Rangefinder camera

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A Foca camera of 1947 at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris.

A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to judge the focusing distance and take photographs that will be in focus. Most varieties of rangefinder show two images that when coincident give the proper focus distance. Older, non-coupled rangefinder cameras may display the focusing distance and require the photographer to transfer the value to the lens focusing ring. Most recent designs are coupled rangefinders — that is, the focus is adjusted both in the rangefinder and in the lens by the same control, usually a ring on the lens. In older designs the rangefinder is separate from the viewfinder; in most newer ones it appears at the center of the viewfinder.

1 History
2 Digital rangefinder
3 Pros and Cons
4 External links

[edit] History

The first rangefinders, sometimes called "telemeters", appeared in the nineteenth century; the first rangefinder camera to be marketed was the 3A Kodak Autographic Special of 1916; the rangefinder was coupled.

Not itself a rangefinder camera, the Leica I of 1925 had popularized the use of accessory rangefinders. The Leica II and Zeiss Contax I, both of 1932, were great successes as 35mm rangefinder cameras. The Contax II (1936) integrated the rangefinder in the center of the viewfinder.

1957-1960 Kodak Retina IIIC

Rangefinder cameras were common from the 1930s to the 1970s, but the more advanced models lost ground to single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras.

Rangefinder cameras have been made in all sizes and all film formats over the years, from 35mm through medium format (rollfilm) and even large format press cameras. Until the mid-1950s, most were generally fitted to more expensive models of cameras. Folding bellows rollfilm cameras were often fitted with rangefinders, such as the Balda Super Baldax, the Kodak Retina II, IIa, IIc, IIIc, and IIIC cameras and the Hans Porst Hapo 66e.

Leica M7 rangefinder

The best-known rangefinder cameras take 35mm film, employ focal plane shutters, and have interchangeable lenses. These are Leica screwmount (also known as M39) cameras developed for lens manufacturer Leitz Wetzlar by Oscar Barnack (which gave rise to very many imitations and derivatives), Contax cameras manufactured for Carl Zeiss Optics by camera subsidiary Zeiss-Ikon and, after Germany's defeat in World War II, produced again and then developed as the Ukrainian Kiev), Nikon S-series cameras from 1951-1962 (with design inspired by the Contax and function by the Leica), and Leica M-series cameras.

Nikon SP and S3 cameras

The Nikon rangefinder cameras were "discovered" in 1950 [1] by Life Magazine Photographer Douglas Duncan, who covered the Korean War. Because the high quality of the optics of the Nikon lenses, the Nikon rangefinder cameras quickly became the American standard for photojournalists in the 1950s. Canon manufactured several models from the 1930s until the 1960s, all of these from 1946 were more or less compatible with the Leica thread mount. (From late 1951 they were completely compatible; the 7 and 7s had a bayonet mount for the 50 mm f/0.95 lens in addition to the thread mount for other lenses.)

Other such cameras include the Casca (Steinheil, West Germany, 1948), Detrola 400 (USA, 1940–41), Ektra (Kodak, USA, 1941–8), Foca (OPL, France, 1947–63), Foton (Bell & Howell, USA, 1948), Opema II (Meopta, Czechoslovakia, 1955–60), Perfex (USA, 1938–49), Robot Royal (Robot-Berning, West Germany, 1955–76), and Witness (Ilford, Britain, 1953). Among the longer lasting marques, all but the Leica M succumbed in the marketplace to pressure from SLRs. The most recent in the M-series is the M7, the first of the series to feature automatic exposure and an electronic shutter; and the all-mechanical MP, an updated M6 with an M3-style rewind knob.

In the United States the dependable and cheap Argus (especially the ubiquitous C-3 "Brick") was far and away the most popular 35mm rangefinder, with millions sold.

Interchangeable-lens rangefinder cameras with focal-plane shutters are greatly outnumbered by fixed-lens leaf-shutter rangefinder cameras. The most popular design in the '50s were folding designs like the Kodak Retina and the Zeiss Contessa.

