R3a viewfinder and spectacles

[CJP6008]

Dear All,

As a spectacle wearer, I struggle to see the 40mm frame lines on my R3a. Leaving aside musings as to how a bunch of engineers and optical designers (some of whom must wear glasses!) end up designing gear that cannot be used by spectacle wearers...does anyone have any fixes (aside from contact lenses or corrective eye surgery, neither of which I want to put my mince pies through)?

Unscrewing and removing the rubber edged Nikon style eyepeice gains one about 1mm (although risks scratching my glasses on the sxposed metal.) I notice that the plate into which the eyepeice screws, is itself screwed to the body. Has anyone tried removing this to get closer to the undersized viewfinder window?

Thanks

CJP

 

[ywenz]

Return the R3a and get a R2a.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

I too wear glasses and own an R3A. I also have problems seeing the 40mm frame lines, but the type of street shooting I do, it has not been that much of a problem. I got the R3A over the R2A because of the 1:1 viewfinder. If critical framing is part of your shooting style, you might want to look into the R2A.

 

[VinceC]

I don't use an R3a but I do use 1:1 Nikon RF finders with eyeglasses. What I've found is that the 1:1 magnification allows me to shoot with both eyes open, which allow me to frame very accurately. This probably wouldn't work as well for someone who is "left eyed".

 

[CJP6008]

Many thanks for those thoughts. Looking at them in turn:
Ywenz and RDW - from what I have seen the same problem would afflict me as regards the 35mm frame which seems equally close to the edge of the finder. A solution would be to restrict myself to 50mm lenses and longer. The 50mm frame is easily seen in the R3a and would appear almost 1/3 smaller in the R2a if my maths serves. No problem there. This is not an issue unique to the R3a. I cannot see the full frame on my OMs either! Are there no speccy camera designers out there? My xpan has no such difficulties, no matter what lens is fitted. Just a nice big finder window allowing the whole frame to easily be seen.

As far as critical framing goes - rangefinders do not really do it. The position of the eye, the distance the lens is focused to, the assumptions of the manufacturer all affect what is seen within the frame lines and what gets onto the film. E Puts wrote somewhere that different manufacturers approach the issue differently, some erring on the side of generosity capturing right up to the outer edge of the frame lines, others use the inside at a chosen focused distance (and this distance is not uniform across manufacturers, I understand.) The location of the pupil vis-a-vis the finder window seems to have a large affect and probably outweighs those mentioned above hence manufacturers not really making a big deal out of the issue.

Vince, guess what - I am left eyed!

I am tempted to take off the bit I mentioned earlier and see what happens. Will report back!

Many thanks again

 

[Fred]

From memory the 35 frame of the R2a was not as close to the edge as the 40 on the R3a. I ware glasses and had no trouble with the 35 lines of the R2a. Try an R, R2, R2a if you can, they all have similar finders.

 

[Doug]

Or consider a Hexar RF or Minolta CLE, each of which has a .6x finder that shows 28mm framelines, even. Could also wait a bit for the new Zeiss-Ikon RF camera that has a .74 finder but in the pics the finder appears huge, and reportedly also has a wide enough field of view to include 28mm framelines. More expensive of course, but not at Leica levels.

 

[Gerold]

My fix was to sell the R3A after a month and to get the R2A. The 35mm-framelines work well there with glasses.

 

[RObert Budding]

I use, and like, external finders. The CV Voigtlander brightline finders are excellent (I have the nice metal one in black). It's very easy to get used to using one - focus and a quick shift of the camera to frame.

There was a time when an external finder would have been your only option.

Robert

 

[lawrence]

I've been down this road too. Regarding the OMs, sell them and buy a Nikon FM2. When I owned OMs I spent too much time scanning the highly magnified image -- the Nikon finder is much better and also has a nice rubber surround that won't scratch your specs. As far as Voigtlander goes, I don't understand all the fuss about 1:1 magnification. Personally, I always close one eye when I look through a viewfinder and the high magnification makes it difficult to compose (see OM comment above).

 

[djon]

The reason one doesn't want to close one eye, if possible, is the same reason a skilled rifleman doesn't close one eye: the other eye goes a little out-of-whack if one eye closes. This is why target riflemen wear an eye patch. Additionally, a rfdr camera is not a squintomatic, like SLRs are.

 

[VinceC]

>>The reason one doesn't want to close one eye, if possible, is the same reason a skilled rifleman doesn't close one eye: the other eye goes a little out-of-whack if one eye closes. This is why target riflemen wear an eye patch. Additionally, a rfdr camera is not a squintomatic, like SLRs are.<<

I was an astronomy buff in my teens and spent a lot of evenings peering through the eyepiece of a department-store telescope. All the how-to books strongly recommended learning to look through the eyepiece without closing the other eye, in order avoid fatigue and eye strain. It's a technique that actually allows you to see more. I then learned military marksmanship before photography. So keeping both eyes open is a time-honored skill for those callings that depend on your ability to accurately observe.

 

[CJP6008]

Dear All,

I took that bit off the back of the R3a, the peice that holds the Nikon style eye peice - only to reveal the guts of the RF system. Decided it was best put back. In actual professional use, having removed the eye-peice (but left the mount in place) the frame line issue did not proove a problem. Oddly, if you do not look for the lines you can sort of see them, as soon as you go looking for them, they get hard to see. Probably something to do with the whole issue relating to position of pupil, accuracy of framing etc referred to above.

I put a few rolls through al a wedding I was doing at the w/e - no problems with framing, a quick flick of the eye round the frame as per usual and I could see enough. V Good in low light.

RE OMs - Never had a problem with the finders - a nice bright 2-13 or Beattie screen works a treat. Have never really been tempted by FM2s etc. Nice lenses but for one used to the sophistication of the OM4Ti body, the Nikons look positively Byzantine. Even current Nikons (F5, F6, Nikon tell me) meter up in the prism with no OTF metering (except for flash)! The OM system started metering OTF in the mid 70s. I have yet to find a camera made today that allows spot metering at the press of a button as the OM4Tis do and I have been looking, knowing that the OMs will not last for ever.

I have an OM1 (the technological equivalent of the FM2) - a solid bit of 1960s technology (like the FM2). Problem is that if you want to put in a Beattie screen you have to go and get the meter recalibrated, as you would have to with an FM2 F5, F6 etc - a right pain. Life is just so much easier with a bright screen.

As a left eyed shooter, the whole eyes open/eyes shut thing makes little odds as all I can see from my right eye is the back of the camera!

C

 

[anselwannab]

What do you think about getting an extra back eye piece and grinding it down to reduce the distance from glasses to camera? Use a coating of some of that elastomeric paint from the hardware store that is used for tool handles to give some cushion to keep from scratching your glasses?

Just a thought.

Mark

 

[CJP6008]

Mark,

That is a very good idea. have you been talking to the guy in my local camera store - he came up with the same thought! It would gain an extra 1mm. I can see an evening with an oil stone approaching...

C

PS - had to return the first camera as it had a vertical rangefinder misalignment.

 

[anselwannab]

I'm an eye glass wearer also and I love modifying things. I figure if you can get it to work I'm one step closer to rationalizing my R3a purchase! I'd check with Gandy to see how much that part would be if you have to replace it.