So as a new Speed and Crown user, I am still learning the ropes as it were. So far I have pretty much just used the GG to focus. My rangefinders seem to work, but I find them very squinty to use. The glass works better for me right now.

But I notice that a coupled rangefinder is a must for many people shooting LF.

So my question is this - What advantages do you see with the rangefinder over the GG?

From my point of view, speaking as a guy who made my spending money shooting news shots years ago...you don't have time to focus on the ground glass if you're shooting in a hurry-up situation. You have your film holder slipped under the ground glass back...the dark slide pulled...and for quick focus you use the rangefinder, shutter already cocked... sight it in the sports-finder...and you fire!! Try that with GG focusing. Fred.:grin:

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: clnfrd on 2002-09-10 16:04 ]</font>

Using the gg solely for focusing is fine if you're only using the camera as a view camera. No so handy if you are handholding the camera. And, you didn't mention the focusing scales. I'd rather use them than the gg unless I must frame and focus precisely! That would remove the fun of portability of the Graphic for me.

Hmmmmmm....guess I have to play with it more. See, I actually got my old Calumet 400 series view camera BEFORE my crown and my speed. So I'm sorta coming from a view camera perspective. Perhaps I have to look at this differently. To me, the Crown is a GREAT portable camera. Then again, my 400 weighs like 25lbs and is a monorail!

One of the things that Kalart purported with the rangefinder is that it doesn't have any depth of field. It's either in sharp focus or it's not.

When set up properly the Kalart will probably be brighter than a ground glass in low lit situations.
(of course this is of minimal advantage unless you are using flash, since you can't hand hold in low lit situations!)

and if you are lucky enough to have a Focospot attachment on top, you can focus in the dark, assuming you have the camera rigged for flash photography.

In answer to the ground glass vs rangefinder topic: My 4x5's are used in the field where each shot was thought out at least a little in advance and was not a "grab shot".(I keep the 35mm handy for that) The ground glass was always my first choice for focusing.