Zone (Distance Focusing) with the Leica R 21-35 mm Vario Elmar

[adelie]

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Most Leica R and M lenses have distance markings and aperture settings on the same scale ring which makes it easy to do distance or hyperfocal focusing with the lens.

 

I do not see this on the Leica R 21-35 Vario Elmar.

 

There is a ring with aperture settings and another separate ring with distance scale in feet and meters but it is not easy if not impossible to do distance zone focusing with the VE 21-35.

 

Am I correct in this statement? If someone could clarify this for me I would be most appreciative. Is it possible to do zone focusing with the Leica R VE 21-35?

 

John

 

P.S. Love the lens - it is simply spectacular!

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[masjah]

John, you won't find the usual "depth of field" scale on a zoom lens. (I presume this is what you are describing: the one you find on prime lenses with the aperture increasing away from the top on each side.) This is because the scale is different at every focal length. (I stand open to correction. but from what I recollect. the M Tri-Elmars have a very cumbersome looking triple scale for this reason.) In any case, a depth of field scale is in my experience of only limited use. It defines a range of "acceptable" unsharpness according to a criterion based on historical sizes of prints. When I have had to rely on this, I've used one further stop-down than the scale would suggest. In other words, if the scale suggested that f/5.6 would give me the range I needed, then I used f/8, and so on.

 

The only thing I can suggest is to experiment, thinking of a range shorter than nominal of half the range longer than nominal.

Edited June 3, 2018 by masjah

[adelie]

Thanks Masjah - that makes sense. Much appreciate your comments.

 

John

[jaapv]

The thing to do is to experiment and use http://www.dofmaster.com  for guidance to gain experience.

You don't need to be precise, zone focusing is an approximation anyway. it defines the zone of acceptable misfocus.

 

And another thing: it is not a point at which the image jumps from out-of-focus into in-focus. It is a gradient leading to a peak of maximum sharpness and falling off again.

 

Something else you can do: Set the lens to f8, and prefocus on an object at the same distance as your expected subject.

[masjah]

A final note to add: I've just remembered that the back cover of the instruction booklet folds out to display depth of field tables at focal lengths 21, 24, 28 and 35mm!

[adelie]

Thanks will check this out!