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A rangefinder camera is one with a rangefinder that allows the photographer to judge the focusing distance. The rangefinder shows a double image, and lining up the two images of the object to be focused on more or less accurately gauges its distance. Older 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 objective lens by the same control, very often a ring on the lens. In older designs the rangefinder is separate from the viewfinder; in newer ones it appears at 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.
The most famous rangefinder cameras take 135 film, employ focal-plane shutters, and have interchangeable lenses: these are Leica screwmount cameras (which gave rise to many imitations and derivatives), Zeiss Contax cameras, Nikon S-series cameras (inspired by the Contax), and Leica M-series cameras. All but the last succumbed in the marketplace to pressure from SLRs. The most recent in the M-series is the M7, which is the first of the series to feature automatic exposure.
There were also many well-built non-interchangeable lens rangefinder camera like the various Kodak Retina and Canon Canonet models. These camera were often designed as "compact cameras" or "compact rangefinders". They failed to compete with compact autofocus cameras.
There has been something of a revival of rangefinder cameras in the 1990s. Aside from the Leica M-series, current models include the Contax G1 and G2, the Konica RF, the Voigtländer Bessa R2, and the Hasselblad Xpan; Zeiss has also announced a new model. Cameras from the former Soviet Union -- the ZorkiZorkis are inexpensive rangefinder cameras that were manufactured in the Soviet Union from 1949 until 1978. The Zorki came from the Krasnogorsk Mekanicheski Zavod or KMZ, which translates as Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory. This same factory also brought u and FED , based on the screwmount Leica, and the Kiev, based on the classic Contax rangefinder -- are plentiful in the used market.
There are also medium-format rangefinder cameras, like the MamiyaMamiya O. is a Japanese company that manufactures cameras, golf equipment, and specialty electronics and optical sensing equipment. With headquarters in the city of Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, it has a capitalization of about 3 000 000 000 yen, sales of 7, the Bronica RF645 and the Fuji G-series.
SLRs are usually more technically advanced than rangefinder cameras, with more system options, and have the advantage that the image is seen through the same lensA photographic lens (or more correctly, objective is an integrated system comprising one or more simple optical lens elements, used for a camera or microscope. It may be fixed to the camera body, or interchangeable. There will usually be an aperture selec through which it is photographed. Since the user looks through a viewfinder some distance from the lens and sees an image that is slightly different from the image which will be recorded on the film, framing becomes inaccurate at close range ( parallaxParallax is the change of angular position of two stationary points relative to each other as seen by an observer, due to the motion of said observer. Or more simply put, it is the apparent shift of an object against a background due to a change in observ problem). However, more advanced rangefinder cameras project a frameline into the viewfinder which corrects parallax error at all but very close imaging distances. For close-up photography, the rangefinder camera is awkward to use, as the image recorded may be significantly different from what the viewer sees. Zoom lenses are not available for rangefinder cameras, though a very few lenses let the user select among two or three focal lengths. Rangefinder cameras do have several advantages over SLRs in certain applications. Since there is no moving mirrorThis article is about the reflective surfaces. A mirror is a reflective surface that is smooth enough to be able to form an image. The best known example is the plane mirror that most people have at home. In it, a parallel beam of light changes its direct, as used in SLRs, the shutterA shutter is a movable cover or screen that alternately prevents and permits the passage of some desirable (or undesirable) element. A window shutter is something like a door for a window, usually made of a sturdy material and often louvered, whose origin response is faster and quieter and there is no momentary blackout; also, the camera's body is slimmer and less obtrusive. The lack of a mirror also allows lenses to project deep into the camera body, and so high quality wide-angle lensIn photography and cinematography, a wide-angle lens is a lens whose focal length is shorter than the focal length of a normal lens. For a 35 mm camera with a 24 by 36 mm format, the normal lens is 50 mm. A lens of focal length 35 mm or less is consideredes are easier to design. (The Voigtländer 12mm lens is the widest-angle non- fisheye lensIn photography, a fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that projects deliberately distorted images. All ultra-wide angle lenses suffer from some amount of distortion. While this can easily be corrected for moderately wide angles of view, rectilinear ultra-wi in general production.) In general, lenses are smaller than their SLR equivalents. The rangefinder focusing system is more accurate with standard and wide-angle lenses (whereas an SLR is more accurate with telephotos). The rangefinder focusing system is also faster and more accurate than manual focusing an SLR in low-light conditions. Since rangefinder cameras are simpler, they tend to be more durable - while some Leicas are collectors' items which are treasured and protected from the slightest scratch, they are nonetheless capable of withstanding considerable abuse and have been widely used by photojournalists. These qualities make rangefinders ideal for action-grabbing candid shots and street photography.
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