I 'm sure this is an elementary optics question, but what exactly is the angle of view provided by the Minolta M-Rokkor 40mm (or 40mm Summicron) in an M2 finder? I know the M-Rokkor 40 brings up the 50mm frame line, but is the actual angle of view recorded on film simply 1/2-way between the 35mm (approx. 63 degree view) & 50mm (approx. 45 degree view) frames (55 degree view, perhaps?), or is it really closer to 1 frame or the other? Thanks in advance, Chris

-- Christopher Chen (furcafe@cris.com), June 14, 2001

Answers

by extrapolation I would say... what about...51 degree, the rule of thirds, from 35 to 40,the third of 35 to 50, from 45 to 63, 18, itīs third 6 so 45 plus 6= 51, and i never pass maths, lack of inspiration I guess.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), June 14, 2001.

I don't know about the M2, but on my M6 the 40mm Summircon field at infinity is exactly the 35mm framelines.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), June 14, 2001.

Since it brings up the 50 lines anyway, I just shoot very "loose" on the 50 lines, and have never had a problem on the compositions with the 40. Bill is right though, at infinity, the 35 lines are about perfect, but you'd have to permanently modify the lens to bring up the 35 lines. On an M3, the whole finder out to the edges is an exact 40mm field of view 40/44=.91, the M3 finder mag.(44 being the real normal lens for 35mm)

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 14, 2001.

On a related topic, does anyone know the closest focus distance for the M-Rokkor 40mm?

-- John Sparks (jsparks@agilent.com), June 15, 2001.

It is .8 meters-the same minimum distance that the CL and CLE camera bodies are set up for.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 16, 2001.

I find my Rokkor-M focuses a little closer than the rangefinder on my CL. I had always assumed this was because the CLE focussed closer than the CL, but now I am not so sure. Is this what is meant when people say "non-coupled close focus" on an M?

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), June 21, 2001.