R3a with a 35mm lens? Advice needed

[jmilkins]

G'day folks

I'm interested in anyone's experience in framing shots using an R3a with a 35mm lens - the 40mm frame line is near the edge of the viewfinder in the R3a but there's a bit more space there - does this "full frame" approximate the 35mm field of view or is it much wider? If its wider, have peole guessed the extra field of view easily enough?

I've had SLRs with 92 - 100% viewfinder fields, so it might be similar to a non full field SLR....

Many thanks for your incoming wisdom!

john

 

[Kris]

Search a post by Huw Finney in Leica Forum on Photo.net. I know he did checked it because I read the posting.

 

[jmilkins]

Thanks Kris. I found this thread (http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00BDUX) which helped. Its more complex than I realised because of parallax error...
I'm still interested to hear from users such as Kneedroper on this site who I think has tried this R3a 35 combo..
cheers

 

[kneedropper]

Hei John,

I'm yet to do "laboratory" tests to see how it works. Will get back to this thread if and when I find the time...

 

[jmilkins]

thanks Kneedropper. I'd appreciate your opinion. I'm not after a full set of measurements on the viewfinder, just thoughts on whether its reasonable to use without an accessory viewfinder..

cheers

 

[jameshays]

I had this combo for a while. My original plan was the R3a/40 nokton kit, but I was seduced by the 35 cron. Anyway, I found it very usable but also a bit annoying. Prints didn't look quite like what I remembered in the finder and most required some cropping.
I recently purchased an M6 with a .85 finder. Glad I did. I discovered that it is important for me to be able to frame my shots accurately. The 35 framelines on the M6 look about like the 40 framelines on the R3. Anyway, I really like being able to see everything in frame now and the .85 finder is still easy to focus with both eyes open.
Of course it is all personal preference, but that was my experience.

 

[JohnM]

Everyone is going to have a different experience; I found it less than acceptable. I wasn't able to account for all that came into the outer parts of the frame; cropping necessary.

I haven't used it on the R3a yet, but I picked up the (amazingly overpriced) Voigtlander 28/35 minifinder and will use it if I ever want to give the 35 another shot on the R3a. (Not likely; will stick to 40mm). It's not as clear as the larger finder, but it does combine the two focal lengths and it is really compact.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

I originally purchased an R2 and 35mm Skopor a few years ago. I got an R3A back in December with the 40mm Nokton. I wear glasses so it is hard for me to see the 40mm framelines without moving my head around, up and down, etc. I have used the 35mm on the R3A several times and have framed everything using the edges of the viewfinder. For the way I shoot, it works fine. I am not a big stickler on accurate framing like some others. I would still say though that using the edges for framing is very close to the view of the 35mm lens, but I am not sure how exact it is.