Re: [Leica] Parallax concerns

[Dennis Painter <dwp@deltanet.com>]

George,

The longer the lens and the closer you focus the more difficult it is to
be accurate with the finder.  As you focus closer the focal length of
the lens is increasing and its angle of view becoming more narrow.
Framelines in the M finder do not compensate for the changing angle of
view so some error is introduced there. In addition it's possible for
the framelines to be off a few degrees to the right or left and cause
you to clip a bit more than you expected on an edge.

The M is really not designed for super tight framing so be sure to leave
a bit extra to crop off in the darkroom or a slide mount.

Hope this helps.

Dennis


George Huczek wrote:
> 
> Developed some film yesterday, shot over the weekend.  I lost one edge of
> an important image.  I'm wondering if rangefinder parallax had something to
> do with it.
>    I was taking a picture of the front grill of an old car (a 1956
> Studebaker Golden Hawk ... only 4071 were produced).
>    I framed the image carefully in the viewfinder, making sure that I got
> the full grill in.  I framed very close to the edges of the framelines
> (standard M6, 50mm lens, distance about 1.5 m away from the subject).
>    The negative shows the right edge of the grillwork cut off.  I'm sure
> that I framed this properly to get the entire grill in.  I thought that the
> framelines in the viewfinder shifted slightly to compensate for
> close-focusing distances.  However, it appears that there may be something
> going on that I am not aware of.  At close distances with a rangefinder, is
> it necessary to frame more loosely, and leave some free space at the edges
> of the negative to compensate for parallax?
> 
> -GH