How come no M frameline illuminator accessory?

[squirrel$$$bandit]

One of my favorite little corners of Stephen's site is this:

http://www.cameraquest.com/sp.htm

The Nikon SP frameline illuminator, for low light shooting. Pretty cool!

So how come Leica never did anything like this? Nowadays you wouldn't need that big old light barrel--you have have a neat little glowing patch that would flip down over the fresnel window, and it could be powered by a little watch battery.

In fact, on the metered cameras, why not just have an interior light that you could switch on and run off of the batteries?

 

[payasam]

Had an M3 for 17 years and, if there was enough light to focus by, could see the frame lines. Or focussed by scale and shot with the whole finder (for 50mm) or the whole SBLOO (35mm). Don't see the point of loading a small and tidy camera with all sorts of this and that.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Had an M3 for 17 years and, if there was enough light to focus by, could see the frame lines. Or focussed by scale and shot with the whole finder (for 50mm) or the whole SBLOO (35mm). Don't see the point of loading a small and tidy camera with all sorts of this and that.

Exactly.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Florian1234]

Leica goodies sells one as far as I know. Called SHINE overthere.

 

[rxmd]

On the M5 I would have liked one every now and then; even when there's enough light to focus by and the framelines are clearly visible, the meter readout can get tricky to read.

 

[principe azul]

I agree about not decking out an M with all sorts of stuff, but you could get some chemical fishing lights off ebay - the type you bend to start - and use a bit of black tape.

 

[Pablito]

No reason to fix what ain't broken. Frame lines are visible as long as there's enough light to shoot by as stated above.

Nikon made something like this for the Ftn finder, maybe it worked on the F2 metered finders, the ones with the needles before they went to the little red lights. Then with the F3 they put a pretty good illuminator but the button to activate it was so tiny it was useless, you could not feel where it was with your fingertip in the dark. With the F4 they finally got it right, good illumination for shooting in the dark.

 

[ferider]

Useful with tripod at night:

Cheers,

Roland.

 

[principe azul]

... or a small white LED blinkie from a pound shop (thrift store).

I've never been unable to see the framelines, I count aperture clicks, and my metered RFs have LED displays, so my apologies for the lack of elegance to my suggestions.

 

[johannielscom]

The SHINE

The SHINE

Hi,

have a look at the Leicagoodies.com website. Choose the SHINE from their index. It's basically a small battery powered lightrod (miniature StarWars lightsaber) and you can stick it on top of the camera, it does not show in the frame but illuminates the framelines.

They have more handy accessories, and most are cheap to the point you can hardly believe it.

Never bought anything there myself but mailed with the owner on a lens and he is a friendly fellow, and a fellow member here.

 

[ferider]

Post #8 shows a photo of the SHINE.

 

[Florian1234]

Post #8 shows a photo of the SHINE.

And #4 already mentioned the SHINE and where to find it.. 😀 Is it a general habit of not reading through a topic and just posting away these days?

 

[ferider]

And #4 already mentioned the SHINE and where to find it.. 😀 Is it a general habit of not reading through a topic and just posting away these days?

Does added personal experience with a tool count, Florian ?

 

[Florian1234]

Sure, I don't mean your posting, but the one above your's😉. Please don't take this as an offence.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

The SHINE is pretty cool! I personally don't need one--I was just interested in the possibility. It seems you could make one that didn't show any light outside the finder, for stealth purposes...

 

[payasam]

Stealth is not the point of having a light sabre.