing this very much, but with a 35mm or shorter lens it's very natural.

Street shooting scale focus tip: using a 35mm lens, you can cover a LOT of ground by setting the lens at f/11. Then you have to remember two distance settings : 6m (18ft) for 10' to infinity, 2m (6ft) for 4' to 10'.

Godfrey

-- Godfrey DiGiorgi (ramarren@bayarea.net), March 24, 2001.

Jason,

You are essentially utilizing "zone focusing", and it is a common technique for grab shots in fairly good light. As long as the subject is "in the zone", your camera will beat autofocus, and if speed is of the essence, you don't even need to raise the camera to the eye, which sometimes results in a unique point of view.

There is another technique you might want to try to speed up the shooting process, focusing for the subject while the camera is being brought to the shooting position... the key word is WHILE, not after it is in position. For this, I like to use a wider lens like the 35mm Summicron, the lens has to have a focusing tab. It takes a bit (quite a bit) of practice, but you can spend a few minutes a day doing the technique, and you don't even have to use film for rehearsing mechanics.

Stand in a large room with several pieces of furniture at various distances. Focus on a spot via the rangefinder. Now lower the camera to waist level and "feel" where the focusing tab is. Cycle the lens back to infinity, and try to bring the tab to the correct orientation while looking at the subject. Bring the camera back up to the eye and check your accuracy. Repeat several times. Change to another place in the room, and repeat the process. It is important to not be concentrating on the camera... but to look at the subject. I also like to go to infinity between shots, so I only have to move the tab in one direction. After much practice, the finger will begin to know where the tab should be, simply by how far you are from the subject. This is not zone focusing, but real focusing, so depth of field is not so much of a player in the process, but any stopping down of the lens at all will be insurance. Give it a try, you will be amazed at how close you get without even using the rangefinder. This technique is valuable when a large zone can't be established because of a low light level.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), March 24, 2001.

I also like to return the lens to infinity after a set of shots. That way, even on lenses without the tab, I always move the focus ring in the same direction a practiced amount for the subject's distance. I "pull" the bottom of the ring, with or without tab, to the left with my left middle finger -- stiffer lenses may require the help of your thumb. With some practice, you can thus "instinctively" pre- focus just about any lens on the M.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 24, 2001.

Most of my shots are of the scenic variety, so I generally have time and necessity to play with DOF and aperture to get what I want in focus. For those occasions (like markets) where I do people shots, I'm almost always working a wide lens (35 or 28 or 21) and zone focusing works most of the time. Where it fails of course is with wide apertures and longer lenses (even a 35 @ 1.4 is pretty shallow at close distances)in which case while a rangefinder is fairly easy to snap into focus it suffers from the same problem as early AF systems, which is the need to recompose an off-center subject and the resulting time lag that many times means a missed shot. It's a bit grainier than I like but Portra 800 has become my night film due to the ability to use a smaller aperture.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), March 24, 2001.