What is a Rangefinder Camera?

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A beginner's guide to rangefinder cameras.

Rangefinder cameras use a double-window system that provides extremely accurate manual focusing.

After properly focusing on your subject, you can look at your lens’s distance scale to see the focusing distance. Knowing exactly how far away your subject lies will let you set the aperture, using the depth of field scale, to achieve a shallow or deep depth of field. Rangefinders make you work a bit, think a bit, but with time the process becomes second nature.

And since rangefinders do not use a mirror , the lens rests closer to the film plane or sensor, which creates a sharp, defined image. The absence of a mirror lends other benefits to the rangefinder system, as described below.Early non-coupled rangefinder cameras used a separate rangefinder system that allowed photographers to determine the correct focusing distance to their subject and then transfer this calculation to their camera lens’s focus ring.

With the ubiquity of the electronic viewfinder, some may consider today’s rangefinder system obsolete. Yet newcomer camera companies like Pixii are developing state-of-the-art rangefinders, andThe Leica M11 was announced in 2022, and the rangefinder camera is alive and well. Photographers can check split- and double-image focusing for a subject in order to be extra sure of correct focus. One trick for focusing on a subject with horizontal lines is to turn the camera vertically for focusing, then return it to a horizontal position for taking the photo . With no autofocus, the lens will naturally hold focus unless you move it.

The framelines seen when using a 28mm or 90mm lens on a Leica M8 digital rangefinder camera. Illustration by Leica. Rangefinders take you back to the basics of photography. They let you concentrate on making photos without having to overthink. Forget excess buttons and beeps. Henri Cartier-Bresson made photos better than we will ever achieve, and he used a rangefinder, no autofocus.Alas, no camera type is perfect . Rangefinders are certainly not for everyone. They can be a pain. Like any tool, they come with limitations. Rangefinders can definitely restrict your photography.

 

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