Rangefinder not perfectly alligned

[jacopastorius]

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Hi guys, I'm new to rangefinder. I noticed that it is not much accurate in overlapping. In the viewfinder the head of the woman was completely covered by the red thing. but when I downloaded the photo I found that a part of her head is visibile.

i noticed that the closer I get, less accurate the correspondence of what is see in the viewfinder and the final frame is. I mean, in term of overlapping objects.

is it normal??

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Edited July 16 by jacopastorius

[wattsy]

Assuming you are talking about the effects of parallax (overlapping objects), yes it is normal. The framelines are also only an approximation of what will be captured on the film frame, depending upon how far you are away from what you are focussing on.

[Carlos cruz]

Parallax- you have to take into account that your viewfinder is not in the same place as your lens, with some practice you’ll know when to press the shutter button but If you want to have more control there’s visoflex. 

[spydrxx]

With practice you'll learn how to properly and accurately use a rangefinder camera. As mentioned above, there is a phenomenon called parallax, and it becomes more prevalent the closer you are to the subject. Remember your lens is in a different spot than the viewfinder/rangefinder, so occasionally you may need to compensate for that. Again, practice and understanding the principals is critical to always getting the desired results from your camera.

 

[jgeenen]

Yes, this is totally normal. The view finder is aligned parallel to the lens, so it will always show a view from a couple of centimeters to the upper left. The framelines move and try to outline the correct field of view, but it can‘t correct the alignment error. Especially on close distances this gets annoying and is almost impossible to control and I always use the rear screen.

[jaapv]

3 hours ago, jgeenen said:

Yes, this is totally normal. The view finder is aligned parallel to the lens, so it will always show a view from a couple of centimeters to the upper left. The framelines move and try to outline the correct field of view, but it can‘t correct the alignment error. Especially on close distances this gets annoying and is almost impossible to control and I always use the rear screen.

 The framelines are always aligned to be correct in the plane of focus - that is why they move during focussing. However, that means that objects before and behind that plane of focus will appear to be shifted due to parallax. Draw a diagram. 
 

 

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[jacopastorius]

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many thanks for clarifying this. So in order to get the shot I wanted I would have moved a little to the left to compensate the position of the viewfinder shifted to the left of the lens?

[adan]

19 minutes ago, jacopastorius said:

many thanks for clarifying this. So in order to get the shot I wanted I would have moved a little to the left to compensate the position of the viewfinder shifted to the left of the lens?

Yes!

The 2-dimensional Leica M framelines correct for the 2"/5cm diagonal distance (edge parallax) between the len's viewpoint and the viewfinder position.

Front view of camera

              [     ]  viewfinder
           /
O               lens

What they DO NOT correct for is the within-the-picture arrangement-in-depth of 3-dimensional subject matter, in front of or behind one another. Such as the red ticket machine and the woman's head. Moving the camera left so that the lens sees the 3D world from where the viewfinder was is the technique. 

Top view of camera

Viewfinder  ]                                                                            
          ^                                          O                                         red device
Lens            [      ]                                                          O        woman's head

 

Edited July 16 by adan

[wirat]

Jaco Pastorius, your name reminds me a bass player. Same name.

[PCPix]

The pic looks great - at first I thought the woman was wearing some outrageous snail-shaped headgear! This alignment thing is most noticeable to me if you're trying to line up the sun just partially peeping out from behind a building or tree - easiest to just slip into Live View for a moment to get perfect alignment. Just consider yourelf lucky you have live view, all those film people really dont have such a luxury and have learned the fine alignment teqchnique the hard way!

[jacopastorius]

5 hours ago, adan said:

Yes!

The 2-dimensional Leica M framelines correct for the 2"/5cm diagonal distance (edge parallax) between the len's viewpoint and the viewfinder position.

