Being fairly new in using a RF after years of Nikons I am a little slow in getting this focussing down more quickly. What is this hyperfocal about ? Someone said to guess the footage, use the lens footage scale ?

How do I handle moving objects when not at infinity..

Any advice....

Thanks.

-- Alex Tamborrino (tambo6@aol.com), October 16, 2001

Answers

What is this hyperfocal about ?

You stop down to a small aperture (say f/8) and preset focus by DOF scale. Works best with wide-angle lenses. With lenses that have focusing tabs I actually prefer focusing "by feel" -- you guess the distance and preset it without looking at the lens.

How do I handle moving objects when not at infinity..

Well, it depends on how your subject moves. If it moves fairly parallel to the focal plane you just pan, focus and shoot. If it moves towards you it gets more difficult: you can't focus by groundglass as on SLR. You anticipate the action and prefocus on where you expect your subject to be. Shooting action with rangefinders takes a lot of practice, but it is certainly doable. It is a masochistic sort of fun. ;-)

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), October 16, 2001.

>What is this hyperfocal about ?<

Hyperfocal is simply using a lens' depth of field to keep a subject in focus - anything within the bounds of the DOF scale on the lens for the aperture in use will be in good focus in the image. I generally use the range for the next larger stop as my limit, thus insuring very good focus.

>How do I handle moving objects when not at infinity..<

As an alternative to focus-tracking your subject with the M, you can move away from them as they move towards you, and as they move away, you move closer. With practice this becomes easier than it sounds.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), October 16, 2001.

It does not have to do anything with hyperfocal distances, but is a good advice for rangefinder focusing in general, Leica or not. Move the focusing ring always from close focus towards infinity, do not rack back and forth around the point in sharp focus. The reason for that is that the little round disk transmitting the focusing movement of the lens to the rangefinder is pushed back by the back of the lens when "coming" from close focus towards infinity. The other way around from infinity towards close focus the little disk is pushed forward by a spring against the back of the lens, making the exact position of the disk a subject of spring tension etc. I don't know if it makes a huge difference, but several people recommended this to me. Another thing is to hold the camera at a 45 degree angle while focusing. The advantage is that things will be not only horizontally aligned in the rangefinder patch, but also vertically, improving the 'signal to noise' ratio of the rangefinder focusing. You have to try it to really appreciate the difference, I guess.

-- Dietmar Moeller (moeller@phys.columbia.edu), October 17, 2001.

"How do I handle moving objects when not at infinity?"

Here is an example of 'trap focus'. I focused on the middle of the steps ahead of time and then waited for the skater to pass over that point and released the shutter. It is a skill I am still perfecting.

.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), October 17, 2001.