One Car Show, Two Focus Solutions: Rangefinder vs. Modern AF.

Went to my first Low Rider Car Show in Fayetteville, NC yesterday. More specifically:

My main reason for being in town. Cesar told me about the event and I truly appreciate it. I wrote a post about a small business restaurant Found Food 4 The Soul. That went very well. Then I wrote three posts about the three films I used with a great camera. Brought a few digital implements but only one film camera.

That was fun.

Even made a bold assertion. If forced to choose only one film camera this would be it.

This post? This post here?

I struggled with I must admit. I was not sure how to approach it. I did something that I had been meaning to do for a while to settle an internal question of mine.

Why do I prefer rangefinder focusing over top-notch modern AF?

This bugs me. The reason it bugs me is that it makes no sense at all. I bill myself as a logical person. Granted being into photography, and especially film photography, could be argued as being peak illogical behavior. But within this artificial relevancy construct of a hobby, I like to think that I make logical decisions. “Logic” is behind my choice of main system. Sony.

I will not waste anyone’s time debating brand preference. You do you. Run what you brung. Whatever floats your boat, so on and so forth. Any brand could do for me. My reasons have nothing to do with any of the things most photographers debate. The performance of all are acceptable across the board. My practical considerations largely have to do with Sony being first to the full frame mirrorless party.

The least expensive used bodies on the market I could make do with.
- Anything A7II and forward could work for me.
Oldest, so least expensive Sony branded lenses on the market used.
Strongest third party lens support so lower prices and more options, and great deals used.
Greatest legacy lens adapter support.
- Contax G or M with AF support and a Hasselblad adapter with a speed booster and more? Check.

So with Sony all practical bases are covered…

Why is a many years old manual focus rangefinder the first camera I reach for?

I do it. But I still struggle to make sense of it.

So this day I did a thing. I decided to use both at this event. And this is what I found out about myself with regards to these two solutions. It is not a technical breakdown but a behavioral one. I found out more about me than I did about the cameras. I found it interesting. It might be of interest to you as well.

The setup. I did not use both cameras at once shot for shot as I have done with comparisons in the past. I used one for a while. Put it away. Had a film intermission. And then I used the other. Here are some thoughts thrown together in no particular order.

I found I took many fewer pics with the rangefinder.
- I was much more contemplative when framing and capturing an image when using the rangefinder. Often would study a potential frame before even raising the camera to my eye. Because of this pre planning…
I had a much higher keeper rate with the rangefinder.
- I was pleased with most images captured and deleted very few images in post editing. While I am not the spray and pray type in settings like this there were more errant pics with traditional AF. This also had to do with the fact that…
Each individual pic felt less… special with traditional AF.
- To watch an entire frame unfold and choose what to focus on was very pleasing. I always knew about the perks of seeing beyond the frame lines which aids me in composing a frame. But this day something else became apparent. Not sure how to say this, and it applies to SLRs vs. rangefinders also, but here we go…
Live view with a fast lens lens blurs part of the scene.
- This is obvious. Had thought it was an advantage up until Saturday. A bit of WYSIWYG in the viewfinder is a good thing, right? Not always I found. While viewing a scene through a fast lens’ perspective wide open real time much of the scene will be blurred. Had thought this was great. But here is the thing. What if something even more interesting is happening in those blurry areas? With a rangefinder you always have access to view the entire scene. Occasionally what had started as focusing on one thing changed into a completely different capture when something else caught my eye. I will explain further with a series of images I took of a beautiful Chevrolet later in this post. This also brings up another point.
Having subject specific AF is great, until it isn’t.
- The Sony I was sporting this day had AF modes where I could choose vehicles or people from the options. The issue? Ok, issue is strong. This would be fine if I would be choosing to focus on one or the other. But there were both people and vehicles this day. I found manually choosing the focus subject with the rangefinder to be quicker, if not easier than going to the subject shortcut to switch back and forth. Aka, the mother of all first world problems. Poor me.
- It seems like I am only naming rangefinder advantages. But there are advantages to AF. Mainly…
Modern AF killed it with fast moving subjects.
- Obvious? Yes. But advantageous nonetheless. There were pics taken of Cesar and his cousin talking with the organizer from the City Knights Car Club. They were very animated and my rangefinder skills are such that there is no way in heck I could have kept up. But there was something interesting that I noticed…
The same guy is behind the camera.
- So regardless of the tool used the images I kept were largely the same. So neither camera type “ruined” the experience. They were just different means of obtaining largely the same end results.

Alright. Enough of that for now. Here are the images followed by some closing thoughts.

First up Modern AF. (Most any modern AF system would do the same.)

Ok. I used film along with the Sony. Then I put them both away and used my preferred digital image capturing tool. I cut another lap, got some additional photos of the cars above, and captured some of vehicles I missed and some that arrived later.

Rangefinder.

Next up is a series of photos that largely came to be courtesy of a rangefinder experience. While this vehicle arrived I kept seeing scenes outside of the frame lines that led to the next images in the series.

Thoughts.

Reviewing these images while creating this post I noticed another difference between the way I use Modern AF and rangefinder focusing.

Scenes seen.

This is one of my blog themes. Not just capturing an image of a person or thing. But capturing scenes. I have noticed that many of my rangefinder images have layers to them. It is not a look at this person of thing affair, but let me show you what I saw. I like it.

Better? No.

Modern AF has clear advantages. It will remain my go to for the bulk of “real” work. I reference the pics of the gentlemen talking. I would not trust myself to capture them with a rangefinder. Add to that scenario low vantage points, event work, little kids, or any situation with fast moving subjects and I am reaching for Modern AF all day.

But the rest of the time? It will be a rangefinder for me.

I love cars. I have always been fascinated with Low Riders. Nice folks. Beautiful cars. A great day.

Happy capturing.

-ELW