[Leica] finder for 200mm Telyt (SFTOO)

[crispinv@uclink4.berkeley.edu]

Ok, so i know nothing about  telephoto lenses for my leica IIIa-- the
ones that are so long that they cant be rangefinder coupled because the
rangefinder base isnt long enough to be accurate enough, and which, even

if they were, still cover too wide a range to do macros.  The vague
story i heard, and never really paid attention too, is that ya needed to

stick some huge visoflex unit on the front that made your camera into a
clunky SLR in order to focus correctly with lenses longer than 135
(except for the Komura 200mm, which isn't sitting arround on dealers
shelves anymore).  But I've been finding the 135mm lens a bit too short
for some aplications.  So, browsing around web sites for one of
these visoflex units in screwmount (which, looking about were
made but now are all dissapeared) i come upon the (gotta love early
Leica acronyms) SFTOO, which claims to be a direct finder for the 200mm
Telyt (which was the lens i was thining of getting my hands on).  So: Is

is a viewfinder, just for framing the picture, or is it a focusing
device, whereby adjusting it until one's subject is in focus, and then
transfering these settings to the lens, the correct focus setting can be

determined?  Bascialy, I want to use a 200mm lens on my IIIa without
sticking a huge extra bit on (like the visoflex system), while not
having
to totaly rely on scale focusing (a bad bad idea).  It doesnt hafta be
perfect, just better than what i can do in my head.  Does the leitz
direct finder fit the bill?

Thanks,
Crispin