Focusing with M9

[salim]

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Dont get me wrong, I know how to focus. What I want to know, do anyone of you with experience and time, manage to focus fast, I mean you can tell by looking at the distance where the knob should be?. i.e. Does it come natural?

[Lindolfi]

The best way I found is always to start at infinity and just pull or turn to get coincidence. Also put your lenses back in your bag set to infinity. With time you'll feel you need less movements. It's like being able to quickly move a computer mouse to a target. Your brain needs to calibrate what you see into how much to move. Just relax and let it come to you as a natural movement. More than with most other camera's you just need a lot of flight hours. The good thing is that it is always fun to hold an M and ease yourself into the next image.

[Val]

Hi

I don't think is a recipe for fast focusing

Whatever works for you

For me I prefer to keep my 28 Cron tab vertical down and I know I'm halfway between infinity and close focus. From there is faster to reach each end . Left or right. Same with my 90.

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello salim,

 

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Just like w/ chess or in tennis you have to do & you have to practice.

 

What you have to do is take your camera & lens & simply practice focussing & otherwise doing everything else w/ it. When you are sitting just take it & focus on everything around you. When you are walking w/ nothing special to do take the camera & focus & meter in all the situations you can.

 

& again & again & again.

 

That's how to learn anything.

 

Go to any museum & do the same. The paintings,sculpture & the like which you see there were all created w/ the same light, perspective & color you use to do a photo. The only difference between what you see there & what you are doing w/ a camera has to do w/ the technology used to capture the final image.

 

It's interesting that you have a full frame M & a 35mm Summicron. Over time I have used many different cameras & lenses including a wide range of focal lengths. A long time ago I realized that I take probably 90% or more of everything I do w/ that combination.

 

BTW: I would add to that: A narrow Leica shoulder strap w/o a shoulder pad. If the strap only comes w/ a shoulder pad I would remove the pad after buying it. A rigid lens hood mostly to protect the lens & its glass elements but also for flare reduction. I would also get a small strong table tripod w/ soft non-marking pads on its feet w/ a Large ballhead & a cable release. The Leica ones are nice.

 

The suggestions under BTW: above are inexpensive & increase the usability of your camera & lens significantly. I would guess that small investment has made about 10% or 20% of my photograpfs significantly easier to do or possible.

 

They are small additions which open a part of the World to you in a different way.

 

Sort of like if you buy a car & put on better properly inflated tires & better shock absorbers you can have a quite different car.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[likalar]

Dont get me wrong, I know how to focus. What I want to know, do anyone of you with experience and time, manage to focus fast, I mean you can tell by looking at the distance where the knob should be?. i.e. Does it come natural?

 

Still not natural for me, after 40+ years with Leica. I don't struggle, really, but have to admit I rarely nail it when things happen quickly. If I do nail it on a moving subject, it's at least 60% great luck. This is through no shortcomings of the camera, though. Simple operator error.When I blow it badly, I call it a learning experience. Many people just "get it right" so much more often. Partly as a result, most of my people shots are rather still. The practice advice given earlier by Michael is excellent, as is Berts. Amazing tools, in the right hands, and usually amazing even in the wrong hands. Enjoy your time together!

 

Larry

[StephenPatterson]

This was one of the top questions asked at the Leica Akademie M9 Experience last month in San Francisco. Leica Instructor Tom Smith basically said to "practice, practice, practice" and learn how to set focus as you bring the camera to your eye. I don't want to speak for Tom, but to paraphrase his advice was that the more you practiced this skill the faster you would become, and that you would "calibrate" your eye to better judge (or prejudge) distances. I think most of us came away from the class feeling we could improve our focus speed and accuracy, as the focus and shoot demo that Tom gave was most impressive.

[Bo_Lorentzen]

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+1 for Michael, Bert and Larry.

 

With the lens at infinity, your head seems to be quite good at pulling the focus to the working distance. Process is simple, when not sure push to infinity, pull as required.

 

Main ingredient is repetition.!

 

.

[zlatkob]

Except for close-ups and wide aperture shooting, you can pretty quickly start with the lens at infinity, quickly turn the focus ring and just stop and shoot at the moment you get the images lined up in the viewfinder. For a lot of photography, there is no need to refine the focus to perfection by going back and forth, back and forth. Just turn, stop and shoot. I don't think it comes naturally, but you do get better with practice.

[250swb]

A lot of good advice so far.

 

Presumably you want to focus fast because things are happening fast, and practice really is the key ingredient. Know where your lens is starting from (infinity) and I also think know your aperture. The old adage of what makes a successful photograph 'f8 and be there' has a lot of merit because if you know you have a reasonable depth of field available you can quit fine focusing and just wait until you see the images start to coincide in the rangefiner patch before pressing the shutter. So if you are following action and people moving you do all the sensible things, have a high ISO to keep shutter speeds high while having as much dof as is reasonable from the lens, then as you turn the focus ring just wait for the rangefinder patch to increase in contrast and 'snap'.

 

Steve

[pelagia]

When I photograph people in spontaneous situations, I usually do prefocus. Estimating the distance correctly is also a matter of practice. After prefocusing, I just raise the camera, frame and shoot less than in a second. Of course I miss often with this technique, especially when shallow DOF.

 

EDIT to Steve: (Un)fortunately, the shallow DOF is what adds a Leica lens advantage to pictures, which is lost at F/8

 

Toomas

[250swb]

EDIT to Steve: (Un)fortunately, the shallow DOF is what adds a Leica lens advantage to pictures, which is lost at F/8

 

Toomas

 

I paid for all those f/stops, and Leica provide them so they can be used, I never heard such rubbish in a long time:rolleyes:

 

Edit. I'm interested, do you seriously imagine a photojournalist using a Leica prances around looking for shallow DOF images while the important image is lost?

 

Steve

[Fotomiguel]

Dont get me wrong, I know how to focus. What I want to know, do anyone of you with experience and time, manage to focus fast, I mean you can tell by looking at the distance where the knob should be?. i.e. Does it come natural?

Everything depends on which lens you are using and what's going on. Different technique for every situation.

Which lens are you using? What is the subject doing?

[pelagia]

Steve, sometimes you find gemstones in rubbish. When you seek of course.

 

I paid for all those f/stops, and Leica provide them so they can be used, I never heard such rubbish in a long time:rolleyes:

 

Edit. I'm interested, do you seriously imagine a photojournalist using a Leica prances around looking for shallow DOF images while the important image is lost?

 

Steve

 

I paid only for f/1.4, all other f-stops were a bonus.

 

Seriously, in a "photojournalist" case I usually go for hyperfocal.

Take care

Toomas

[250swb]

Steve, sometimes you find gemstones in rubbish. When you seek of course.

 

I paid only for f/1.4, all other f-stops were a bonus.

 

Seriously, in a "photojournalist" case I usually go for hyperfocal.

Take care

Toomas

 

The gemstone I'm looking for in your advice is where/how to set the hyperfocal distance at f1.4 on the lens and then estimate that distance accurately on the ground? This could be a photography breakthrough for rangefinder cameras, please share :D:D!

 

Steve

[hx911]

I paid only for f/1.4, all other f-stops were a bonus.

 

 

:D:D:

[salim]

WOW thank you all. So in a nutshell is practice practice practice. And I am happy that eventually it would hopefully comes natural.

 

I like shooting wide open when I operate with the leica. Only in cases I shoot landscape that I shoot with larger aperture. But 99% of the time WIDE OPEN

 

Thanks guys, especially Michael really appreciate it