Notes from an RF Newb

[segedi]

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I just got into rangefinder photography and have been using the following setup fo rthe last two weeks:

 

Leica MP .72 Black - I've been fully DSLR for a while now and wanted a drastic shift. And I got it! Was a very nice change. Still getting used to the all-manual approach and learning how to focus faster. Special note to rangefinder newbies - don't put your right hand/fingers in the way of the rangefinder input. I thought my Leica was behaving strangely, but it was just me. I had a finger over the RF input and it's working much better now that the camera can "see" what it's supposed to be focusing on.

 

Leica 35mm Summilux (pre-asph) - was older and unused so it was a bit stiff. Worked the focus about 200 times and now it's pretty smooth. It's small and light (especially when compared to my Canon 35mm f/1.4) Not used to fullframe so this sucker is wide! Really like that. Not liking the focus tab yet. Don't really like the look of the hood, especially in the finder...

 

Zeiss 50mm Planar f/2 - got this on several recommendations (thanks Steve Huff!) and couldn't be more pleased. Focus knob is a bit awkward at first, but prefer this design to the notched tab of the Leica (above). So much so that I don't even realize the original gripe anymore! Used this lens the most over the last 2 weeks. Light, elegant and easy to focus.

 

Leica 90mm f/2 APO/APSH - really nice lens - so much smaller than my 100mm Canon L lens. Focus ring is smooth. And it's a f/2 instead of the Canon's f/2.8. Plan to use this one a bit more.

 

Accessories:

Assorted B&W filters - yellow, yellow-orange and red. I haven't used the red yet, but really look forward to seeing the results. Mostly used the yellow-orange filter and have lots of sky/cloud photos waiting to be developed.

 

Mr Zhou Half Case - I really loved the price. It fits like a glove and really protects the areas it covers. And it helps me hold on to the camera a bit better.

 

Match Technical soft release (Bip) - i found it really hard to hold the camera steady without the use of this. I even e-mailed one of the owners and Tim e-mailed back right away with his answers to my queries. Tiny, inexpensive and vital - great add-on.

 

Match Technical E-clypse MAG 34mm 1.25x. This little hood and magnifier are awesome. I had debated on the Leica 1.4x but am really happy with the 1.25. It turns my .72 into a .9 and the boost to the RF patch is a blessing. It makes the system even easier to use. It was a bit too much for the 35mm lens as the framelines tend to disappear from sight, but the 50 and 90mm really like this add-on.

 

Film:

Being new, I bought a few rolls of a bunch of different varieties of black and white film. T-max 100 and 400, Ilford FP4 and HP5 and some Efke 25 and 50. In color, I went with Ektar 100. I hope to develop the B&W soon, but I took the color to the pharmacy and had it put on CD (my how things have changes, it was 3x more expensive to get prints made; I had CDs made instead for $2.99/ea!).

 

Being slightly apprehensive to my abilities to focus, I shot at f/8 - f/16. The top end of the MP, shutter speed 1/1000th of a second also dictated some higher apertures as well. All the lenses where really sharp. Even when I took the Zeiss and the 90mm down to their widest, f/2 the things were sharp with nice background bokeh. Look forward to shooting more open; will need to get an ND filter too to shoot at ISO 400 in the daylight.

 

The most important observation over the last 2 weeks: It's taking a longer time than anticipated to shoot through a roll of film! The more deliberate nature of RF shooting has slowed me down, and that i think is a good thing!

 

One thing I am still struggling with is camera-shake. The higher shutter speed images aren't a problem but I seem to lack steadiness. What are you doing to get a firm but steady grip?

 

Photos on Ektar 100 shoot with the Zeiss 50mm. The portrait was desaturated a bit.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

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[lars_bergquist]

[ ... ]One thing I am still struggling with is camera-shake. The higher shutter speed images aren't a problem but I seem to lack steadiness. What are you doing to get a firm but steady grip?

 

Hi Kevin. I would suggest the following:

 

-- Breathing control. Breathe in when you raise the camera, let out about half the volume, then concentrate on the subject ... concentration is the name of the game.

 

-- Keep your elbows in, against your chest. Invaluable support.

 

-- Get rid of that soft release gizmo. When firing, rest your index fingertip BOTH on the rim around the button, and on the button (of course). This lessens the risk of 'jerking' the shot, as we old pistoleros say.

 

-- Then there are tricks about using the sling (oops, strap) for support, sniper style. But even without this, you should be able to get off most shots well even at speeds of 1/8 or thereabouts with a 35mm.

 

-- Dry firing practice.

