It's here! New M 262 owner. Need rookie tips

[epand56]

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Michael, I think the most important, when shooting manual on a digital M and develop in Lightroom, is to understand how to expose in order to achieve te best out of the post production. I think that shooting RAW helps a lot, but in certain conditions it's easy to loose the shadows or burn the lights. This is why I think you will have to understand what kind of exposition suits you and your line of work on LR better. I'm sure that by using it more and more you will enjoy a lot your 262.

[CaseyS]

Zone focusing is a good tool to learn with the absence of auto focus.

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[jaapv]

Not really. This is a rangefinder camera, with an accurate focusing instrument; that is what you paid for. Zone focus is a camera with three symbols on the focus ring: head, group and mountain.

[jdlaing]

While rangefinder focusing is the most accurate many street shooters use this method:

Jaap is correct in “this is what you paid for”.

 

http://shooterfiles.com/2016/02/how-to-zone-focus-street-photography-101/

[_Michael]

Michael, I think the most important, when shooting manual on a digital M and develop in Lightroom, is to understand how to expose in order to achieve te best out of the post production. I think that shooting RAW helps a lot, but in certain conditions it's easy to loose the shadows or burn the lights. This is why I think you will have to understand what kind of exposition suits you and your line of work on LR better. I'm sure that by using it more and more you will enjoy a lot your 262.

 

 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I completely agree. I am working through a process of both learning the tool and how to best utilize it. I foresee it taking some time to fully develop where it takes me. 

I am starting to get a feel, and it has been an interesting process to really understand how poor my skills have become with the manual process. This is something I used to never give s second thought. Basic exposure triangle exposures are what I 'just did' for many years. Tearing away the bad habits has been a mix of both rewarding and frustrating. 

[_Michael]

Zone focusing is a good tool to learn with the absence of auto focus.

 

 

Not really. This is a rangefinder camera, with an accurate focusing instrument; that is what you paid for. Zone focus is a camera with three symbols on the focus ring: head, group and mountain.

 

 

While rangefinder focusing is the most accurate many street shooters use this method:

Jaap is correct in “this is what you paid for”.

 

http://shooterfiles.com/2016/02/how-to-zone-focus-street-photography-101/

 

 

All great thoughts gentlemen.  I think there is no single focus method that fits every situation or desired output. What I am really enjoying about this new-to-me system is the flexibility of moving between focus methods and the ease of which I can do it. Right now it's frustrating more than half the time, BUT it's only frustrating because I have become incredibly lazy with my methods.  

 

While I have been using the fairly functional zone focus usability of the Fuji systems, I'm still not as comfortable as I'd like to be. Hyperfocal is another approach, and then then accurate and selective approach when using the great lenses wide open. Zone is certainly a great way to approach street photography I'd be of the option it is not necessarily the most accurate. Same with hyper-focal. 

 

All of this said, I very much appreciate the continued dialog here. 

[jdlaing]

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Are you finding yourself turning the focus ring back and forth trying to get accurate focusing (aligning the patch)?

[_Michael]

Are you finding yourself turning the focus ring back and forth trying to get accurate focusing (aligning the patch)?

Probably more often than not.

[david strachan]

It takes considerable practice to use a rangefinder IMO.

Now i just focus, and don't screw back and forth. When it pops, press the shutter. It's suprising how many are in perfect focus...

 

 

...

Edited September 1, 2018 by david strachan

[jdlaing]

Probably more often than not.

Try this and see if you like it better:

 

Turn the focus ring all the way to the infinity stop and leave it there. Like a “parking place”.

Bring the viewfinder up to your eye and turn the focus ring (in the only direction it will go) slowly until the rangefinder aligns to show focus.

 

A little practice with this method and you get very fast and get more shots in focus without the back and forth motion.

 

It worked for me years ago and I have adopted that method as all I use. I find it easier to turn the ring one way to focus instead of going back and forth for a longer period of time.

 

At first ... three out of five will nail focus ... then four of five.....then almost all of them.

[_Michael]

Thank you for the suggestion. I will give that a try!

[Jk1002]

I got the M262 as well for its simplicty. Zone focus is fine for me, a tip from the Overgasrd website is to just use continues shooting mode and turn the focus ring while you shoot, sort of spray and pray I guess.

 

One thing I find hard with the 35 summicron is the exposure, more often than not I am messing up with this lens. 50mm and 28mm are better for me in that regards.

 

JK

Edited September 2, 2018 by Jk1002

[_Michael]

I got the M262 as well for its simplicty. Zone focus is fine for me, a tip from the Overgasrd website is to just use continues shooting mode and turn the focus ring while you shoot, sort of spray and pray I guess.

One thing I find hard with the 35 summicron is the exposure, more often than not I am messing up with this lens. 50mm and 28mm are better for me in that regards.

JK

Interesting. In what way do you think it is different? The metering shouldn’t change in my mind, but I can see how maybe...and this is maybe a stretch...but with the 50 the active center metering could be effectively larger in the frame. Maybe this gives a slightly more balanced metering? The 28 would effectively be the opposite.

[ajayk]

I can certainly give you one easiest tip. I was in same boat as you when I first started using Leica rangefinder. Trick is in broad daylight keep f value at 5.6 or 8 thereby increasing DOF and keep shutter speed and ISO at auto. Try and locate a straight line in the scene you are trying to capture and straighten the line in VF patch. That’s it and you will make beautiful and sharp pictures. Slowly start moving to low light situations with higher f values, it will be easy...

Edited September 25, 2018 by ajayk

[ru2far2c]

+1 for jdlaing method of focusing. Especially if your lenses that have tabs on them. I found always bring it back to infinity was a good starting point.

[jaapv]

We DO have a FAQ:

 

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/216580-leica-m8-m82-m9-m9p-mm-mtyp240-faqs-questions-with-answers/?p=2464049

[_Michael]

Thank you all for the ongoing dialog here. I never expected this would be active a few months later but this is great. Keep the thoughts coming.

 

 

@Jaav...yes, there is a FAQ and I have looked through most of it starting when it was referenced early in this thread. That is a great reference for some specific questions and full of wonderful information, but I think the typical specific/technical nature of any FAQ is quite different that a thread like this. That referenced information can be a bit unclear to a brand new user like me when it is 8+ years old referencing many different bodies. No updates since 2016, and most content from 2013 or earlier. Given the late November 2015 release of the M262 makes it hard for s9meone brand new to Leica to know what’s relevant. (I’ve since learned that a great deal of it is relevant). Regardless, thank you for the link and reminder.

[jaapv]

Nothing has changed in rangefinder focusing - this particular answer could be have given for an M3.

However, the FAQs have been mostly updated to the end of production of the different cameras. The date of the post may be old, but you wouldn't know if it were edited yesterday. So no surprise if it is relevant