Focusing Voigtlaender 25mm

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Hi, I´m concidering adding the 25mm Voigtlaender lens to my Leica-M equipment. Since it isn´t rangefinder coupled, I´m concerned about focussing. Is it really so easy to focus a 25mm by scale or will I have problems? Thanx for the answers.

-- Rene Fix (renefix@gmx.net), June 11, 2001

Answers

It hasn't been a problem for me at all, but now that the 21 is available, and DOES couple, I've been thinking very strongly about that one.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), June 11, 2001.

I have the 25/4 and it was more getting comfortable with the concept than anything else. As you probably know there are 3 "stops" 3',5'and 10'. I just keep the lens at the 10' position most of the time and at f8 the DOF is approximately 4'to infinity.(I don't have the lens in front of me to double check.)Unless I have the lens wide open I can just concentrate on the composition.

-- Gerald Widen (gerald@sfa1.com), June 11, 2001.

I shot for years with a Minox 35 that had a 35mm f2.8 lens. Even though it had much less depth of field than the 25mm f4.0, I still managed to get almost all my photos in focus. Thousands of sharp images are also still being taken with the Rollei 35's, which have 40mm lenses that are scale focused. Its not as hard as you might think. The only critical focus is near the minimum 2 1/2 feet, and I suggest using a smaller aperture when possible for close ups. You do learn to judge distances with a little practice. Take the camera out with a coupled lens and point it at some objects in the 3 to 20 feet range. Estimate the distance first, than bring the split together and check what the rangefinder picked. After a while, you'll be nailing every one.

I have the 25, and it has not been a problem for me scale focusing it-for some reason I actually like doing it. I find it is difficult to use the camera's rangefinder for the wide angles, because the rangefinder double image doesn't move much when changing focus. You are fussing with it to get it perfect when it isn't even that critical. I had a coupled 28mm lens, and I ended up scale focusing it anyway.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 11, 2001.


A 25mm lens at f4 has a lot of DOF but not unlimited. IT won't really be a problem...more a problem will be you'll keep putting the camera to your eye and turning the focus ring expecting the rangefinder to move. I'm really good at estimating distances, but with my Rollei 35S I have a real problem at closer distances and wider apertures. When a little shoe-mount Leica rangefinder came my way, brassy and out-of-whack but cheap, I snatched it up, adjusted it and now it sits in the flash shoe...at last I found something that bottom-mounted flash shoe *is* good for ; )

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), June 11, 2001.

I had initial doubts on whether I'd get sharp pictures by scale focusing, and after I tried it with the Viogtlander 15mm and 25mm, I'm convinced that my doubts were unfounded. Actually, I find it much faster to scale-focus. The idea is not to guess the actual distance of the subject from the camera, but to make sure that the subject falls within the DOF range. For subjects more than a couple of meters away, this can be quickly achieved by setting the infinity mark on the lens' focusing ring to correspond with the selected aperture's far-end DOF range (on the right side of the DOF scale).

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), June 12, 2001.


Just a warning that I didn't think of giving before: "depth of field" is essentially an illusion, and if you're the type who's always checking his negs under magnification to find exactly where the single, very thin (regardless of lens and opening) *plane* of focus is (I am that type), it's still there with the 25mm and 15mm lenses, and unless you're really good at extimating, and the alignment of your camera is spot on (they aren't all, and it shows more with a W/A) you WILL be able to see where the focus point actually was, and if it's not where you wanted it--it just won't look as bad as it could with a longer lens because out-of-focus stuff will be less out of focus than with longer lenses. I like my focus to be where I want it, so I'm not much on letting depth of field ("zone of less-visible, but still there, error" would be a better name :-) cover for my mistakes, using hyperfocal distances, etc., and I always try to come as close as possible. Theoretical considerations aside, in real life that works just fine with these lenses, if you don't look any closer than you're customers normally would.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), June 13, 2001.

Note that wideangles excel at intimate, close up snapping and if you can't focus explicitly at 1 metre, then dof isn't going to do it for you with a 25. Just my 40 lire.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), June 13, 2001.

Focusing with that lens is amazingly easy.

-- Josh Root (rootj@att.net), June 22, 2001.

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