Manual focusing

[MartinS]

Hi all,

I just got a Bessa R4m and Nokton 40mm f1.4 from Chiif and have been trying it out over the last few days. A beautiful piece of kit!
I would just like to know how others out there using this lens achieve the fastest possible manual focus. Does one,

1. Pre-focus to an estimated distance to the subject, move in for the shoot at the estimated distance and fine tune the focus again if need be.
2. As above but fine tuning by physically moving your body forward or back.
or
3. Move in for the shoot and then acheive focus manually.

I always end up doing no.3 and my fingers fumble for the lens focusing lever. I still need practice getting my fingers to automatically adjust to the focusing lever of this lens whenever i bring it up to eye level. In fact while typing this out, it just occured to me that I should just practice getting my fingers onto the focus lever before the camera comes up to eye level! Nevertheless I am still keen to hear how you guys do it.

Cheers

Martin

[waileong]

Let go. Exact focus isn't that important with a 40 mm lens. Learn to use zone focus, set your aperture at f8, use ISO 400 or 800 film.

Then you'll discover why RF photography is so suited to the street, and why it's so much faster than SLR's under such circumstances.

PS If you don't know zone focus, google.

[MartinS]

Ok thanks...will give it a go.

[nsng]

Hi,

Understand hyperfocal distance and use it. I tend to use this with my M camera.

N.S.

[centurion_sg]

I use all 3 "modes" for my R3M and same Nokton 40mm. For stealth and candid shots, I meter AND pre-focus first. For static scenes I just take my time to do fine focus to achieve the desired effect. In low light conditions, it gets more difficult to pre-focus because of the need for large aperture. Also try taking without bringing the camera to eye level, shoot from hip, chest, etc Have fun.

[OpenLens]

Originally Posted by MartinS Hi all, I just got a Bessa R4m and Nokton 40mm f1.4 from Chiif and have been trying it out over the last few days. A beautiful piece of kit!

out of curiosity, why an R4 and 40? why not an R3 and 40 or R4 and 25 or 28?

something that matches?

anyway, I tend to hyperfocus if the day is bright enough. if not, i'll pre-focus on something a few feet in front of me and keep that distance in my head.

[MartinS]

Originally Posted by OpenLens out of curiosity, why an R4 and 40? why not an R3 and 40 or R4 and 25 or 28? something that matches? anyway, I tend to hyperfocus if the day is bright enough. if not, i'll pre-focus on something a few feet in front of me and keep that distance in my head.

Well I wanted the R4 because I wanted the option of getting a 21mm lens in the future. I recall reading in a previous post here that the R4 winding mechanism is an improved version of the R3 as well.
I like the 40mm as its not so tight as a 50mm. From what I geaned from this forum, framing the shot takes a bit of practice using the 35 or 50 framelines which is something I can live with. Furthermore I am a sucker for large apertures!
Thanks for the tip on how you focus....I found a few interesting websites on hyperfocal distance and look forward to trying it out. I will also give your method of prefocusing at a distance a go as well.

[enivre]

I haven't had much luck with zone focusing, most of the time because I'm shooting wide open so the DOF is too shallow and my judgement of distances too inaccurate.

Oh well I think I just need more practice.

[RailGun]

But what would be a good technique for say the Leica Noctilux f/1 wide open at f/1.0? The focus has to be absolutely dead on with no room for error at all.

[waileong]

Use a magnifier. Or shoot subjects more than 10m away, then the focus won't be so critical.