Sony Though I love the EVF...bought a Voigtlander OVF and want to zone focus for street.

rpavich

Veteran
I decided (based on a few threads on the internet) to get the Voigtlander 28mm Brightline OVF for my street photography. I'm by no means a "street photographer" but I'm learning.

I bought the 28mm OVF because of a thread here on the RX1 forum recommended it, but I can always return it for the 35mm if it doesn't pan out.

I've tried my hand at "f/8-focus-at-2-3-feet" zone style focusing and it works amazingly well. I haven't been on the street doing that yet, I have just been practicing around the house and judging distances to see when I get into the "zone" on objects.

I decided to do this because focusing on the street is decidedly slow and most definitely causes me to not pay as much attention to "moments" that are essential to the medium. I spend my time getting focus and then the viewfinder goes dark and it sort of defeats one of the major aspects of why people use rangefinders...the lack of distraction of a DSLR viewfinder or an EVF...you seem to "shoot through" the action...etc.

So...even with it's faults, I'm giving the VOFV a shot for street and keeping the EVF for my other stuff.

Anyone have thoughts on this? I know that Ray does a lot of street...hopefully he'll chime in.


Just a PS: I noticed that at f/8, even hitting AF on someone's body results in sharp shots.
 
Probably not a lot of help. I've done a bit of street shooting with the RX1 and its certainly capable, but far from my favorite street camera. First, I much prefer a wider field of view for street - 28, 24, even 21mm. Second, a full frame camera just doesn't have much DOF and zone focussing is an area where you want more, not less DOF. It's fine in really good light, but in lower light the great sensor doesn't compensate for the limited DOF. Third, the way the RX1's auto ISO is set up, you pretty much have to shoot in manual rather than aperture priority off you want to use auto-ISO. I prefer using aperture priority with a really good auto-ISO setup because once you have it set up the way you like, you really don't have to think about it or change much in the field other than exposure comp. Since I got the Nikon A, I don't think I'll use anything else for street work.

That said, I think if you want to us the RX1 for street and you want to zone focus, focus peaking can be a great educational tool. You can turn peaking on and get a very good idea of how large a zone you have in focus at various apertures and focus distances. It doesn't work well while shooting because it only works in magnified view, but it might work well in combination with an OVF - use the LCD to check your zone of focus and the OVF to shoot. I found when I have used the RX1 in less than great light, peaking showed me that I had more useful DOF than a DOF calculator was telling me I did, so it was helpful in that respect. And the distance scale on the RX1 is pretty crude anyway, so another reason to check with focus peaking...

In terms of OVFs, I'm not sure why you'd want to use a 28mm FOV instead if the camera's 35mm, but whatever helps you visualize. I pretty much never (or very rarely anyway) use a viewfinder for street work, though, so I can't give you much specific advice on them. I use the RX1with the EVF the vast majority if the time, but not for street stuff.

Good luck, have fun, etc!

-Ray
 
Thanks Ray!

I shoot a lot of manual+Auto ISO anyway and it works very well for me...it's a bit like the "A" mode but with a selectable minimum shutter speed.

The zone checking thing with peaking sounds like something that would work for me, I'll give it a whirl and let you know how it goes.

As for the 28mm vs 35mm vinder, the person who used both said:

Q:
Was curious, Richard, why you selected the Voigtlander 28mm viewfinder rather than Voigtlander’s 35mm viewfinder for use with the RX1?

And he said:
I tried two 35 mm finders including the Voightlander but found them too tight. For whatever reason, the 28 mm Voightlander seemed to be about right.



Does that make sense?
 
Thanks Ray!

I shoot a lot of manual+Auto ISO anyway and it works very well for me...it's a bit like the "A" mode but with a selectable minimum shutter speed.

The zone checking thing with peaking sounds like something that would work for me, I'll give it a whirl and let you know how it goes.

As for the 28mm vs 35mm vinder, the person who used both said:





Does that make sense?
I guess so - those bolt on OVF's are mostly about helping you know you have the damn thing pointed in the right general direction anyway. Its not like any of them are precision framing devices. As long as it works for you...

-Ray
 
I guess so - those bolt on OVF's are mostly about helping you know you have the damn thing pointed in the right general direction anyway. Its not like any of them are precision framing devices. As long as it works for you...

-Ray

Lol...well, they do have a 30 day money back policy at Adorama...so I'm good to go! :)
 
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