Let’s say your subject is walking towards you and you want to take a photo of them when they are at least 3 meters away.  To make sure that everything is in focus from 3 meters to infinity you place the 3 meters marker on the focus dial to the center dot.  Then read off the aperture setting at the infinity mark and set the aperture to that setting.  Press the shutter button and as long as the subject is within this range they will be in focus.

This opens up all sorts of possibilities as you can then have the camera away from your eye or even body.  No longer worried about focusing on the subject new angles and perspectives can be experimented with.  And because the camera is not held up to your eye you can also take pictures very discretely.  Sometimes this enables you to move right up to the subject and take the shot.

M7

Leica M7 (with the definite advantage of the “Golden Hour”)

If I recall correctly, the M9 image was taken with a 28 Elmarit and the M7 with a 90 Summarit. Film used was Kodak Portra 400 VC.

Leica M7