glass wearers: which is better?

[sanmich]

I find myself never totally satisfied with Leica finders.
I wear glasses
0.72x models are fine for 50mm lenses. The 35mm frame is just visible, and I can't take into account what is around the frame to compensate for the frame accuracy, or to recompose.

The 0.58x has been a blessing for the 35mm and 28mm, but the 50mm is small. The 28mm is still difficult to see, but for a lens that wide, I don't care too much about accuracy.

Now, I understand that the ZI has a very large eyepiece that should allow me to see the wides easily, but still has a .74x finder, and so the 50mm should be decently sized.

Is it so?
Can someone also wearing glasses give his/her experience with the 0.58 leicas vs the ZI?

Thanks 🙂

 

[fixbones]

No experience with a 0.58 finder

but

I use a ZI and wears glasses. I can tell you that i have no problems with ZIs 35mm frameline and can usually see a bit past the 35mm frameline. Naturally, this is my usually go to camera when i use a 35mm lens.

With my MP, like you, i can just see the 35mm frameline.

For 50mm, i have no real preferance between my MP and ZI.

Just my 2 cents.

p/s if you wear contacts, looking through the VF with a 35mm lens on the ZI - glorious!

 

[user237428934]

On my Ikon I can see exactly the 35mm frame with glasses. I don't see the shutter-time information on the left of the viewfinder. To see that, I have to move my eye to the right and look to the left. But that's how it is with glasses.

 

[keepright]

Can someone also wearing glasses give his/her experience with the 0.58 leicas vs the ZI?

I can't compare to the Leica experience - I've never used them side-by-side - but the 50mm frame on my Ikon is just a little smaller than the view through either my Nikons D700 or F100.

I'm left-eyed and wear glasses, and agree that I can just barely see the framelines for 35mm, and can't see both the RF patch and the metered speed at the same time.

 

[andersju]

The ZI has considerably better eye relief than all the Leicas I've tried. Muchbetter with glasses. Haven't tried Leica's 0.58x finder but with the ZI I wouldn't feel the need to - with glasses the 35mm lines were perfectly usable, whereas on my M4-2 they are nearly useless.

 

[morback]

I have the ZI and the M2. I wear glasses.

The ZI has a lot of room around the 50mm frames. By comparison looking through the M2 is like looking through a keyhole. Dark and tight (the 50mm frames are hitting the edges of the VF for me). I can see the 35mm as well, but not the 28 in the ZI.

As said above, I have to move my eye to see the shutter info. It's both good and bad, good in that there's nothing distracting in the VF, bad because when I'm curious I need to shift my eye a little. The shutter display is really the only failure of the ZI.

I don't think you can do any better than the ZI right now for glass wearers. It's just physically so much bigger than on Leicas, it's not a magnification issue. But I wonder though if later Ms have bigger viewfinders compared to the M2?

 

[thomasw_]

I have owned both a ZI and a .58x MP. Usually I wear contacts when I shoot, but I sometimes get caught short by a photo-opportunity while wearing my spectacles 🙂 The ZI is a better VF IF you plan to wear glasses while you shoot AND you like to shoot the 28, 35 and 50 FLs with the one camera body. Shooting with my summilux 50/1,4 or Noctilux was no problem on the .74x ZI, whereas it was hit-miss-try-again trying to focus the faster 50s on my ,58x MP. As well, the ZI has 28mm frames which were very usable with glasses -- though obviously nicer in use without spectacles -- and the higher focus accuracy made shooting a 28 lens a joy more so than on my .58x MP. But both the ZI and MP 0.58 are great with a 35 IF you like a lot of room around the framelines. I don't. I prefer my M2's limited area around the framelines...and, as strange as it might be, I love shooting a faster 35 on my 0.85x VF with the same sort of surrounding area as the 28mm lines would afford on a standard .72x VF.

I hope that helps. I think the ZI is a more versatile VF than a MP .58x when it comes to shooting 28s, 35s and 50s all round.

 

[anu L ogy]

I have a .58 M6 and I love the smaller 50mm frame for some reason.

 

[mfogiel]

I have both the ZI and the 0.58x M7. and I wear glasses (thin type). The ZI lets you see the 28mm frames, although they are quite tight, the 35mm frames offer a superb vision, the 50mm is ok and the 85mm is usable. The 0.58x M7 28mm frames have a tiny bit more relief, the 35mm frames are good, 50mm becomes a mess, as they are both smallish and infested with the 75mm superimposed, and 90mm are really small. The other difference betwen the two, is that the ZI finder is LARGER to your vision. If you want to use only one camera, then ZI is impossible to beat for a glas wearer. I have resolved the issue, by using the 0.58x M7 for he 28mm lens, and occasionally for a compact 35mm, and a 0.85x M7 (frrom which I have removed the 75mm frame) for the 50mm and sometimes the 90mm lenses. My ZI is amost permanently coupled with the 35/1.2 Nokton for low light photography.

