DP2: Helios or Olympus Pen viewfinder?

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Has anybody tried either the Helios 35/80/135 or the Olympus Pen VF-4 on a DP2/DP2s and can comment on the brightness of the finder and how close the 35mm brightlines are to the 41mm angle of the DP2?

Thanks in advance,
Xpanded

 

[ferider]

I recommend to skip the Helios finder and pick either VF-1 or a Tele/Wide finder (Yashica and other brands).

The 38mm framelines (?) of the Yashica finder will fit 41mm well, I believe. The VF-1, which I use, matches my M2 35mm framelines perfectly. It's big and bright, but the framelines are a bit faint.

Roland.

 

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thanks Roland - much appreciated

 

[exlboy]

Is Helios brighter compared to VF-1 ?
I am looking for a 35mm viewfinder for my Leica X1.
Thanks for your insight !

I recommend to skip the Helios finder and pick either VF-1 or a Tele/Wide finder (Yashica and other brands).

The 38mm framelines (?) of the Yashica finder will fit 41mm well, I believe. The VF-1, which I use, matches my M2 35mm framelines perfectly. It's big and bright, but the framelines are a bit faint.

Roland.

 

[jimmy2thou]

Viewfinder

Viewfinder

Hi

I had the Olympus VF-1 on my GF1 with 20mm (40mm equivalent) lens and it worked well. I guess, that's pretty similar to the DP2 FOV? Strange, as it was made for a 34mm FOV. As for the X1, being made for 34mm, it should be OK for 35mm. It was Nice and bright and accurate as far as I could tell. Your view won't be as tight around the frame lines as a 40mm, which gives you extra to work with. On top of that you can pick them up for £35 on ebay from Taiwan! A bit of matte black paint to match my GF1, and it really looked the part too. 🙂

Hope this helps,

Jim

 

[kai.zorki]

If i were you, i would buy the Voigtländer 40mm vf.
Very bright, well built.
The framlines fit from a distance of ~50cm-infinity

 

[efix]

Another +1 for the Olympus VF-1, works well with focal lengths between 35 and 40mm, although its frame lines are a bit tighter than 35mm. As jimmy2thou mentioned above, the VF-1 works well with the Lumix 20mm lens. Mind though that the VF-1's framelines have 4:3 aspect ratio, as it was designed for the Micro Four Thirds system. The top and bottom lines may correspond rather well to an actual 35mm 3:2 field-of-view, though.

I can't recommend the Helios finder, as the framelines aren't very accurate, politely speaking. Impolitely speaking, it's unusable bull****. I had it for my E-P1, and absolutely didn't like it. Another problem with it is that it won't sit tightly in the flash hot-shoe, at least my copy didn't.

The Voigtländer 35 and 40mm finders are reputedly good.

 

[elmer3.5]

Helios on x1

Helios on x1

Hi, i use the helios VF on my X1, i´m very happy with it, it´s bright and the framelines don´t go off that much under front light.
Can´t say anything about dp2 but it´s a 35mm VF and the dp2 has 41mm fov.
Bye!