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If you are an amateur, is the X100 the holy grail? I would nearly say so. It may have incredibly good interchangeable lenses, but it's a point and shoot in the same field as a T2.Here comes my main and I hopefully most insightful point of this post. The Contax G is a very expensive (and very good) point and shoot. If you ask a photographer to name you a rangefinder, I can almost guarantee you they'll not name a Contax G, because it doesn't have the split-image system mechanically linked to the lens, which the photographer is directly controlling with the focus ring. All of these rely on the photographer overlapping a moving image on a static image, with the use of a moving mirror.Ī Contax G is not a rangefinder in the photographer's sense. The third, rarer option is the split image rangefinder in something like an Argus C3. To me, a rangefinder camera has an optical-mechanical system where the focus is manually set, and the photographer is shown two images overlaid, either in the centre of the viewfinder (Leica M) or in a separate window (Barnack Leica). There are points for both sides, but getting into the semantics of what we expect someone means by the word rangefinder within the context of cameras and photography, then no, this isn't a rangefinder. However as far as the world of film cameras is concerned, the mechanical coincident rangefinder is the only one that is really relevant to the term. Ever head of Jacob's Staff or the Sextant? Those can definitely find range. Simple trigonometry using one short lateral distance and an angle on parchment would constitute a rangefinder, as much as that is going to trigger you. 'Rangefinders' as you are using it came much, much later. A stadia scale is how the majority of gunsights and binoculars determine range to target - no other fancy devices are required because these predate lasers, sound, and radio. You're right but none of these are included in cameras - which you may have missed, is why nobody is discussing rulers, guided missiles, footsteps or turns on a wheel - things which all can be used to determine range.Ī printed scale is just a ruler but when combined with some other device, it forms a rangefinder. Rangefinders can use ambient light, lasers, sound, radio. It is more so an interchangeable autofocus viewfinder camera.Ī rangefinder is any instrument used to determine range. Just because this champagne colored brick looks like one and was marketed as one doesn't mean it is one.
KEN ROCKWELL CONTAX G2 MANUAL
Rangefinder camera is popularly accepted as a camera that uses an opto-mechanical and manual way (mirrors and beam splitters) to measure distance between the subject and the focal plane. Source: Popular Photography Apr 1995 Issue and Wikipedia. Just Phase Detection AF and nothing more. Two CCD sensors measuring for light intensity (C).Īnd here is the damn explanation. IT IS FUCKING AUTOFOCUS WITH A SHITTY "MANUAL" FOCUS DIAL. THE CONTAX G DOES NOT HAVE A RANGEFINDER. And even the ground glass on a fucking view camera is a rangefinder. If this is your definition of Rangefinder then AF SLRs are Rangefinders, Point-and-Shoots are Rangefinders, My Sony A7 is a rangefinder, and so is apparently the fucking fresnel screen on my Canon EF. It is phase detection autofocus and nothing less. Similar to make you think you got something special when buying the Tessar or Sonnar point and shoots which actually use decades old formulas. Calling it "passive electronic rangefinder" is fucking marketing. And also most likely due to marketing as it's main competitors were the M7, Bessa R, and Hexar RF, all of whom are traditional RFs. Or a mirrorless camera system which was very unusual then, maybe even a first of its kind and predecessor to modern MILCs, thus defined as an Rangefinder as it was modeled after one. So in short it is a very sophisticated Point and Shoot.
KEN ROCKWELL CONTAX G2 WINDOWS
It has an effectiveness figure of 596.4 due to its 28.4mm length between the windows multiplied by the total lens-to-sensor light path which is 21mm. The Advantage of this is, that unlike on an SLR, it doesn't have to measure within the small diameter of a lens. "Passive-Electronic Rangefinder Unit" is really just a marketing term. It's literally just two CCD sensors measuring for similar light intensity patterns. There isn't a Contax/Kyocera unique systems. If that is your definition of Rangefinder then everything that uses phase detection af is an Rangefinder including SLRs and point and shoots rangefinders.