The long and difficult learning of rangefinder shooting.

gelmir · 05-14-2005

A few months after around with my R2, here's the mistakes I believe every beginner must be going through

1) Shooting with the cap on. Ok, I won't do it anymore, I promise.

2) Shooting without focusing. You know, SLR habits...

3) Shooting with the wrong frameline

4) Forgetting to set the correct ISO. At least the R2 has a window on the backdoor.

5) Shooting with my hand in front of the lens ! At least a third of my last shots are featuring my fingers ! How do you handle that camera with a CV 35/2.5 Classic by the way ? It's so tiny. Perhaps I should have get the PII instead...

I guess there's some more minor troubles haven't experienced yet...

But I'm having a great time, really. I'm carrying my R2 everywhere, feeling free not to have to think about battery : my crappy digital compact camera used to go dead nearly every time I needed it... Sweet all mechanical camera ^^

back alley · 05-14-2005

after all these years i still do #5.

a few rolls of processed film ago, i thought i noticed some vignetting with the 35/2 but soon (painfully) realized it was my fat pinky finger again.
those really small lenses get me still.

joe

Richard Black · 05-14-2005

#2 and #3! The image in the viewfinder is clear on first glance so shoot! Oops, I forgot to focus. 50mm lens with 28mm framelines...why did I get less than I was framing? Yes, I have commited these errors in the last 3 rolls. This is so much fun that who cares, there my pictures and you'll never, never, never, see them. Fun, o yeah!

ChrisN · 05-14-2005

Can I add one? My cardinal sin is putting fingerprints over the front of the viewfinder! When I stop doing that I'll consider I have served my apprenticeship.

stet · 05-14-2005

oh, I smudge up my vf all the time. The nice thing is, after a while, cleaning it off -- everything is so crisp and bright, it's like getting new glasses!

I was really guilty of Nos. 1 and 4, but I've made enough of thise errors recently to be more attentive. I suppose that won't last, though.

peter_n · 05-14-2005

I'm with ChrisN and that's after almost two years...

Terence T · 05-14-2005

I've got a whole collection of fingers from my CV 15mm, waiting for a couple more before I put a full gallery of em. It's amazing how the fingers and everything else stays in focus when you shoot f/8 and above!

JohnM · 05-14-2005

I have taken some beautiful pictures of the inside of my lens caps.

My lens cap in New York City. My lens cap on the beach at Cape Cod. My lens cap hiking in the Catskill Mountains, etc., etc. It is like a member of the family for all the times it has been photographed.

Still happens every now and again and I still fire off the occasional shot while trying to take a meter reading with the R3.

vsolanoy · 05-14-2005

So far so good with me. I haven't done any of those things... yet. Luckily, one time I went to take a photo and someone said, "You might want to take the lens cover off." We both laughed and after I took the lens cap off. Thank goodness for kindly strangers.

einolu · 05-14-2005

May I recomend using a old filter instead of a lens cap? Its great because you protect the glass on the lens and in other terms you can use it just like a lens cap, and if you forget to take off the filter when you shoot the results will be pretty acceptable most of the time.

The only thing is that with lens sizes being all over the place for RFs, filters can be hard to find (im looking for one for my industar 22 at the moment, hah).

nwcanonman · 05-14-2005

Since my R is TTL metered, I don't get lens cap shots anymore. Still working on the finger shots though - LOL.

Aperture · 05-14-2005

Hi there,
Another rangefinder fan with smudgy fingerprints on his equipment pleads guilty....
Just one point w.r.t. the fingers showing up in the pictures, I'm a 35/2.5 classic user as well, I changed from focusing with my thumb pointing downwards to focusing with my thumb pointing upwards and hand below the lens, hereby having my "useless" fingers on the side of the camera and not on the side of the lens where they might block those perfect rays of light that are dying to jump onto my emulsion. (ps. do use the little focusing lever) Hope this helps making the list shorter.
Keep on shooting!!

Jon Perry · 05-14-2005

The biggest problem I have with my 15mm lens on my Bessa L is keeping the lens cap ON the lens. The little blighter keeps falling off!

Jon.

Flyfisher Tom · 05-14-2005

yep, done all of the above :-) I can suggest that you just keep a good B+W UV filter on the lens instead of a cap. That way, you will never shoot the inside of the cap again :-)

choozart · 05-14-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by einolu

May I recomend using a old filter instead of a lens cap? Its great because you protect the glass on the lens and in other terms you can use it just like a lens cap, and if you forget to take off the filter when you shoot the results will be pretty acceptable most of the time.

