Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/07/29

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Subject: [Leica] Re: 135 lens viewfinder magnifier
From: don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory)
Date: Sat Jul 29 17:28:42 2006
References: <200607291824.k6TIO4qx017343@server1.waverley.reid.org> <1469e00af101c67b9eeb08e36cfeeb75@optonline.net>

Larry,
Borrow one of the magnifiers and use it with your M3.  I believe that you
will change your mind regarding the 135 on an M.  Cheers.

Don
don.dory@gmail.com


On 7/29/06, Lawrence Zeitlin <lrzeitlin@optonline.net> wrote:
>
>
> On Jul 29, 2006, at 2:24 PM,Don wrote:
>
> >> As the proud owner of a new to you 135 lens I would suggest that you
> >> pick
> >> up
> >> an eyepiece magnifier.  Leica makes a good one and their is one
> >> available
> >> in
> >> the Japanese market that offers more magnification and diopter
> >> correction
> >> to
> >> boot.  Benefits, makes the 135 frameline more like a 50mm FOV,
> >> increases
> >> RF
> >> accuracy especially at the difficult to judge mid distances where you
> >> don't
> >> see detail in the viewfinder but dof is still critical if you are
> >> using
> >> apertures wider than F8.  Downsides would mainly be reduced eye
> >> relief and
> >> a
> >> decrease in viewfinder brightness.
>
> My M3 with its .92 viewfinder magnification has sufficient RF accuracy
> to focus my 135 mm f3.5 Canon lens without difficulty. I would think
> that Hoppy's  M6 viewfinder with its .85 magnification would be
> sufficient to focus a slightly smaller aperture 135 mm Elmar
> adequately. Unless you want to shoot flower pictures up close with the
> 135, I don't see much of a problem. Both cameras will focus the 135 mm
> lens equally well at infinity. ;-)
>
> However, with either camera the 135 mm finder frame is so small that it
> is difficult to compose a picture. It's more like aiming a small bore
> rifle. It's OK for sports where you can see the action coming into the
> center of the frame but not much good for anything else. The sad fact
> is that the RF Leica is not really suitable for lenses much longer than
> 90 mm. I've finessed the frame field issue by buying a Russian Contax
> clone adjustable accessory viewfinder. This magnifies the image so that
> it is actually useable. It's a pain to have to move my eye from the
> camera viewfinder/rangefinder to the finder. It actually would be
> easier to  do it on a IIIf. But I guess that's what SLRs are for.
>
> Larry Z
>
>
>
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>

In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin) ([Leica] Re: 135 lens viewfinder magnifier)