Re: [Leica] another use for black tape - Snapshot Skopar

["Rodgers, David" <david.rodgers@xo.com>]

Martin

>>They tend to be expensive little buggers, along with being alusive, unless
you want stuff like split-image rangefinder and microprisms in the middle,
which of course for this, we don't.  I was hoping there was going to be a
cheaper and better alternative.<<

I found a matte focusing screen for a Nikon F2 at a swap meet for $3. It's a
"TV" screen. Yes, that's what it's called. Talk about a comprehensive
system. You could even buy a Nikon TV screen for your F2 back in '75. 

Ok, so it's not "actually" a TV screen as found on the modern digital
camera. It's a focusing screen scribed with the shape proportional to a TV
screen, and it fit an F2. I guess it was for photographing TV screens. You
know!. Walter Chronkite! "1/30 sec (or less) and be there". I still don't
know why you couldn't just shoot the television screen. I mean, why would
one need a scribed outline? So they could center it properly? I'd love to
know how marketing got that one through.

I bought the screen a few years back to to test focusing of lenses on an M
body. I taped it to the front of my Toyo magnifier and it worked very well.
Fortunately the thing said "NIKON" had it said "Leica" or it would have cost
$30 instead of $3.

Speaking of which, I'd been looking high and low for a 60-62 step up ring. I
found one in a junk bin at a photo store in Austin, TX. The store wanted
$35. Normally it's a $25 item, new. I asked, "Why so much?" I was told it
was prices as such because it said "Leica" on it. It did for some curious
reason. It was obviously made by Tiffen (even said Tiffen on it), and it was
plastic. I could squeeze it together slightly with my fingers. 

I really needed the ring. I have a number of expensive 62mm filters,
including a polorizing filter, and my 80-200/4R takes 60mm filters. I
couldn't find a new ring, anywhere. But I wasn't willing to pay $35 for a
plastic ring. Fortunately, I found the right ring at a local shop. It was
brass and made by B+W and it only set me back $5. Interestingly, I can even
extend the built in hood on the 80-200 with the oversize filters attached. I
think Leica originally designed the lens to accept 62mm filters. At the last
minute somebody said, "what the heck, just for fun lets be different and
make it 60mm!" 
 
Dave