 

The old man from the Age of the Colt Trooper

[segedi]

Lars,

Thanks for your insight. I will try as you recommend - without film in the camera.

Getting a usable shot at 1/8 of a second would be great, will work towards that.

Practice makes perfect!

Thanks again,

Kevin

[farnz]

Kevin,

 

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on 'finding' RF photography!

 

To add to Lars's typically excellent advice use your forehead and cheekbone to help with stability by pressing the camera against them as you take the shot.

 

When you feel ready please post some shots in the photo forums so we can all enjoy your photos.

 

Pete.

[elgenper]

One thing I´ve found that improves ´shooting stability´ a lot (but surprisingly enough is never mentioned in this type of discussions) is to always ensure that you have support from a finger somewhere opposite from the release button. It´s just good old Newtonian physics: a force must be balanced by a counterforce to maintain equilibrium, and one has to apply some downward force to release the shutter.

 

So, just making sure the long (or possibly the fourth or fifth; look at my avatar...) finger of your left hand should support the bottom plate just opposite to the release button. Exactly how, that depends on your personal hand size and anatomy, so lots of experimenting in front of a mirror is in order (if your hands are big enough, you may even use the small finger of your right hand, curved below the camera).

 

For myself, I find this more difficult for vertical shots than for horizontal ones.

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Kevin,

 

Welcome. You might consider these suggestions:

 

1. Try setting the strap so that when the camera is on your shoulder and you look thru the viewfinder with your dominant eye the strap is as taut as is still comfotable. Use a cable release.

 

2. Lean or sit against/on solid things whether you do the above or not. You will learn to survive people staring at you strangely when you do this. I guess you figured a cable release helps.

 

3. Buy a small really rigid + really strong table tripod. Don't try to save a penny here. Also buy a reallly really rigid large BALL head (Nothing Else). Don't try to save a penny here either. You buy one of each of these for life if they are good. Leica makes a good one of each.

 

BTW, for this used can be just as good and long-lived as new if you check to make sure the grip of the ball head is still strong + the tripod is still servicable.

 

4. Once you have a table tripod + ball head which you know are so strong and rigid that it is overkill (It is not) you can:

 

A. Put them on a table, log, rock, or something similar. Pull them against what they are on with one hand while the other releases the shutter prefferably with a cable release. Once again buy a really good one for life. For example: Linhof makes a good one. Prefferably 50 cm not the standardly chosen 25cm.

 

B. Put the three feet of the table tripod against your chest and swivel the camera on the slightly loosened ball so that you are now looking thru the viewfinder at what you want to photograph with the camera in the correct position. Lock the ball. Pull this locked assemblage to your chest firmly. Don't forget the cable release. Photograph.

 

C. Loosen ball head. Put tripod against a wall, on the side of a tree, against a car with engine shut off, etc. swivel camera to appropriate position. Lock ball. All yours. Once again, as always with all of the above: Press tripod firmly against support being careful not to scratch what you are leaning against. Soft shoes that won't color what they touch are a good idea for hard tripod feet whether on a table or someone's nice white wall. Release shutter with cable release.

 

With A & C above you can do an exposure that is perfectly sharp that is measured in minutes with practice.

 

With B you can add two, possibly three, stops of useable sharpness to what your hand-held ability is without a small tripod with ball head and cable release.

 

The strap alone without any of this if done as I suggested probably adds at least one stop. More with cable release. While you are doing all of this don't forget your lens hood. Another place to buy better and more rigid than you might think you might need. It's the first line of defense for your otherwise more fragile lens and also improves picture quality in more places and ways than you might think.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[lars_bergquist]

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Leica M photography is basically mobile photography, action photography. That does of necessity mean offhand photography -- working without tripods and table tripods and monopods.

 

Use one of these and your mobility is gone. You are restriced to static subjects. A couple of days ago I spent several hours photographing a quicksilver mobile seven-year old in the bowels of the Stygian Wasa Museum here in Stockholm. Tripod? Ha! But sometimes he did actually stand still for as much as one eighth of a second. Without that 1/8, and an occasional 1/6, I would have been helpless.

 

What you can occasionally do, is to lean against something -- a wall, a lamp post, whatever. But don't count on finding it there when you want it.

 

The old man from the Age of the Colt Trooper

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Again Kevin, Hello Lars,

 

I think a point of clarifcation is appropriate here.

 

I am a person who is a minimalist who likes to have as few things with as few complexities as possible while at the same time expanding my abilities and doing more with less today than yesterday. This is throughout my life both chronologically and conceptionally.