Front view of camera

              [     ]  viewfinder
           /
O               lens

What they DO NOT correct for is the within-the-picture arrangement-in-depth of 3-dimensional subject matter, in front of or behind one another. Such as the red ticket machine and the woman's head. Moving the camera left so that the lens sees the 3D world from where the viewfinder was is the technique. 

Top view of camera

Viewfinder  ]                                                                            
          ^                                          O                                         red device
Lens            [      ]                                                          O        woman's head

 

many thanks perfectly explained 

[jacopastorius]

4 minutes ago, PCPix said:

The pic looks great - at first I thought the woman was wearing some outrageous snail-shaped headgear! This alignment thing is most noticeable to me if you're trying to line up the sun just partially peeping out from behind a building or tree - easiest to just slip into Live View for a moment to get perfect alignment. Just consider yourelf lucky you have live view, all those film people really dont have such a luxury and have learned the fine alignment teqchnique the hard way!

many thanks for appreciation!

[lekitr]

With practice, these situation need you to move slightly the camera so the lens is at the place occupied by the viewfinder. before shooting.

At least that's what I do in these kind of situation.  Don't worry you'll get there.  At least with digital you can chimp.

[jacopastorius]

On 7/18/2025 at 3:27 AM, lekitr said:

With practice, these situation need you to move slightly the camera so the lens is at the place occupied by the viewfinder. before shooting.

At least that's what I do in these kind of situation.  Don't worry you'll get there.  At least with digital you can chimp.

Yes it requires a bit of practice and for sure shooting digital help to climb the learning curve 

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Jaco,

Welcome to the Forum.

When looking thru the range/viewfinder eyepiece there are various fame lines & 2 rangefnder patches visible.

ALL of these move together from the top left to the bottom right within the viewfinder frame as the lens is focused from Infinity to closer distances.

When a subject is chosen, the range finder PATCHES are placed on that subject & the lens barrel is turned in the direction that makes the 2 patches overlap EXACTLY.

When the 2 rangefinder patches overlap exactly the subject is in best focus.

Interestingly:

A person can view a composition for a photo either without the camera or by looking thru the range/viewfinder eyepiece.

Then focus on the plane most wanted to be in focus.

Then (Important):

Recompose the image within the appropriate frame lines AFTER focusing & before taking a photo. This adjusts for the changes in composition within the framelines which occur when the lens is being focused. 

You might even have to re-focus a bit & re-frame again, etc,

Best Regards,

Michael

Edited July 22 by Michael Geschlecht

[jacopastorius]

On 7/22/2025 at 5:26 AM, Michael Geschlecht said:

Hello Jaco,

Welcome to the Forum.

When looking thru the range/viewfinder eyepiece there are various fame lines & 2 rangefnder patches visible.

ALL of these move together from the top left to the bottom right within the viewfinder frame as the lens is focused from Infinity to closer distances.

When a subject is chosen, the range finder PATCHES are placed on that subject & the lens barrel is turned in the direction that makes the 2 patches overlap EXACTLY.

When the 2 rangefinder patches overlap exactly the subject is in best focus.

Interestingly:

A person can view a composition for a photo either without the camera or by looking thru the range/viewfinder eyepiece.

Then focus on the plane most wanted to be in focus.

Then (Important):

Recompose the image within the appropriate frame lines AFTER focusing & before taking a photo. This adjusts for the changes in composition within the framelines which occur when the lens is being focused. 

You might even have to re-focus a bit & re-frame again, etc,

Best Regards,

Michael

many many thanks for these useful tips and explanations! very appreciated 

Edited July 28 by jacopastorius

[jaapv]

 

[evikne]

The lens (what the camera sees) and the viewfinder (what you see) are slightly apart from each other. Therefore, there will always be a slight discrepancy, which increases the closer you get. 

The same thing happens when you first close one eye, then switch and look with the other eye; objects close to you will move slightly in relation to those further back.

But it is this difference that your brain uses to see three-dimensionally and judge distances. And the rangefinder in the M camera works much the same way.

Edited August 2 by evikne