Re: [Leica] 24mm finders

[Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com>]

Just to put my .02 sense in on this one, I've used both the Leica 24 VF and
the Cosina 25 VF and offer the following assessment:

As for construction, they seem more or less equivalent. Both are made out
of plastic, are not too heavy, stay put in the hot shoe (no comments,
Joseph, please! ;). They both seem *relatively* sturdy, though I am careful
when mounting and removing them because I've heard that the foot of the
Leica finder has been known to break off. Also, the finish of my Leica VF
has cracked and is threatening to peel off; I never had a problem like that
with the Cosina.

Regarding optics, both are very good, IMO. The Leica finder is bright; the
Cosina finder is *very* bright (it's front element is considerably larger
and let's in more light). The Leica on the other hand has brightlines, the
Cosina does not. So for me, the issue is one of brightlines or brightness,
and frankly, I prefer brightlines because I like to frame the shot as
precisely as possible. I was not able to do so with the Cosina VF, which
has a very *approximate* coverage. Thus, if I had to make the choice, I
would choose to buy the Leica finder, though it is more expensive.

A couple of thoughts on the new "vario" finder: It's B-I-G, though it's
physical size is not proportionate to its actual viewing size (i.e. what
you actually see when looking through it), which seems smaller to me than
the fixed length finders. This is probably due to the fact that it doesn't
have framelines, but has a masked-off viewing area. This is a strike
against it for me, as I really like composing through the brightlines.
Finally, as some have already pointed out, it's made by Cosina, and no
self-respecting Lugger would ever knowingly buy Cosina anything, when the
same item was being made by Leica, right?

Guy
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