Hi Voigtlander Photogs,
in some cases we are comparing apples and oranges here, without realizing it.
Different people with glasses really do have DIFFERENT eyesight. What one person with glasses sees with the R3A, may change a bit with what the next person with glasses sees. I wear glasses, but they are special high index plastic to make the lenses as thin as possible. I can almost see all four edges of the 40 frameline at once, but not quite. real world, it is no problem for me at all.
The thicker the glasses, or the weaker the vision, the more problems you will have seeing the 40mm frameline. Even so, unless you are as blind as a bat, you should have no problems with the other 50, 75, and 90 framelines.
What may be difficult to understand, if you are new to rangefinders, is how special the R3A is. Beside the also Cosina made RD-1, it is the ONLY 35mm rangefinder camera with a 1:1 finder!
What does that mean? it means if you focus with your right eye, you can leave your left eye OPEN and have FULL peripheral vision to see ALL that is outside the frameline. This is REALLY a big deal once you get used to it.
On the other eye, IF you shoot with your LEFT eye, it makes no differnce at all !
because then your right eye is obscured by the camera body!
HOWEVER, you NEED to understand what the framelines REALLY mean!
NO, they do not indicate in any Leica, Voigtlander, Zeiss Ikon, Minolta, Konica or Contax camera what is REALLY on the film !!!!!!!
Get over it, it does not work that way.
All of these cameras (so far as I know) actually indicate the SLIDE coverage (not the FILM image), typically at 10 feet or thereabouts.
WHY? because rangefinder brightlines coverage compared to what you find on the film is generally a guessing game. the actual field of view CHANGES with the focused cistance! this is the result of obscure optical laws which most photogs don't want to bother with. buy a copy of Gunter Osterloh's superlative "Leica M Advanced Photo School" from Petra and Ken at Camerabooks.com if you want the details.
Personally, the advantages of the R3A viewfinder far outweighs the disadvanges for me. (1:1 viewing and greater focusign accuracy, vs frameline visibility).
That being said, IF 40mm frameline viewing of an area which doesn't really show what you will be getting on the film anyway really bothers you, then then R2A is probably a better choice for YOU, but perhaps not the next photog.
When in doubt, shoot. Film is cheap. Images are not.
Stephen Gandy
