40mm External Viewfinder

[simplicity]

Has anyone tried the 40mm external viewfinder on an R3A?

As a glasses wearer, I am having difficulty framing with the R3A viewfinder. My two options are returning the camera for an R2A, or buying the external viewfinder. The latter option seems to be the easiest and my probable course of action. Has anyone has tried it? I would like to hear your opinions.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

The framelines come and go for me too.

But they so close to the edge of the viewfinder that I carry on regardless.

I don't use my R3A for photos which I know need accurate framing in camera: it wasn't chosen for that role.

Of course, if your style differs framing accuracy may be much more important for you.

 

[Ukko Heikkinen]

Yes.

It's quite OK.

Ukko Heikkinen

 

[simplicity]

Thanks for your input 🙂

 

[Andrew Touchon]

The 40mm external viewfinder works fine. It makes it easier to see the entire field of view.

 

[CJP6008]

Have you tried unscrewing the rubber edged Nikon style eyepiece? This brings the eye a few mm closer to the viewfinder and helps with the whole seeing the frame lines thing. I am a glasses weared and found this helped. I did not scratch my glasses either. The frame lines are tough to see for non glasses wearers too I am told.

My R3A is being repaired as the shutter packed up after about 20 rolls of film - not a stellar performance by any standards. When and if I get it back I am considering modifying the plate that surrounds the VF. if you take that thing off you can see the frame lines no problem. the difficulty is that some of the guts of the camera are revealed. This did not seem like a good thing so I screwed the plate back on. It did occur to me to grind down the part of the plate into which the eye piece screws so that it did not protrude at all from the plate. That should bring the eye another mm or socloser still. A bit of paint to stop the old glasses getting scratched and we could have a VF that is actually useable for the 40mm lens!

If there are any really clever machine shop type guys out there who fancy making a replacement VF back plate for the CV R3A (and R2A - I gather the 35mm frames are tough to see for glasses wearers) there could be a buck to be made from us specky snappers!

 

[pvdhaar]

As a Bessa-T owner and former HexarRF owner, I'd say stick with the R3a and get an external finder.

My experience with the Bessa-T is that external finders take a couple of days getting used to, but now they're second nature. From the Hexar RF, I learned that no matter how wide the viewfinder (0.6x), there are always lenses that are still wider, and you'll end up with external finders anyway..