Hi dear all! I'm a newby with Rangefinder camera (I've been shooting with Nikon Srls). I've recently bought a 2nd hand Leica M6 plus a couple of lens (50 mm and 90 mm) and I have a stupid question about parallax. I'm sure the M6 series is automatically "parallax corrected", but I found myself shooting a train railways over a bridge, through a metal grid. So, if I put the lens between the vertical grid, I saw the viewfinder obscured by the grid and if I composed the scene through a "clear" viewfinder, this time I found the lens obscured by the metal grid. Don't laugh, please... just answer :-) Ciao -- Marco.

-- Marco Maria Colombo (mcolombo@iol.it), November 13, 2001

Answers

I mean, is there a right way to compose the scene or the rangefinder system simply doesn't allow shooting near and between obstacles? This was the question, sorry -- Marco.

-- Marco Maria Colombo (mcolombo@iol.it), November 13, 2001.

Welcome to the wacky world of non-SLR viewing. This kind of thing happens reasonably frequently: you just have to work around it. Usually it is no big deal. If you really do need precise object placement in the viewfinder (particularly, near-to-far objects), then SLRs are superior. In this case you will just have to guess the framing - I don't usually find it too difficult.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), November 13, 2001.

In very close quarters, such as shooting through a railing or in crowds, I compose and focus through the viewfinder and then shift the camera so the lens is in the viewfinder position. It is easy to do and becomes automatic after a short while.

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), November 13, 2001.

I frequently use the light reflected off the palm of my hand as an ambient meter reading. I have to continually remind myself to put my palm in front the the lens (not the viewfinder) while I look through the viewfinder to check the metering diodes.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), November 13, 2001.

The parallax correction in a rangefinder camera--M6 or otherwise-- only prevents you from cutting the top off the subject, by correcting automatically at any distance. But it can't correct for the angular disparity of viewpoints when juxtaposing objects in three dimensions.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), November 13, 2001.

I often have occasion to shoot through a chain-link wire fence; i just poke the lens through a hole and endure the wire crossing the viewfinder (this doesn't work with a heavy iron grid, I understand). The nice thing about the rangefinder, though, is that the lens barrel will fit in the holes in the fence, while the fatter SLR lens won't.

rick :)=

-- Rick Oleson (rick_oleson@yahoo.com), November 13, 2001.

Rick: Ahhhhh! So THAT'S why Leica designed th "THIN" Tele-Elmarit!!

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), November 13, 2001.

Hardly dumb. Those are times when you wish you had stuck with SLR photography.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), November 13, 2001.

Ah, you need a Minox IIIs camera.

The lens, the viewfinder, the whole camera can pass through fence grid no obstruction whatever. You can even take picture through a 1/2 inch gap

-- martin tai (cg081@torfree.net), November 17, 2001.