External viewfinders for Barnacks

[Fadedsun]

I know of the SBOOI and I believe there's a Voigtlander 50mm external as well. Both are definitely pricey and the Voigtlander external seems more difficult to find compared to the SBOOI. I was searching on Ebay and found this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/50mm-Viewfi...034?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4fb2a492

It seems like it's self made by some guy in Israel. Has anyone ever bought one? I'm curious how it would compare. It says "no optic viewfinder" but what does that mean it terms of an external viewfinder?

 

[Filzkoeter]

It's no brightline finder, I won't be much better then the built in finder.

Keep searching for SBOOIs, sometimes one can get lucky and get a user-grade one for cheaper then the linked finder.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Just a frame finder, perhaps, with glass at the front and back?

Cheers,

R.

 

[Pioneer]

Work Fine

Work Fine

i bought one of his viewfinders for 28mm.

It works just fine. It is what it is. An inexpensive viewfinder that provides you with an approximate 50mm field of view (FOV) at about 2 meters. If you wear glasses like I do then it puts your eye a little further away and the FOV is a little different. Not enough to get worried about for $25.

No parallax adjustments, no brightlines in the finder. Just a basic viewfinder.

They are handmade so they are not polished perfectly and stunningly beautiful.

They are just a simple viewfinder for the people of the world who cannot afford the Zeiss or Voigtlander models, which are certainly far nicer looking and prettier to use.

🙂

 

[Erik van Straten]

Try a VISOR.

Leica I model C, VISOR, Elmar 35mm f/3.5, FISON.

Leica M5, Nokton-M 50mm f/1.5, Tmax400.

Erik.

 

[batterytypehah!]

Well, I'm surprised to see a positive experience from Pioneer above. To me, that ebay listing is the equivalent of the old Far Side cartoon, How Nature says, "Do not touch." 🙂

A glorified piece of plastic photoshopped onto a Zorkica with a "Voigtlaender Carl Zeiss 75 mm" lens, and a seller who writes

Dear friend, IF YOU HAVE SOME PROBLEM - PLEASE DON’T OPEN eBay CASE, DON’T LEAVE BAD FEEDBACK & LOW STARS.

Sure, I'll have three, please.

 

[xayraa33]

I'll pay three times as much and buy a less than perfect SBOOI finder.

Some short-cuts in life are not worth the bother, but to each his own.

 

[batterytypehah!]

If you're at least a little bit handy, a very nice brightline finder can be made from the finder that's part of the Kaligar tele/wide set for Kodak Instamatics. They are easy to find on ebay and cheap (I see one for $5 buy it now).

It has a clamp for attaching to the Kodak camera, so you will need to make or scrounge a standard accessory foot. Aluminum bar, hacksaw, vise, file, elbow grease 😀

I use one on top of my IIIf and it is a nice, well-made unit, all metal and glass, that looks great on a Leica. A lot like a SBOOI, in fact, except the glass has a bronze tint. You can mask it to give a 50mm field of view but I didn't even bother. I use the "wide" square (Instamatic was a square format) for my left and right border and the "tele" square for top and bottom.

 

[B-9]

Having used my fair share of External Viewfinders,

Leica VF's are worth the extra money, superior build quality is just the start.

I also like the Voigtlander Plastic Finders, but even the 35mm FOV is like looking through a peephole as far as distortion goes, but the price is right.

Head to Cameraquest and order you one of those fancy new Metal Voigtlander finders!
OR Be patient and hunt down the SBOOI which can be found for all kinds of money. The longer you wait, the less you will pay, especially if you can source one with a cracked from element, you may get out for under 100$USD

Goodluck!

 

[B-9]

If you're at least a little bit handy, a very nice brightline finder can be made from the finder that's part of the Kaligar tele/wide set for Kodak Instamatics. They are easy to find on ebay and cheap (I see one for $5 buy it now)...

I have one of these sets, and Im totally down with giving it away for the cost of postage (around 5$ in USA) if anyone wants to shoot me a PM.

