Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/07/29

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Subject: [Leica] Re: 135 lens viewfinder magnifier
From: lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)
Date: Sat Jul 29 12:15:07 2006
References: <200607291824.k6TIO4qx017343@server1.waverley.reid.org>

On Jul 29, 2006, at 2:24 PM,Don wrote:

>> As the proud owner of a new to you 135 lens I would suggest that you 
>> pick
>> up
>> an eyepiece magnifier.  Leica makes a good one and their is one 
>> available
>> in
>> the Japanese market that offers more magnification and diopter 
>> correction
>> to
>> boot.  Benefits, makes the 135 frameline more like a 50mm FOV, 
>> increases
>> RF
>> accuracy especially at the difficult to judge mid distances where you
>> don't
>> see detail in the viewfinder but dof is still critical if you are 
>> using
>> apertures wider than F8.  Downsides would mainly be reduced eye 
>> relief and
>> a
>> decrease in viewfinder brightness.

My M3 with its .92 viewfinder magnification has sufficient RF accuracy 
to focus my 135 mm f3.5 Canon lens without difficulty. I would think 
that Hoppy's  M6 viewfinder with its .85 magnification would be 
sufficient to focus a slightly smaller aperture 135 mm Elmar 
adequately. Unless you want to shoot flower pictures up close with the 
135, I don't see much of a problem. Both cameras will focus the 135 mm 
lens equally well at infinity. ;-)

However, with either camera the 135 mm finder frame is so small that it 
is difficult to compose a picture. It's more like aiming a small bore 
rifle. It's OK for sports where you can see the action coming into the 
center of the frame but not much good for anything else. The sad fact 
is that the RF Leica is not really suitable for lenses much longer than 
90 mm. I've finessed the frame field issue by buying a Russian Contax 
clone adjustable accessory viewfinder. This magnifies the image so that 
it is actually useable. It's a pain to have to move my eye from the 
camera viewfinder/rangefinder to the finder. It actually would be 
easier to  do it on a IIIf. But I guess that's what SLRs are for.

Larry Z



Replies: Reply from don.dory at gmail.com (Don Dory) ([Leica] Re: 135 lens viewfinder magnifier)
Reply from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson) ([Leica] Re: 135 lens viewfinder magnifier)