35mm viewfinder

[ped]

Hi

I'm using my 21mm lens on my R-D1 a bit and it gives a 32mm equiv. focal length. I guess the closest I can get is a 35mm accessory viewfinder - I have seen the Leica SBLOO and the Voigtlander standard and mini 28/35... are there any other options? does anyone make a 32mm?!

Cheers
ped

 

[ferider]

Wasn't there a CV 21-D ?

 

[krötenblender]

I'm using this little thing (Sorry for the bad quality...):

It has a adjustable FOV from 35 to 135mm, adjustable distance and it can rotate the image from landscape to portrait (don't know, what that is good for...😱). And: it looks really cool... 😀 I got it for not much money on ebay the other day. The only odd thing about it, is that the image is horizontically mirrored. But I get used to it. I'm using ist for my 90mm.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

How about an Olympus VF-1, made for the mu-43 17mm lens? That would be the equivalent of a 34mm FOV on a full-frame camera. They have a standard shoe.

 

[LCT]

Wasn't there a CV 21-D ?

Yes but it's not made any more and is difficult to find out second hand.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Lots of 35mm VFs exist under other names.
Leica, Contax, Diax, Komura, Acall, Futura, Voigtlander (the original), Nikon, Tewe, Canon, Yashica, Minolta, and a bunch of Russian ones that are perfectly good. Many of the third party ones are quite cheap.

The difference between 32 and 35mm is really no big deal since focus breathing will cause a difference in over a mm of focal length on all but the most expensive, advanced optics. The fewer mm of finder might be good for you to help shoot slightly looser anyways to help account for parallax error as well.

Phil Forrest

 

[roundg]

for a cheap and good one, u can get the one (VF01?) come with the Olympus 17mm/4 micro 4/3 lens.

 

[ped]

The difference between 32 and 35mm is really no big deal since focus breathing will cause a difference in over a mm of focal length on all but the most expensive, advanced optics. The fewer mm of finder might be good for you to help shoot slightly looser anyways to help account for parallax error as well.

Phil Forrest

That was my thinking, too.

Thanks for the VF-1 recommendation. I think I'll give one a try. At the moment I'm using this one:

Works fine but it's a little bit big

ped

 

[Bill58]

I don't think there's a better 35 mm VF for the $$ than a current Voigtlander. It's clear, bright, sturdy and affordable.

 

[back alley]

i don't use an external finder anymore. i use the lcd to get a feel of whats in the image and then go from there...guestimating.
works well, does not take long to learn to do.

 

[ped]

Yeah I've been practising and with both eyes open the area covered in the shot is approximately the black area left and right of the viewfinder. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it; my 28mm is pretty much always on the R-D1 but it's useful to have the 32mm equivalent length too.

Cheers

 

[ferider]

The Olympus VF-1 is nice and quite affordable, usually around US 60 or less.

Its framelines match my M2 35mm frames, and the full viewfinder matches 28mm.

Also, maybe trivial, but there is a trick to framing with 35mm: the width of the picture taken is the same as the distance to your subject. So, for example, if your subject is 5m away, the picture will cover 5m width. Quite easy to estimate.

Roland.

 

[ped]

Thanks for the pic and the tip

I have found the VF-1 very cheap. My Epson has a black body though so it's a small thing but does anyone do something like the VF-1 in black, for around the same price? I know there are lots of P&S cameras out there which may have accessory finders, so perhaps there is such a thing..

Cheers

 

[back alley]

the colour won't matter much really...you WILL be noticed when using an accessory finder.

 

[ped]

Oh I don't care about being noticed... it's just I like it to match 😉

 

[ferider]

The VF-1 only comes in chrome. However, it's plastic, so very easy to spray paint. 🙂 Not that I would care, chrome on black looks cool to me.

There are the black Russian finders (no bright-lines), the Helios, and the Tele-Wide finders, all having approximate 35mm framelines. The tele-wide is the nicest, IMO.

Roland.

 

[umcelinho]

pick the 50mm frames, compose with both eyes opened. imagine the 50mm frames as the central rectangle of a bigger rectangle composed of 9 rectangles. work like a charm to me and keeps you from the external viewfinder hassle.

 

[Particular]

The full view outside the frame lines comes pretty close (although it is not quite wide enough). If you tape over the illumination window, you won't see the frame lines. Just imagine you are getting a bit more than you see. R-D1 frame lines aren't that accurate to start with in my experience.