Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/20

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Leica 111c instructions (summaron VF)
From: marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)
Date: Sat Jan 20 18:07:43 2007
References: <000e01c73ce7$e7e365a0$6501a8c0@asus930> <110612.81009.qm@web55905.mail.re3.yahoo.com>

The best VF for the LTM camers is possibly the 
Soviet/Post-Soviet clone of the Carl Zeiss Jena 
436/70 viewfinder.  This provides 28mm, 25mm, 
50mm, 85mm, and 135mm fields of view.  The later 
models have coated optics and are MUCH more 
useable than the Imarect as they are both lighter 
and smaller and as they provide a magnified 
image.  (The VIDOM/Imarect was possiibly the 
dumbest design to ever emenate from Ernst Leitz!)

These are often available on eBay for under 
$100.  I have several but generally use a Carl 
Zeiss Jena original which came with my IIIc all 
those years back.  It has had one cleaning in 
decades and still works wonderfully.

Other worthy multiframe VF were made by TEWE and 
Astro in Germany and by Nikon in Japan.  I have a 
small collection of these and most, other than 
the Imarect, are quite pleasant to use.

For solid single-focal-length use, I'd stick to 
the ones made by Zeiss or Leitz, though you will 
pay some hefty freight for both.  The Soviets 
also made single-focal-length VF in 20mm, 35mm, 
85mm, and 135mm lengths:  these are quite nice 
but are becoming a bit hard to find today, as KMZ 
ceased production of all of these some years back 
and Great Rostov is no longer producing its line 
of 35mm and 85mm VF to my knowledge.  I recall 
paying $35 on eBay for my last purchase, an 85mm KMZ VF.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



In reply to: Message from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson) ([Leica] Leica 111c instructions)
Message from h_arche at yahoo.com (H. Ball Arche) ([Leica] Leica 111c instructions (summaron VF))