A rangefinder camera is a camera that is fitted with a rangefinder, which is a range-finding focusing mechanism that allows the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus. The rangefinder camera has a viewfinder window with bright lines that denote the frame of the film or sensor, which the photographer uses to compose the shot, and it has a rangefinder window a few inches beside it. The rangefinder window projects a separate image onto the viewfinder image, and when these two images line up, the lens is perfectly focused on the subject. The viewfinder of a rangefinder camera is offset from the picture-taking lens so that the image viewed is not exactly what will be recorded on the film; this parallax error is negligible at large subject distances but becomes significant as the distance decreases.
Rangefinder cameras are often quieter, particularly with leaf shutters, and smaller than competing SLR models. They are often used for theater photography, some portrait photography, candid and street photography, and any application where an SLR is... . Rangefinder cameras are not ideal for macro photography as the camera would not actually be pointing at the subject during extreme close-ups.
In summary, a rangefinder camera is a camera that uses a range-finding focusing mechanism to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus. It has a viewfinder window with bright lines that denote the frame of the film or sensor, and a rangefinder window that projects a separate image onto the viewfinder image. Rangefinder cameras are often quieter and smaller than competing SLR models and are often used for theater photography, some portrait photography, candid and street photography, and any application where an SLR is...