 

I use my M-3 probably mostly the way Lars has just suggested. That is one of the things it was designed for and one of the reasons I bought it.

 

M cameras are quite interesting. They are coneptually and mechanically as well as operationally relativly simple. At the same time they do many different things well with very little change in practice.

 

You see, I also bought my M-3 so I wouldn't have to also, metaphorically, buy a Linhof Kardan B and its support system.

 

An M is a camera which does reasonably well in both capacities given the limitations of the size of the negative and silver halide technology.

 

To not use it for both would be like saying you have an ice cream machine (Your M), and you only use it to make Lingonberry ice cream and never use it to make Cloudberry ice cream. Why?

 

My Kardan B is a Tele-Elmar on my M-3 (Very nice to use because of the view thru the finder). For closer than 1 : 9 I use my R-10, a Minolta 101 with various adapters, etc, bought in the 1980's specifically for this purpose. (As well as to use the unique, also unbelievably sharp, Minolta 250 mm reflex lens. 2 mm wider than an M 90/2/Apo, also 20 mm shorter and half the weight) This allows me to use the Tele-Elmar continuously from Infinity to better than 1 : 1 mostly on a solid tripod with a large ball head.

 

Back to the relevance of this to my post above: I do 90% of my photography with this camera and a 35mm Summicron w/ goggles mostly the way Lars says. My post was in answer to your query as to how to improve on this.

 

My suggestions were to, with a minimum of encumbrence, (I don't like unnecessary encumbrence), improve the quality of your pictures. What I suggested are things which I have emperically developed, similar to what many other people have done.

 

They are some simple lite suggestions for life between Lars and the Kardan B. If you use some of them some of the time in some combination they may help. You might try being somewhat of an empiricist yourself with this. It may be somewhat encumbering at first but gets easier and your picures get better.

 

Also, after all of this, don't forget what Lars said: Lingonberry ice cream by itself is very, very good.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

 

P.S. Another thought: To become proficient with everything everybody above said take the film out of your camera and practice, practice, practice.

[lars_bergquist]

M cameras (and RF cameras in general) have limitations: no macro, no long teles, no movements. M cameras are -- call it a paradox if you like -- highly specialised cameras for general photography. And this means that they do general photography better than anything else. In the Leica case, add the best line of optics in the world.

 

I have never used a M like a Linhof. But because of the limitations of 35mm film (limitations now overcome by digital technology) I used medium format in parallel nearly until the end of the past century. And my Mamiya 23 did have rear movements, in addition to a creamy 6x9 size negative format.

 

One of my hobbies when I was younger and more pliant, was to chase running spiders and hopping grasshoppers with an Olympus OM, flash and that system's incredibly sophisticated macro equipment. (Tripod? Tell that to a grasshopper, and hear him laugh.) But today, the M9 fits all my requirements.

 

More important even, it fits my working style, which is an action style. I did in fact use my OM cameras much as I now use my M9, even to fitting the finders with clear screens with a center microprism patch, which I used more or less like the M's rangefinder patch. But for the kind of photography I do now, I would find a SLR camera limiting.

 

And oh yes, I did love the old Rolleiflex TLR commodes too ... Speak of loving superbly within one's limitations!

 

The old man from the Age of the IIIa

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Again Lars,

 

The camera is essentially a box which holds the image capturing materials. In the case of an M it also holds a focus confirming mechanism and some other useful things.

 

You are right. It is the lenses that make the system.

 

BTW: You are also right, in my opinion, about rapidly moving extereme closeups (Please see my post above.) altho Jaap and some others may disagree.

 

Also BTW: Any finite anything material or conceptual is definitionally bounded by paradoxes. Limiting Paradox is the definition of boundary.

 

Please remember: I agree with virtually (Not quite everything) all of what you have said throughout this post, as I usually do in most all of your posts throughout this Forum. What you have been saying is how I do most of my photography. But, there is more than one kind of ice cream in the world.

 

I am simply providing alternatives for consideration.

 

Cloudberry icecream as opposed to Lingonberry, or more accurately Lingonberry Cloudberry swirl for part of the time.

 

Actually, I do allow for Clodberry alone some time.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

 

P.S. I have found the world is a wonderful place. You can pick and choose the best of everything from the entire world and use it to replace what was clearly the best there was yesterday.

 

Conversely, some things stay more or less the same for reasonably long time periods.

 

For example: The Wheel, invented some number of thousands, not tens of thousands, of years ago. Still more or less the same.

 

At least conceptionally.

 

Pretty much the Leica M of round, if you think about it.

 

More flavors of ice cream? Possibly.