Hack a 35mm viewfinder into a Zorki 1 body?

[kumotaki]

Weird question, I know.

I love the Zorki 1 and I love the Jupiter-12. I know that a shoe-mounted 35mm viewfinder is the normal way to go, but I wonder how feasable it would be to permanently hack a proper 35mm viewfinder into the body of a Zorki 1 to replace the 50mm one that I never use.

As the rangefinder is in a different spot, no need to mess with that. Machining the body is not something I would be afraid of.

Maybe I'm just day-dreaming, but... what do you think?

 

[newspaperguy]

Weird thought - I like it.

The J-12 lives on my Zorki 1d, and I worry about losing the $200 CV finder from the shoe. So much so that I have a 'tether' attached to it.

Paranoid? Maybe, but I lost a lovely Leitz 35 bright line that way ($??).

I wonder what result you could get by cobbling the plastic VF element from a cheap P&S, or even a disposable, over the Zorki viewing lens?

Hmmm, I'm sure I have some dead junkers someplace.

 

[reagan]

Sounds like a worthy project. I avoid hacking/grinding on things, but resizing a cheap plastic vf lens could have very satisfying returns on your investment. I'll give it some thought. Keep us posted.

 

[soimless]

How most viewfinders work is they have a positive and negative group that essentially sets up the field of view, with a single positive lens in the back so that the eye can focus on it. You might be able to take the elements from lets say a Kodak disposable camera and then replace some or all the elements from the zorki viewfinder to get something around a 35mm view in the camera. Or you can put lenses in front of the camera akin to the leica goggles.

Messing around with some of the cheap unlabeled single element lenses I have around the house. What works to widen the view on my fed 2 is a plano-convex* lens with the curved part facing towards the camera and a negative meniscus with the negative part facing away from the camera around 8mm away from the plano-convex.

The setup kinda looks like this |Camera| (| (


You can get tiny ones from the surplus shack, put them in a cardboard tube or box that you then glue in front of your Zorki. The thing is I wouldn't honestly have a clue what focal lengths to get. Nor the distances to set them at. I would know to get them small in diameter so they don't interfere with the lens below but, that could result in a smaller (and probably unusable) viewfinder image.

I'm over thinking it without knowing enough. It'll be simpler to just get a perti-finder off ebay.

*I'm not sure if it is plano-convex it might be biconvex or even a positive meniscus

 

[bgb]

Is a Zenit C something like that ... a rangefinder with a prism attached?

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-9.html

 

[kumotaki]

Well well, seems like I'm going to give it a try when I have some free time.
I'd rather avoid the Leica-style goggle, as I would like to keep the Zorki as streamlined as possible. If the modification could be invisible, that would actually be great.

How most viewfinders work is they have a positive and negative group that essentially sets up the field of view, with a single positive lens in the back so that the eye can focus on it.

Thanks. This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for as I know next to nothing about optics. So this means that the hack is theoretically feasible by replacing some of the elements. Now, is it feasible in such a small package?

I'll keep you updated. Any idea, help and comments are very welcome!