LL Review of the new Tri-Elmar

The problem, and it's (literally) a huge one, with using that lens on a film body is the monstrosity of a finder which is needed for the 16mm and 18mm. Clever engineering yes but almost half again the size of the camera. I predict it will go down in history under the "What were they thinking?" category. At least on an M8 the crop factor makes the existing large but not outrageous 21-24-28 finder usable. I don't predict many of these lenses will be sold other than to M8 users.
 
Yeah, the finder is something of a joke. Sadly.

The bulky size could have been justified with the M8 if they had been clever enough to electronically sense what focal length the lens was set for (by "reading" the postion of the frame line selector) and communicating this through the flash shoe contacts (much the same way that a TTL flash works) and have a servo inside the finder automatically select the correct frame lines.

[Editorial comment suppressed here]

Alas...
 
How about:

- forget about the 18mm part
- use a CV 21mm finder for 16 (outside the brightlines) and 21 (inside the bright lines)

Just a thought.

Roland.
 
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