Rangefinder alignment

[Eric Meyer <74415.1305@compuserve.com>]

To:  >INTERNET:Leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us

Alf Breull wrote:
  >> The kids crawled from one side of the room to the other, even
  >> across the glass stone area without hesitation...

     I've always liked that experiment, for what it says about the
complexity of the development of human intelligence.  It's not just
the usual story, that at a certain age you suddenly "get" something
you didn't before (that the child in the mirror is you, that two
different containers have the same volume, etc).  Here there's
nothing wrong with those babies to begin with, they act on the
relevant information: the glass is a hard surface, and they
correctly go across it.  Later on they realize what looking through
the glass means, they worry about heights and falling, and
mistakenly start avoiding the glass.  (Of course, glass floors were
uncommon in our evolutionary past...)  Eventually, with better
experience and judgement, they will have to convince themeslves that
the transparency of the glass is really irrelevant, and it's
perfectly okay to go across again.  How fortunate we are to have a
brain (sometimes) capable of correcting the problems it creates for
us.

     That said, I myself don't feel obstacles of such psychological
depth in vertical focusing.  The only problem I have is purely
ergonomic: holding the camera and using the focusing tab just isn't
as convenient in this position.  (Also, I suppose with the wrong
hold it's possible to obscure the rangefinder window; what other
explanation is there for not seeing the focusing rectangle at all,
as John Doherty complained?)

     -- Eric Meyer.