RE: rangefinder focusing

[Paul Schliesser <paulsc@eos.net>]

>I don't remember that he said that he (Ralph Gibson)
>uses always wide apertures, but I do remember that he stressed how 
>important it to return camera controls to the same position after you 
>shoot.  That means for the next picture focussing and aperture adjustments 
>are always turned into the same direction.

Jorg,

One great advantage that the Leica has (and one that I've never seen 
mentioned in print anywhere) is that you always know which way to turn 
the lens to focus, depending on whether the rangefinder image is offset 
to the left or to the right. I realized this one day, and discovered that 
I have aware of this and have been using it automatically for years. I'm 
sure that most experienced M users also use this, although you also may 
not do it consciously. With an SLR, you need to hunt back and forth to 
determine if you are focused too close or too far. The comment on setting 
your focus at infinity, IMHO, is pointless with a rangefinder camera but 
useful for an SLR.

- - Paul