Re: [Leica] Focusing the M6

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

My solution! I do not worry about it. I focus, recompose and shoot. Works
fine everytime. Mind you there is one trick....use film in the camera and
you too can see that it works! ;-)

John Collier

> From: Jesse Hellman <hellman@home.com>
> 
> What is the best way to solve the following: you are shooting close-up,
> say at two feet, at F/2 or wider. The closer eye of your subject is
> off-center. There is nothing dead-center on which to focus. So you focus
> on the eye and then swing the camera back to frame. Now, obviously, the
> plane that passes at a right angle through the eye intersects the lens
> axis at a distance closer to the film plane than the distance from the
> film plane to the eye. The farther the eye is towards the edge of the
> film the greater this becomes. With a reflex you can avoid this problem
> by focusing on the groundglass.
> 
> At wide f-stops the depth of field is very small at close distances.
> What is the best way to handle this? A lens with a curved field might do
> better in this regard than one with a flat field. So as the lenses get
> better, this effect has become greater. My own solution is, if it is
> possible, to try to set up something (like the subject's hand) where I
> think the center would be. But with quick action and more candid shots
> that simply is not possible. Or, you could focus a bit closer than
> indicated, but that seems like guessing.
> 
> What do you do? I have never seen this issue discussed.
>