35mm Rangefinder

A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to judge the focusing distance and take photographs that will be in focus. more...

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Most varieties of rangefinder show two images that when coincident give the proper focus distance. Older, non-coupled rangefinder cameras may display the focusing distance and require the photographer to transfer the value to the lens focusing ring. Most recent designs are coupled rangefinders — that is, the focus is adjusted both in the rangefinder and in the lens by the same control, usually a ring on the lens. In older designs the rangefinder is separate from the viewfinder; in most newer ones it appears at the center of the viewfinder.

History

The first rangefinders, sometimes called "telemeters", appeared in the nineteenth century; the first rangefinder camera to be marketed was the 3A Kodak Autographic Special of 1916; the rangefinder was coupled.

Not itself a rangefinder camera, the Leica I of 1925 had popularized the use of accessory rangefinders. The Leica II and Zeiss Contax I, both of 1932, were great successes as 35mm rangefinder cameras. The Contax II (1936) integrated the rangefinder in the center of the viewfinder.

Rangefinder cameras were common from the 1930s to the 1970s, but the more advanced models lost ground to single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras.

Rangefinder cameras have been made in all sizes and all film formats over the years, from 35mm through medium format (rollfilm) and even large format press cameras. Until the mid-1950s, most were generally fitted to more expensive models of cameras. Folding bellows rollfilm cameras were often fitted with rangefinders, such as the Balda Super Baldax, the Kodak Retina II, IIa, IIc, IIIc, and IIIC cameras and the Hans Porst Hapo 66e.

The best-known rangefinder cameras take 35mm film, employ focal plane shutters, and have interchangeable lenses. These are Leica screwmount (also known as M39) cameras developed for lens manufacturer Leitz Wetzlar by Oscar Barnack (which gave rise to very many imitations and derivatives), Contax cameras manufactured for Carl Zeiss Optics by camera subsidiary Zeiss-Ikon and, after Germany's defeat in World War II, produced again and then developed as the Ukrainian Kiev), Nikon S-series cameras from 1951-1962 (with design inspired by the Contax and function by the Leica), and Leica M-series cameras.

The Nikon rangefinder cameras were "discovered" in 1950 by Life Magazine Photographer Douglas Duncan, who covered the Korean War. Because the high quality of the optics of the Nikon lenses, the Nikon rangefinder cameras quickly became the American standard for photojournalists in the 1950s. Canon manufactured several models from the 1930s until the 1960s, all of these from 1946 were more or less compatible with the Leica thread mount. (From late 1951 they were completely compatible; the 7 and 7s had a bayonet mount for the 50 mm f/0.95 lens in addition to the thread mount for other lenses.)

Read more at Wikipedia.org