Rangefinder camera

Folding bellows rollfilm cameras, such as the Balda Super Baldax or Mess Baldix, the Kodak Retina II, IIa, IIc, IIIc, and IIIC cameras and the Hans Porst Hapo 66e (a cheaper version of the Balda Mess Baldix), were often fitted with rangefinders.

The best-known rangefinder cameras take 35 mm film, use focal plane shutters, and have interchangeable lenses.

The Nikon rangefinder cameras were "discovered" in 1950 by Life magazine photographer David Douglas Duncan, who covered the Korean War.

In the United States the dependable and cheap Argus (especially the ubiquitous C-3 "Brick") was far and away the most popular 35 mm rangefinder, with millions sold.

Cameras from the former Soviet Union—the Zorki and FED, based on the screwmount Leica, and the Kiev—are plentiful in the used market.

Recent models included the Mamiya 6 and 7I/7II, the Bronica RF645 and the Fuji G, GF, GS, GW and GSW series.

For extreme close-up photography, the rangefinder camera is awkward to use, as the viewfinder no longer points at the subject.

The angle of view of a given lens also changes with distance, and the brightline frames in the finders of a few cameras automatically adjust for this as well.

Furthermore, the through-the-lens view allows the viewfinder to directly display the depth of field for a given aperture, which is not possible with a rangefinder design.

To compensate for this, rangefinder users often use zone focusing, which is especially applicable to the rapid-fire approach to street photography.

The rangefinder design is not readily adapted for use with zoom lenses, which have a continuously variable field of view.

Rangefinder cameras are often quieter, particularly with leaf shutters, and smaller than competing SLR models.

However, today mirrorless digital cameras are capable of excellent low light performance, are much smaller and completely silent.

This allows the photographer to be able to see what is going on outside of the frame, and therefore better anticipate the action, at the expense of a smaller image.

In addition, with viewfinders with magnifications larger than 0.8x (e.g. some Leica cameras, the Epson RD-1/s, Canon 7, Nikon S, and in particular the Voigtländer Bessa R3A and R3M with their 1:1 magnification), photographers can keep both eyes open and effectively see a floating viewfinder frame superimposed on their real world view.