Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/04/20
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Excerpts from mail: 20-Apr-99 [Leica] Leica Users digest .. by Leica
Users digest@mejac
> I have recently purchased a scruffy but mechanically decent imarect
> variable focal length finder. IT IS WONDERFUL! I highly recommend it
> for people who,like myself, love the M viewfinder, but wish it more
> accurately represented the actualy image area. Also, it shows a more
> realistic 35mm "perspective" than the standard viewfinder.
I believe the Imarect is not vari-focal. Rather, it is vari-FRAME. The
view and therefore perspective are fixed. It simply masks down (crops)
this fixed field as the finder is adjusted for longer focal lengths.
I find the resulting tiny field at, say, 135 to be unsatisfactory. For
their RF cameras, N---n ("wash your mouth out with soap, son!") made a
true vari-focal finder, which I use instead. But best of all, IMHO, is
the Z---s ("you're on thin ice, son!") turret finder for the Contax (or
USSR copy): while it is not a continuous- zoom-type, it has other
virtues: the framing is sharp to the eye, and you can see outside the
frame (circular field within which is the rectangular frame.)
My two yens' (or pfennigs') worth.
Stan Yoder
Pittsburgh