Re: [Leica] Horizontal Centering of Rangefinder

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

The idea behind parallax correction is that the subject is framed correctly
but the background can be significantly different if you are focused close.
What I do, if I feel it is critical, is to shift the camera slightly up and
to the left so that the lens sits where the viewfinder was. Works fine for
me.

John Collier

> From: Douglas Cooper <douglas@dysmedia.com>
> 
> Pondering this question of a hotshoe-mounted viewfinder, I've just realized
> -- I think -- that the hotshoe is in fact closer to the center of the lens,
> horizontally, than is the rangefinder.  The two windows to either side of
> the lens on an M3 are evenly spaced from the center of the lens -- which I
> suppose means that the focusing triangulation points to an apex in the very
> center -- but surely the *framing* of the image is done solely through the
> lefthand window, which is considerably to the left of what the lens sees.
> Am I missing something here?  In other words -- even with parallax
> adjustment -- it would seem as if the image is always slightly off
> horizontally (and that this is somewhat rectified by a hotshoe-mounted
> finder).
> 
> I probably am skipping over a crucial logical step, or it would seem that
> the framing mechanism on the Leica is by necessity seriously inaccurate in
> the horizontal plane, especially at close range.
>