Re: [Leica] Lagavulin and focussing Noctilux and 75 Summilux in low light

[Rei Shinozuka <shino@panix.com>]

this idea not original; someone else suggested it, but i find it 
helpful.  as you note, your DOF is an inch or so near the close
end.  if it often easier to move yourself slightly back and forth that
small amount and to find perfect focus that way.

another suggestion is to use lutz konerman's "steer" which gives a
large, knurled focusing grip.  i use it now on my noctilux, 75 lux
and 90 cron.  it really does make precise focusing easier.

you do have the 1.25 magnifier, which i swear by.  i use it on my 72
and 85, even the bug-eye 135.  i almost never take it off.

my final suggestion is to practice, practice, practice!  my eyes have
never been the best, (which is one of the reasons i switched to rangefinders
in the first place), but over the last year, my hit rate with the noctilux
wide-open has gone up significantly.

- -rei


On Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 12:58:13PM +0700, Mitch Alland wrote:
> I posted about learning to drink Lagavulin and got 15-20 responses, and 
> I posted about the problems of focussing the Noctilux and 75 Summilux 
> in low light and got 1 response which was jocular not informative. I 
> suppose someone will say, "Yup this is the LUG." So here's the 
> Noctilux/Summilux focussing question again:
> 
> ---------------
> Last night I tried to take portraits of three young women using the 
> Noctilux and the 75 Summilux on my M6 in low light which, with 400 ISO 
> film, required exposures of 1/15 sec. at f1.4 and 1/30 sec at f1.0. 
> Trying to focus on the eyes, I found it extremely difficult: the low 
> light and the relative large turning circle of the focussing ring of 
> these two lenses made it extremely difficult to tell when the eyes were 
> in focus. I also tried using the 1.25x magnifier but this did not seem 
> to make it any easier as it slightly darkens the viewfinder image. I 
> get the feeling focussing the M6 in such low light at the extremely 
> narrow DOF  of the 1.0-14 apertures of these lenses is a hit or miss 
> process.
> 
> Is there a solution to this problem other than rating the film at 800 
> ISO and shooting at, say, f2.0 to increase the DOF?

- -- 
Rei Shinozuka shino@panix.com
Ridgewood, New Jersey

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