 

[xayraa33]

Good quality finders were never cheap in price.

A grubby looking SBOOI finder cost me 65 dollars 15 years ago and a Leitz SBLOO 35 mm viewfinder with a big ugly dent on top of the eyepiece but with good glass was bought for 125 dollars CDN in 1989.

Do I regret it?

Not one bit.

 

[BillBingham2]

There were many manufacturers of brightline finders over the years. I do have to say that CV finders are wonderful. I bought a cracked Leica brightline years and still works fine.

There are other style of finders that work well do, my favorite for size (to carry) is wire-frame or sports finders. I never liked the look of the turret finders but for some reason sports finders are fine. They are slightly bigger and clunky in a different way.

Do some digging for other manufacturers (e.g. Canon, Nikon, Kumora, Voigtlander, Kodak) on EvilBay, there are some really Bargains. All you need to do is a bit of digging. Do a search for Brightline Finder, you will get a few, read CameraQuest's historical info and you can learn more.

I think the original Voightlander Brightline finder was 1:1 so you can shoot with both eyes open.

Good luck.

B2 (;->

 

[FrankS]

I'm totally satisfied with my metal CV 28,35,50 finders and the plastic CV21 finder.

 

[megido]

An Altissa finder could be another option with interchangable masks for 35 50 90 and parallax correction.

 

[uhoh7]

I'm totally satisfied with my metal CV 28,35,50 finders and the plastic CV21 finder.

I've been shooting a bit with a CV metal 28, but am spoiled by the Zeiss finders. They cost a fortune but are dramatically huger than the CV 28.

 

[Rob-F]

External Viewfinders for the Barnack . . .

. . . Are the right thing to do!

I do use the SBOOI. I'm OK with it, but for some reason it does not have the true 1.5:1 aspect ratio of the 135 format. It's more square than that. So if it has gotten too pricey, I would not be too sad to choose something else. Se my avatar--that's the SBOOI on my IIIc.

 

[taemo]

I bought a 28/35 VF from the guy in Israel and love it, use it mainly on my Ricoh GR although I might start using it on the M3 when shooting with the 35 cron.

the SBOOI finders are insanely expensive now, around $180 and higher.
if you don't care for brands, look for a Canon 50mm viewfinder as well for almost half the price of SBOOI.

bought this on ebay couple of days ago
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/301633961716

 

[BillBingham2]

.....bought this on ebay couple of days ago
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/301633961716

Not to throw cold water on it but that finder was made for a Canon 7. It had automatic parallax correction based upon a little post that rode up and down into that little post in the bottom of the hot shoe.

I'm 97% sure it will work without the little-posty-thingy as it might be set to infinity. I'm not a Canon guy so you'll need to ask one of them to be 1,000% sure.

If you pull up EvilBay you will see lots of other brightline finders. Some have adjustments in the back for parallax. There's a 105 Kumora I paid several times that price for the same functions on a Nikon finder several years back.

B2 (;->

 

[taemo]

Not to throw cold water on it but that finder was made for a Canon 7. It had automatic parallax correction based upon a little post that rode up and down into that little post in the bottom of the hot shoe.

I'm 97% sure it will work without the little-posty-thingy as it might be set to infinity. I'm not a Canon guy so you'll need to ask one of them to be 1,000% sure.

If you pull up EvilBay you will see lots of other brightline finders. Some have adjustments in the back for parallax. There's a 105 Kumora I paid several times that price for the same functions on a Nikon finder several years back.

B2 (;->

thanks for the info, wasn't aware of that and definitely something to consider, for me it is not a big deal since I mostly use these for close distance (2-15ft)
the 28/35 that I bought from Israel doesn't have parallax adjustment either.

 

[Spavinaw]

Oh good heavens! Not only did the Canon 7 not have a shoe with a parallax correction pin, it didn't have a shoe at all. If you wanted a shoe, you had to buy an accessory one and attach it to the camera. The 7S and 7SZ had shoes but no pin in them.