Re: "Goggles" for 21 mm?

[Stephen <cameras@jetlink.net>]

how much does the conversion cost?  what is the time turn around?

TTAbrahams@aol.com wrote:

> Gerd,
> The =93goggled=94 21=92s was one of my designs born out frustrations wi=
th
> the
> auxiliary finders that one had to use with the 21=92s. Over a long time=

> I have
> broken, lost, dropped and crunched a lot of these. One day I sat down
> and
> figured out that if I took the goggles for the 35 Summicron M3 and
> adapted
> them to the 21 lens and changed the mount to kick in the 28 frames, it
> should
> magnify the frames for the 28 to roughly 21. On paper it worked and I
> then
> dumped the physical aspects of it on my friend Reinhold Mueller in
> Toronto,(
> fax 416-467-7447), he knows Leica optics and knows how to do things
> like
> this. After some trials and errors we got it right. The conversion
> works like
> a charm, no more finders on top and you can keep your eye glued to the
>
> cameras viewfinder and focus, frame and shoot without interruptions.
> The conversion is not that easy to do and not that cheap either,
> roughly 1
> 1/2 times the cost of the regular finder (including the goggles). The
> lens
> has to be taken apart and also checked on a collimator after it is
> reassembled. We have so far done it with the 21/3,4 and the 21/2,8.
> The
> 21/2,8 ASPH is the next subject for conversion, not done yet though.
> With the M6 you loose some angle of view due to the antireflection
> mask in
> the camera and if you wear glasses it is difficult to see the 28
> frames
> anyway. I prefer using the converted lenses on my M2=92s or M4=92s. You=

> get a 21
> view by using the extreme edges of the viewfinder in the camera. My
> favorite
> 21 for using is the 21/3,4, it is a smaller lens than the 2,8 and I
> find it a
> better lens for black/white shooting. The hood does not intrude as
> much in
> the viewfinder as the 21/2,8 hood either.
> I tend to put a piece of black gaffer tape over the frame illumination
> window
> on the camera used with the goggles. This way you dont have to deal
> with the
> framelines at all and only have the rangefinder patch and the extreme
> edges
> of the viewfinder to deal with.
> Once my 24 finder goes to the black hole where all my other finders
> have
> gone, I will attempt a conversion of that lens, too.
> Tom A