Re: "Goggles" for 21 mm?

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

Gerd,=20
The =93goggled=94 21=92s was one of my designs born out frustrations with=
 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 adapte=
d
them to the 21 lens and changed the mount to kick in the 28 frames, it sh=
ould
magnify the frames for the 28 to roughly 21. On paper it worked and I the=
n
dumped the physical aspects of it on my friend Reinhold Mueller in Toront=
o,(
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.=20
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 len=
s
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 i=
n
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 g=
et a 21
view by using the extreme edges of the viewfinder in the camera. My favor=
ite
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 i=
n
the viewfinder as the 21/2,8 hood either.
I tend to put a piece of black gaffer tape over the frame illumination wi=
ndow
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 edg=
es
of the viewfinder to deal with.=20
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