Tag: Rangefinder

Good Friday

Statue in der Pfarrkirche St. Willibald in Möning
1/250 sec | f/2 | ISO 1600 | 50mm

Good Friday is a public holiday in Germany. Time to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. Time to unwind a bit, taking The Significant Other and the Leica and heading out for a little hike near Etzelsdorf, visiting the site were the golden headdress of a bronze age sun priest was found that I wrote about in this post about our last trip to a museum.

While today’s images still are on the SD card in the camera, I want to share a photograph taken with the Leica M (Type 240) and the Summicron 50mm F/2 during another recent Sunday afternoon hike around the village of Möning, a few kilometers from our house. We took a peak into St. Willibald church, where I was immediately hooked by the rays of light falling through one of the windows of the old church dating back almost one thousand years.

That moment I was glad I had brought the Leica on this trip, as none of the other cameras I own would have been able to capture the magic of this moment as the vintage full frame rangefinder. The tonal range, the softness of the light is special to this sensor almost ten years old now. A perfect image to share on this Good Friday.

If you feel like picking up your camera on this (hopefully for you as well) long weekend and are still looking for more tips, explanations and inspiration around photography, check out my free Learning Center. And then have fun hunting for those magic rays of light.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend and stay safe!

Marcus

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The Rangefinder effect

What's up, shutterbug
1/350 sec | f/9.5 | ISO 1250 | 35mm

Shooting street photography with a Leica produces what I call “the rangefinder effect”. While people in the streets have a tendency to find it disturbing having a big ass DSLR pointed at their faces, their reaction is definitely quite different when they see the casually wandering photographer working the manual focus and the aperture ring of an almost anachronistic looking small black camera.

Obviously, shooting with other retro looking cameras like the Olympus PEN-F or the Fuji X100F is also much less intimidating than using a big DSLR with a huge lens attached. But those cams use autofocus and thus the process is often reduced to a simple point and shoot. The point and shoot approach would also work on a rangefinder using zone focusing (the systematic pre-focusing of a lens at specific distance and aperture to achieve a sharp image), but to get the hang of using a rangefinder I mostly take the time to set up the shots individually. Which, as totally unusual these days, draws curiosity and often a (probably pitiful) smile, the rangefinder effect. Especially when you are close to your subjects, what you have to be when you shoot street photography using a 35mm lens.

If you are looking for tips and inspirations around photography, be sure to check out my free Learning Center.

Wish you a great Monday!

Marcus

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Camera History – Yashica Electro 35 GTN

Some camera history to start the week. In my quest to re-enter analogue film photography, I took to eBay to acquire a beautiful vintage Yashica Electro 35 GTN. For the history of this beautiful rangefinder camera and some of my film photographs I took during a test shooting on the Streets of Nuremberg, read the full post.

Continue reading “Camera History – Yashica Electro 35 GTN” →
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