The only thing is that with lens sizes being all over the place for RFs, filters can be hard to find (im looking for one for my industar 22 at the moment, hah).

I have a warming filter on my Fuji, it has a filter factor of 1.2, so that is about a 1/3 of a stop, not enough to hurt anything. I forgot to take it off, once, and the shots were good.

Patrick

Peter · 05-14-2005

It took me 6 months to shake off the bad habit of shooting without focusing in the heat of the moment! I was so engrossed with the exposures that I forgot my R2 has no auto-focus!

DaveSee · 05-14-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

A few months after around with my R2, here's the mistakes I believe every beginner must be going through

...not just "beginners," or maybe that I'm forever beginning

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

1) Shooting with the cap on. Ok, I won't do it anymore, I promise.

I take the cap off when the light's good, put it on when it isn't: that is, in
the morning through to bedtime. Now for the M6, I am always pointing
the lens away from bright--and reflected bright--light to avoid the slow
burn of the shutter curtain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

2) Shooting without focusing. You know, SLR habits...

...yes, me too. But it's like a stopped clock that tells the correct time
twice a day: *something* is always in focus... well, sort of.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

3) Shooting with the wrong frameline

One of the benefits of separate RF and VF views... but for a RFVF combo, like
you have, you will soon "know" these less as constraints. When you can look
with both eyes, framelines become less of what you're looking at.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

4) Forgetting to set the correct ISO.

I still do this on occasion. But since I've begun shooting a particular ISO for
a particular session/event/light condition this becomes less troublesome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

5) Shooting with my hand in front of the lens ! At least a third of my last shots are featuring my fingers ! How do you handle that camera with a CV 35/2.5 Classic by the way ? It's so tiny. Perhaps I should have get the PII instead...

I usually carry the camera in the right, with thumb up and between the film
advance lever and camera body... left hand comes up and under--rather than
from the side--as many do... I don't put many fingers in the lenses, BUT many a
stray camera strap enters the picture when shooting one handed! Whether small
or larger lens (and my largest is a 50mm Summilux, not too large), carrying/holding
the camera always in the right with a left hand up from under habit keeps the
lens free of me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

I guess there's some more minor troubles haven't experienced yet...

*My* common misfire is the right hand index finger(second digit) tripping the shutter
when repositioning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

But I'm having a great time, really. I'm carrying my R2 everywhere, feeling free not to have to think about battery : my crappy digital compact camera used to go dead nearly every time I needed it... Sweet all mechanical camera ^^

Before you become too convinced you don't need a battery, carry a spare... use some
gaffer tape and put it on your lens cap

Happy shooting!

rgds,
Dave

wlewisiii · 05-14-2005

You have one more important mistake to make - but first you need to buy a collapsable lens.

Then you forget to extend it.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/phot...me=all&way=asc

William

lZr · 05-14-2005

Ok. I am so goooood. I don't do mustakes, because I am waiting for my first RF to come.
But, I am aware now!

phototone · 05-14-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by gelmir

1) Shooting with the cap on. Ok, I won't do it anymore, I promise.

^^

Make it a habit to take the lenscap off and put it into your shirt pocket the moment you pick up the camera.

Richard Black · 05-15-2005

Good habits or routines can prevent these most of the time. Like mentioned before, take the cap off and put in your shirt or what have you. The focus issue trips me up more often than not and I considering the hyperfocal method of focusing to avoid this issue. Any practitioners of that method?

Pherdinand · 05-15-2005

Happened to me several times, that I took the lenscap off and put it in my shirt pocket, it stayed there for a few hours and then I was so sad that I have lost it!!!

Pherdinand · 05-15-2005

The best thing invented so far, to avoid finger in the frame is a lens hood, by the way.

MCTuomey · 05-16-2005

AFTER reading this thread yesterday, I just shot half a roll at one of my son's school functions through my R2A with the wrong framelines up. Changed right away from a 35mm to a 50mm and just kept shooting. After about 15 photos, it kinda sweeps over me, "Gee, things feel kinda wide with this 50." Doh.

I'm hopeless.

But the real story is that my son told me not to take "the big cameras" with me. He was nervous about making a presentation on Edvard Munch and getting photographed. He then said it'd be okay if I brought "the little black one." That's my boy!

Nikon Bob · 05-16-2005

Another one for I left the lens cap on and just today too. That getting into a routine of removing the lens cap when you pick the camera up is good advice. Someday I may remember it.

Bob