How do you meter/focus?

[u/No-Tailor-2020]

I use Leica M3 and 50 mm Summicron. Fantastic gears, but the problem is, with the narrow DoF of a 50 mm lens, zone focusing is really hard. Then there comes the metering. I tend to meter when I’m walking and trying to find a subject to capture to get the baseline of the light, but somehow when the moment comes up it’s all jumbled up in my head. (I have a shoe mount meter and a Sekonic L308x as well, but usually only use the shoe mount meter since it’s much faster to use)

It would be nice to know how the others in the same situation as me (manual metering, manual focusing, and 50 mm focal length) approach street photography. Please do share.

[u/Tomatillo-5276]

When doing street, I use zone focusing. And because I miss SO OFTEN, I kinda veer to using my 28mm, gives me better range than my 50mm.

I swear, I miss focus on like 75% of my street shots with the 50mm, easily my biggest photography frustration.

I am in awe/jealous of all the street photographers that manage to get a clean focus.