At 04:38 PM 02/10/1999 +0000, you wrote:
>Doris Fang wrote:
>
>>I was reading the other day that an M6 can discern focus to the depth
>>of one human hair at 3 feet. No SLR, specially AF, can do that.
Simon says:
>yes, but can *you*? It's all very well the manufacturers making these
>claims, but when you're stopped down to f/11 and using hyperfocal or
>whatever, it all seems disctinctly academic. I do like RFs though.
No, I can't focus to the depth of a human hair at 3 feet. *But* when
you're trying to take pictures of people interacting and moving about at
close or medium range, nothing beats RF focusing, especially in "existing"
light. Even my old Leica IIIf is quicker to focus than an SLR under those
conditions. So was the Leica M2 I (aaaaaagh!) sold 25 years ago.
With an RF, you *know* when it's in focus. None of that back-and-forth
ambiguity of an SLR. On the other hand, an SLR shows you exact framing (in
theory), has no parallex issues, allows you to preview depth of field.
The RF is better suited for the fast and fleeting, the SLR for the more
deliberate and studied. There's a reason why Cartier-Bresson and others of
the "decisive moment" school preferred the Leica. And why Eisenstadt took
most of his people pictures with a Leica, but used a N*k*n SLR for most of
his nature pictures.
Fortunately, either camera type can do decently on the other's turf if the
photographer is good. But when it comes to ease of focusing, the RF is
superior from wide angle lenses up to about 105mm. For 135mm and above,
the SLR is better.
We're told that for the average snapshooter, auto-focus has done away with
the advantages of a rangefinder. But has it? I wonder how many family
pictures have been taken just *after* the moment of interest because of
autofocus delay. Unless you've got an expensive wonderbrick with a
"constant-tracking" autofocus, you were probably better off with an RF and
the ability to focus manually.
Of course, OM cameras, with their wonderfully big and bright viewfinders,
are probably easier to focus than some other SLRs. It's one of the reasons
why I decided to go with Olympus.
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