 

[Mister E]

The Ikon 50mm lines are great while the M6/M7/MP lines are very small. I love my ikon with glasses.

 

[mirrored]

I don't know how 0.58 Leica would feel, but I have 0.72 Leica and ZI. I wear thin glasses and use 35 and 50mm lenses. 35mm lens in Leica frameline sides are located to eyepiece sides left and right, but in ZI 35mm there are nice way room left. When looking 28mm frameline it is near similar to Leica 35mm, almost, 28mm ZI is little bit tighter.

35mm ZI feels perfect. 35mm Leica is acceptable.

 

[aizan]

the zeiss ikon has better 50mm frames, while the .58 leica has better 28mm frames. the 35mm frames are equally nice. if i could only have one camera, i'd pick the zeiss ikon, mostly because 50mm is my favorite. two leicas, one .58 and one higher mag, would be ideal.

 

[Paul Luscher]

Odd. I wear glasses, and have difficulty seeing the 28mm framelines on my MP. But somehow, when I'm shooting, I CAN see the 28mm framelines. I've never figured out how this is possible.

ZI is a little better in this regard with its viewfinder.

 

[Rob-F]

I have a .58 M6 and I love the smaller 50mm frame for some reason.

I wonder why? I'm sure I don't love the 50mm framelines on the M6/MP/M7.

 

[sanmich]

Odd. I wear glasses, and have difficulty seeing the 28mm framelines on my MP. But somehow, when I'm shooting, I CAN see the 28mm framelines. I've never figured out how this is possible.

ZI is a little better in this regard with its viewfinder.

That's REALLY odd.
you are talking about the regular 0.72 finder?
I say it's odd because even without my glasses, I can hardly see the 28 frame, forget about it with the glasses on (with my glasses on I hardly see the 35 frame).

 

[robert blu]

Since I wear full time glasses I enjoy my M7 with 0.58 viewfinder. I manly shoot 35mm (it's ok) and 50 mm. This is a little small, but still usable (IMHO). I tried the 1,25 magnifier (which I find ok for the 75 mm) but after some times I prefer to use the 50 mm without magnifier. Never tried a 28.
robert

 

[wgerrard]

As a lifetime wearer of eyeglasses, I find these discussions fascinating for the variances in experiences with the same cameras. I think it comes down to the nature of your prescription -- what's wrong with your eyes --, and how close the eyeglass lens can get to the glass in the VF. For example, one of my cameras has a protective rubber ring around the VF. If I remove it, my vision of framelines on the outer edge of the finder is better.

The distance between an eyeglass lens and the eye also varies. Maybe that plays into this, as well.

On my M2, I need to move a bit to see everything inside the 35 frame. Ditto the R4M with the 21/4. Oddly, I can always see everything the OM-2N's finder shows me.

I wonder what a VF designed for eyeglass wearers would look like?

 

[swatch]

well said Bill. Each person who wear spectacles see different frame line through same VF.

M 0.58 VF is good for 35mm and 50mm for me as 35mm frame lines are on the very edge of M 0.72 VF ( need to guess a bit to frame 35mm ). Experience with ZI 0.74 VF ( not own but tried at retail shop ) is same as M 0.72 VF.

M 0.58 VF is serving me well for 35 / 50 and only need to guess a bit to frame 28mm ( no big issue as I do not put main subject on the edge with wide angle lens anyway ).

 

[sanmich]

Bill,

the basic Leica finder is 0.72, but all frames are not equal.
Mid M4-P production, there is a well documented reduction of the frames size.
That means that you probably have more difficulties seing a 35mm frame in an M2 than in an M6 or MP.
Actually, that is precisely my problem.
I am able to see the 35mm in an M6, but I can't see anything around, and cannot control items that will enter the image, or use what I see to recompose.
The contributions to this discussion have been very helpful, and I have concluded that the ZI has a very good finder, but may not be significantly different than a 0.58 Leica finder in terms of release for the 28mm frame. The 50mm should, however, be better, and from the information brought by Roland in that other thread, it is also more accurate.
Thank you all!

 

[Brian Puccio]

I have 20/800 vision and wear glasses. I picked up a used M6 x0.58 and love it. I can easily see the 35mm no problem and can just see the 28mm as well. I use a Zeiss 25mm and it captures a bit beyond the framelines, which I can see if I move around a bit, but I usually don't bother since I know roughly where I'll land.

It replaced a Bessa R2A that I could barely see the 35mm's with, so now I don't have to guesstimate nearly as much.