In the 1960s many fixed-lens 35mm rangefinder cameras were offered by several manufacturers, mainly Japanese. Among them were Canon, Fujica, Konica, Mamiya, Minolta, Olympus, Ricoh, and Yashica. Other distributors such as Vivitar and Revue often sold rebranded versions of these cameras. These camera were targeted to the amateur market. While designed to be compact like the Leica, they were much less expensive, and built for amateur use. Many of them, such as the Minolta 7sII and the Vivitar 35ES, were fitted with high-speed, extremely high quality optics. Though eventually replaced in the market with newer compact autofocus cameras, many of these older rangefinders continue to operate, having outlived most of their newer (and less well-constructed) successors.

Starting with a camera made by the small Japanese company Yasuhara in the 1990s, there has been something of a revival of rangefinder cameras. Aside from the Leica M series, rangefinder models from this period include the Konica Hexar RF, Cosina, who makes the Voigtländer Bessa T/R/R2/R2a/R3a, and the Hasselblad Xpan/Xpan 2. Zeiss has a new model called the Zeiss Ikon, also made by Cosina, while Nikon has also produced expensive limited editions of its S3 and SP rangefinders to satisfy the demands of collectors and aficionados. Cameras from the former Soviet Union — the Zorki and FED, based on the screwmount Leica, and the Kiev — are plentiful in the used market.

Medium-format (rollfilm) rangefinder cameras continue to be produced. Recent models include the Mamiya 6 and 7, the Bronica RF645 and the Fuji G, GS and GSW series.

The Epson R-D1 with a Leica lens

[edit] Digital rangefinder

Digital imaging technology was applied to rangefinders for the first time in 2004, with the introduction of the Epson R-D1 the first ever digital rangefinder camera, which was made as a result of collaboration between Epson and Cosina. The later has also obtained rights to the name Voigtländer and currently manufactures rangefinder lenses with that name. The R-D1 and its recent successor, the R-D1s, use Leica M-mount lenses or earlier Leica screw mount lenses with an adapter. Leica released its first digital rangefinder, the Leica M8 in 2006. The three models mentioned above are all the digital rangefinders that have so far been made. All three models take the same rangefinder interchangeable lenses used on their film counterparts. All of them also lack the live-preview on their LCD and are expensive compared to average dSLRs.

[edit] Pros and Cons

SLRs are usually marketed as technically more advanced than rangefinder cameras: they normally have more system options, which tends to make them more profitable. Sales appeal and profits aside, SLRs allow the image to be seen through the same lens through which it is photographed.

Since the user looks through a viewfinder some distance from the lens with a rangefinder camera, and sees an image that is slightly different from the image which will be recorded on the film, framing becomes inaccurate at close range (the parallax problem). However, more advanced rangefinder cameras project into the viewfinder a brightline frame that corrects parallax error down to the minimum distance at which the rangefinder functions (typically further than the minimum focusing distance of an SLR lens with the same focal length and film format). For close-up photography, the rangefinder camera is awkward to use, as the image recorded may be significantly different from what the viewer sees.

Zoom lenses are not available for rangefinder cameras (Except for the Contax G2 Carl Zeiss 35-70mm Vario-Sonnar T* Lens see: http://www.contaxusa.com/product.asp?itemnum=202000), though a very few lenses such as the Konica M-Hexanon Dual or Leica Tri-Elmar let the user select among two or three focal lengths.

Rangefinder cameras do have several advantages over SLRs in certain applications. Since there is no moving mirror, as used in SLRs, there is no momentary blackout of the subject being photographed, the camera is often quieter, and the camera's body is usually slimmer and less obtrusive. These qualities make rangefinders ideal for action-grabbing candid shots and street photography. The lack of a mirror also allows lenses to project deep into the camera body, and so high-quality wide-angle lenses are easier to design. (The Voigtländer 12mm lens was the widest-angle rectilinear lens in general production for a long time, but recently the Sigma 12-24mm for SLR cameras has matched its angle.) Rangefinder camera focusing is more accurate with standard and wide-angle lenses (whereas an SLR is more accurate with telephoto lenses); on the other hand, the rangefinder may get out of alignment, while focussing element mis-aligments are very uncommon with most SLR cameras.

In addition, for photographers who use heavy filtration to achieve certain effects, a rangefinder camera offers the advantage of not having to focus and frame through the filters themselves - in this case, not viewing through the taking lens is a distinct advantage. On the other hand, some types of filters lend themselves more readily to SLRs, such as graduated filters and polarizers, since one must see through them to observe the variable effect they create.