The Figital Revolution

This instructive video provides a useful technique for making your very own, personalized rangefinder for the purposes of better focus accuracy with camera systems like a Rollei 35 and 35 S, Olympus XA 2, 3 and 4 as well as the LOMO LCA and Diana + camera systems… basically if you have to scale-focus your camera then this video is for you!

LINK:

Human Rangefinder Card Generator

I would again to thank Thomas Achtemichuk for making this very cool photographic tool available! 

Viva la Revolution- Stephen

Posted in Camera Technologies, LCA, LOMO, Olympus XA, Olympus XA 4, Toy Camera, indian hill imageworks, leica, lomo lca, rollei, stephen schaub, xa | Tagged homemade rangefinder, portable rangefinder, rangefinder camera, scale focus, zone focus | 14 Comments

14 Responses

1. on March 25, 2009 at 11:49 am Richard Jenkinson

   That is amazing Stephen. Thank you!

   Years ago I used a Rollei 35 quite extensively and soon got used to guessing quite accurately…in metres.
   Now I’m using an old folder marked only in feet, it’s completely thrown me off.

   I’m sure this card methode will help me, thanks again!

   Richard.

   
   
2. on March 25, 2009 at 2:02 pm Lars Stokholm

   This video was just what I needed. I have never been good at estimating distances, so I made a card this afternoon. After extensive testing, involving both my wife, kids and dog, I can now say that it is surprisingly accurate.
   So thank you Thomas and Stephen, all my Diana shots will be in focus from now on..

   
   
3. on March 25, 2009 at 2:57 pm dan

   Hi. Just got a struck of genius here that I needed to share with the rest of tha humanity out there: you could somehow mark the rangefinder scale on the camera itself instead of a card! Silly, huh?

   
   
   • on March 25, 2009 at 3:26 pm figitalrevolution

     Had the same idea and printed on a removable mailing label the scale and attached it the back top of my camera… won’t work on all cameras but a great idea for some!

     Cheers-
     Stephen

     
     
4. on March 25, 2009 at 4:56 pm JJ

   This is really cool idea! I’m totally gonna tattoo this rangefinder-scale on my finger! Then, when confronted by an autofocusing dslr geek, I can just raise my hand and read from my finger “your subject is nine-and-a-half feet away, do you really need autofocus to know that?” After that, I pull up my sleeve and tell him the exposure value from my (also)tattooed exposure guide in my arm.

   Then all women in vicinity realizes my photographic superpowers and I get laid. really.

   
   
   • on March 25, 2009 at 5:43 pm figitalrevolution

     Let me know how that works for ya.

     
     
5. on March 30, 2009 at 11:38 am jay

   Very helpful ideas here.

   I have been playing around with a Holga 135BC and the thing I struggle with most is making sure things are in focus… while some distances are easy to estimate and reasonably simple to guess at, others are really challenging. I think this exercise might be the direction I need to try next. Thanks!

   ~j

   
   
6. on April 16, 2009 at 3:48 am Fernando

   Great tip, I will try it. Sometimes it’s not easy to estimate distance with my R35, mostly when it’s close and at wide apertures.

   Would you mind to share your exposure guide and DOF table?
   I find your “combined tool” very clever and useful.

   Thanks!

   
   
   • on April 16, 2009 at 6:26 am figitalrevolution

     Here is a link to the exposure guide article:

     http://figitalrevolution.com/2009/03/18/thoughts-on-exposure-calculators/

     For good information on DOF charts:

     http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

     Cheers-
     Stephen

     
     
7. on September 24, 2009 at 10:20 pm Carlos Pimienta

   Hey! Thank you very much! =D

   
   
8. on November 11, 2009 at 4:49 pm Thomas Achtemichuk

   Hi Stephen, glad you’re enjoying my little script. As far as I know, Martin Tai is the genius who originally came up with this idea on this photo.net article:
   http://photo.net/minox-camera-forum/003HEV

   And about the name, you weren’t that far off It’s ACK-TEM-I-CHUCK

   Cheers,
   Tom

   
   
9. on December 14, 2009 at 7:50 pm The Human Rangefinder « Focusing on Life

   [...] Video about the subject matter [...]

   
   
10. on April 30, 2010 at 12:50 am Jess

    thanks for this! does it work for tlr-s too?

    
    
    • on May 1, 2010 at 6:12 pm figitalrevolution

      Yes!

      
      

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