jl-lb.ms
John A. Lever
Any ideas what to use? Where to obtain a finder for a 135 for an R-D1?
thanks,
John
thanks,
John
louisb
Well-known
jl-lb.ms said:
Do you mean a 135mm finder or a 135 x 1.5 crop factor = 200mm finder?
I've commented elsewhere before that imho the best 135mm finder is the Leica Brightlines 135mm finder which comes up regularly on e-Bay.
I was out using it today and once again I was impressed at how well it works with the R-D1 and a 90mm lens.
LouisB
Nando
Well-known
How about a zoom-finder like the TEWE.
jlw
Rangefinder camera pedant
A 135mm lens on an R-D 1 calls for a finder designed for a 200mm lens on a 35mm camera. Although I think one independent manufacturer (Komura?) did make a 200mm LTM lens, good luck finding the viewfinder as a separate item!
So, your best bet is likely to be a zoom viewfinder such as the Tewe Polyskop, which was available in various ranges. The one I have covers 35mm to 200mm, which in theory means it would cover lenses from about 25mm to 135mm when used on an R-D 1.
However, in practice I've found that there are several nuisances with it:
-- The relationship between the finder and the camera is such that when you look through the finder with your right eye, the tip of your nose wants to go right smack into the camera's viewfinder eyepiece, leaving a big greasy smudge! Don't laugh... having to stop and clean off the eyepiece frequently is quite a bother.
-- Framing is so critical that a slight mis-setting of the finder's focal length control or parallax adjuster can lead to drastic framing errors.
-- Another source of framing errors is that it's hard to line up the finder in the accessory shoe so that it points exactly the same way as the lens.
Because of all these problems, when I use a 135mm lens on my R-D 1 (which I only do rarely because of the inconvenience) I tend not to use an accessory viewfinder at all! Instead, once I've got my basic shooting situation lined up, I shoot a test shot, check it in the LCD to see what's included in the frame, then take subsequent pictures by using the rangefinder patch as an aiming reference and relying on memory to know what else will be in the picture.
If you want to see what a Tewe finder looks like on an R-D 1, and see some rough framing-accuracy tests with several lenses, my old page on this subject is still up at homepage.mac.com/jlw/photo/R-D1_finder/
So, your best bet is likely to be a zoom viewfinder such as the Tewe Polyskop, which was available in various ranges. The one I have covers 35mm to 200mm, which in theory means it would cover lenses from about 25mm to 135mm when used on an R-D 1.
However, in practice I've found that there are several nuisances with it:
-- The relationship between the finder and the camera is such that when you look through the finder with your right eye, the tip of your nose wants to go right smack into the camera's viewfinder eyepiece, leaving a big greasy smudge! Don't laugh... having to stop and clean off the eyepiece frequently is quite a bother.
-- Framing is so critical that a slight mis-setting of the finder's focal length control or parallax adjuster can lead to drastic framing errors.
-- Another source of framing errors is that it's hard to line up the finder in the accessory shoe so that it points exactly the same way as the lens.
Because of all these problems, when I use a 135mm lens on my R-D 1 (which I only do rarely because of the inconvenience) I tend not to use an accessory viewfinder at all! Instead, once I've got my basic shooting situation lined up, I shoot a test shot, check it in the LCD to see what's included in the frame, then take subsequent pictures by using the rangefinder patch as an aiming reference and relying on memory to know what else will be in the picture.
If you want to see what a Tewe finder looks like on an R-D 1, and see some rough framing-accuracy tests with several lenses, my old page on this subject is still up at homepage.mac.com/jlw/photo/R-D1_finder/
peterm1
Veteran
If you are looking for a 135mm finder (to use with a 90mm lens on a digital,) I find that the little Canon cylindrical finders are not bad. Not fabulous in terms of view but OK in that department and small and light to boot. Alternatively you can get the larger Leica multifinder if you use multiple lenses. This is convenient and offers more view settings but the usefulness of that depends on what lenses you use and how they translate into digital field of view. Bear in mind that there are different versions - one with a 75mm setting and another with 90mm setting. If you are referring to using a 135mm lens on a digital I think you will have to hunt harder. One post above says that this translates to a 200mm lens on a film camera and accordingly you would need a 200mm finder if this is so (I have not checked) . I think (repeat think) that the Tewe finder or some versions of it may offer this field of view. But these are not cheap to buy. I have (purely by chance) a Protogon Universal Viewfinder which insofar as I can see is more or less a Tewe copy and it certainly has a 200mm setting (sorry cannot sell.)
One final option. On eBay you will sometimes find largish rectangular shaped finders from other makers - Voightlander made one called "Turnit" finder in two versions one in metal and a cheaper looking one in plastic. Both of these use a flip up mask to change the field of view. There would be a good chance if you are even slightly handy with tools that you can make a mask to mask off the front to an appropriate size and affix this to the existing Turnit mask - maybe with some non permanent glue.
Here is a link to one right now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Voigtlander-Tur...ryZ15241QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
One final option. On eBay you will sometimes find largish rectangular shaped finders from other makers - Voightlander made one called "Turnit" finder in two versions one in metal and a cheaper looking one in plastic. Both of these use a flip up mask to change the field of view. There would be a good chance if you are even slightly handy with tools that you can make a mask to mask off the front to an appropriate size and affix this to the existing Turnit mask - maybe with some non permanent glue.
Here is a link to one right now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Voigtlander-Tur...ryZ15241QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
Last edited:
jl-lb.ms
John A. Lever
Thanks all - very helpful. John.