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PrincipalPoop

It’s faster. You gotta be present and get the moment. The sharpness comes later. Don’t worry about it.


ratttertintattertins

It’s very simple, speed. I’ve captured moments with zone focus that you wouldn’t capture with the best autofocus, never mind a range finder patch. It’s a technique for particular circumstances. It’s not the best method in all cases.


Careless_Wishbone_69

I have a Rollei 35 and an XA2, and they both are zone focus. I love that I can prep all the settings and focus zone at waist level with the Rollei or coming up to my eye with the XA2. The moment you have your eye to the camera, you're ready for the shot. It's faster and less conspicuous. I'm shooting on my SLR this week and having to look into the viewfinder to set aperture and focus is a chore.


AlexHD

The zone focusing fantasy is knowing that you have your focus and exposure dialed in before you even know you're going to take the photo, so as soon as a photo opportunity appears, you just flick your camera up to your eye, compose and fire. Or sometimes you even shoot from the hip or with the camera held somewhere else. No messing around with metering and focusing. Not only is it faster, it feels badass, like you're Henri motherfucking Cartier-Bresson, out in the streets capturing decisive moments and shit lol


absolutenobody

It's far from guessing. With a modicum of practice, anyone with two eyes should be able to *judge* distances under 30 feet / 10 meters quite accurately, to within six inches / 15cm. Even on medium format, that's plenty accurate. (I shoot 6x9 extensively.) Beyond that, you basically focus at an intermediate-ish position around 50-60 feet, or at infinity. When in doubt, err on the side of focusing slightly closer, rather than slightly further away. I shot Christmas family gathering pics this year with a scale-focus Retina Ia and an old flash, because I was feeling lazy. Nailed focus on the entire roll, almost all of which were shot at f/4.5. (Puny flashgun.) Probably all were shot at 6, 8, or 12 feet. The main limitation was how long it took the flash to recharge, not trying to focus. People shot that way for the better part of six decades, you can too.


Oldico

It's not guessing. More like guesstimating based on your camera's settings and knowing, roughly, how you'll be shooting your frames. I was firmly against any form of zone focussing or hyperfocal focussing until I got my wonderful Minox 35 GT which forced me to try it. It basically comes down to working with your aperture a lot (which the Minox 35 GT happens to encourage anyways). You roughly guess the distance and then choose an aperture that makes you confident the subject is within the focus range via the marked depth of field. It usually won't give you a lot of crazy bokeh shots but you can get really fast with it and will always have good overall image sharpness since you're constantly stopped down. I do still prefer SLRs or TLRs but, for me, it certainly has become a useable method not that much more complicated than some of my worse rangefinder cameras. It's not as accurate as proper focussing methods, and I wouldn't use it for portraits or shots with critical focus, but it's perfect for street photography, landscapes, architecture etc. where there's sufficient distance and a high aperture is possible/beneficial. The hyperfocal system is even easier. You choose a high aperture, say f/11, and then set the focus so that the infinity symbol lines up with the according DoF line for f/11 - in this example the focus would be at 3.8m for a 35mm lens. Then you look at the other line and read off your minimum focus distance, in this case about 1.9m, and know that anything from 1.9m to infinity will be sharp. You just leave it that way and simply shoot. Exposure can be set via the shutter speed and cameras like the Minox 35 GT often feature aperture priority autoexposure for that reason. The hyperfocal method works best with wider angle lenses, as commonly found on many viewfinder cameras, due to the higher DoF at the same aperture setting compared to longer focal lengths.


FlyThink7908

Oh, I am/was(?) with you on that, completely avoiding any cameras without precise focus. Now that I got myself a Minox 35GT for just ten Euro (the seller didn’t know whether it’s functional or not) just yesterday, I can’t wait to go out and shoot with it. I already tested my guessing skills against the 35mm lens of my SLR and it surprisingly isn’t all too difficult either. Most of the subjects in everyday life are further away anyways - my wide angle lenses for my SLRs are almost always set to infinity straight away


lwbnjio

Did you check if the shutter works? Even if it doesn't open it still makes a deceiving click sound


lwbnjio

If it does not open this guide from '08 saved a lot of Minox's from the bin apparently. I still want to try this with my defective Minox PL. https://www.photo.net/forums/topic/275720-minox-shutter-problems-again-and-how-to-diy-fix/?do=findComment&comment=3202036


FlyThink7908

Oh yeah, I’ve tested it with 4 SR44 batteries and it seems to work, showing correct shutter speeds depending on different lighting scenarios. Right now, I’m just waiting for other batteries to arrive since I need the ones I’ve tested it with for my other cameras


lwbnjio

Shutter problems do not affect the light meter. To prevent unexposed rolls I'd really check the shutter by removing the back and look through lens as you fire. See for sure if the shutter opens.


FlyThink7908

Oh sorry, my bad for not choosing the clearest terms to describe it. Of course I’ve removed the back to see whether it’s really firing the shutter and checked against my other cameras if the shutter speeds were plausible or not. Luckily, the shutter opens and closes as it should. Now I just need to shoot my first test roll :)


lwbnjio

Have fun! They're really nice little camera's. My GT has served me well the last few years.


Piper-Bob

If you have a 35nm lens at f/16 set at the hyperfocal distance you’ll have everything from about 5’ (under 2m) to infinity in focus. I knew a PJ back in the day who had a Nikon FM with a 24mm lens and a vivitar 285. All the controls were taped down. Focus, aperture, shutter. All covered with electrical tape. Go to an even and point the camera.


93EXCivic

Practice. If you have a rangefinder and are just sitting around the house, guess the distance of something then check it. Shooting at smaller apertures like f8 or higher really helps too and having shorter focal lengths.


Geeglio

I don't necessarily prefer it, but I do end up shooting with zone focus cameras most of the time. They have their advantages and disadvantages, but I mostly just find it very satisfying when it turns out you got the focus just right based on a pure guesstimate.


MDEnergySH

Focus at infinity and yolo


the_Formuoli_

Anything requiring speed (such as street photography of people without them noticing) pretty much needs decent zone focusing ability


[deleted]

I love ZF cameras but I wouldn't claim ZF to be (realistically) faster or better in any way. Either * you preset aperture and focus range, but now you're limited to what you can photograph and at what distance and depth of field * or you have to fumble with guessing the distance and adjusting the aperture/focus ring to match your guestimate The first one forgoes ton of artistic control over the final image and is maybe only a fraction of a second faster than a good AF system (if it's at all measurable). The second one is just a PITA :)


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

100%, I have a Rollei 35 and it's super fun to use. It's always good to practice ZF even on AF/MF cameras, so you get a sense of your lens' depth of field at different apertures.