With rangefinders it is all about the baseline. The M3 had the
longest baseline of a line of Leicas with long baselines. The focus
breakpoint was 135mm on the M3. Any longer and you would not get an
accurate focus. There was never any problem at the wide end since the
rangefinder did not vary in length and there was lots of depth of
field. That is why all those Olympus small RF cameras had baselines
about an inch long. Their little fixed 35mm lenses did not need more.
Cameras with shorter rangefinder baselines were limited to shorter
lenses. It is why some of these newer Japanese Leica copies have a
75mm lens option. They have short baselines.
With Leica now you can order models with different viewfinder
magnifications which changes the baseline and the frames. So the
model that takes the 28 mm WA is going to take a shorter maximum
length lens. SLR designers are under no such optical restraints and
can design lengths they think their customers will find most
desirable. At least that is the way I understand it.
Winsor
Long Beach, California, USA
On Aug 28, 2005, at 3:25 PM, Earl Dunbar wrote:
>
> It's interesting that 75mm lenses are not uncommon in the rangefinder
> world, and they coexist quite nicely with 85s and 90s in the lineup.
> (Uncommon or even rare is 60 or 65 mm.) So I'm wondering what
> happened
> between the RF and SLR world. I have a hunch that's where the "break"
> is, but I have no clue as to why.
>
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