Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 7:55 AM -0600 8/4/00, John Collier wrote: >I have had both the metal 21mm finder (black anodised with no parallax >marking from the late seventies) and the later plastic 21mm finder (new >spring 2000). The metal finder was certainly a cosmetic wonder but the >plastic finder is much brighter optically, lighter and less prone to both >being marked and causing damage in normal handling. The plastic finders are >available new for the mid $200US and considerably under that used. Let the >collectors fight over the metal ones. I fully agree with this. I've had many metal finders, which all met their death by sliding out of the shoe and dropping onto something hard. On later ones I even resorted to glued on strings with clips to fasten onto straps (a real pain) or bent the foot to get better grip. They all died in the end. The black plastic one, on top of being brighter and having better eye relief, and being as accurate as any, stays in the shoe a lot better. I've now gone about 5 years with this finder, which is definitely a record. If I found a metal finder, I would sell it immediately to buy something more useful, like a present model plastic finder. Other finders that might have some appeal under some circumstances, but that are poor in practice are the 21 Contax-G finder and the Ricoh finders. The latter weigh as much as their lens hoods! and that is as much as 10 times (figuratively) what their Leica equivalents weigh. All metal is not good. It drags you down. At times Leica gets it right. This is one of them. * Henning J. Wulff /|\ Wulff Photography & Design /###\ mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com |[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com