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Features

How a Rangefinder Camera Focuses

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 04/21/2011
04/22/2011
1 Min read
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Ever wonder how a rangefinder camera focuses? I found a video on YouTube that shows exactly how that happens. As you’ll see, certain areas line up with one another. When they’re all perfectly lined up, you know you’re in focus. We reviewed the Leica M9 and Leica M7 cameras here a while back: both are rangefinders. When I say that rangefinder focusing really helps when you’re visually impaired the way I am, I’m not joking. Try focusing with a rangefinder, and then try it with a DSLR: without your glasses. See which one will be more accurate. Yes, there is autofocus, but sometimes it isn’t reliable.

This posting is dedicated to all the rangefinder lovers, those curious about Leica, and to our very own Educational Director Sander-Martijn; who like me is experiencing vision problems. I talked to him about rangefinder focusing the other night.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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