Silly question from someone new to rangefinder..

[nfenton]

My Fuji GSW690II is my first rangefinder I have ever used, and I have a simple question about it. How do I use a polarizing filter with it? How can I tell when my skies are blue without being able to look through the lens? 😕 Or am I forced to guess?
:bang:

 

[Doug]

Hi -- I have a GW670III... polarizers are a bit weird to use on an RF camera. Probably the easiest way is to hold the filter in your fingers and look through it toward the scene and rotate it until you get the effect you want. Note carefully its orientation, and then put it on the lens and rotate the filter to the same orientation. A few degrees + or - won't make a lot of difference.

There are various mechanical marvels of engineering to get around this awkwardness. For instance, one product is composed of two polarizers geared together so the orientation is the same for both. You look through one and rotate it as desired, while the one in front of the lens rotates to match.

Another gizmo has the polarizer on a swing-out mount so that it flips out away from the lens 180 degrees... you look through and rotate the filter as desired, flip it back in front of the lens, and there y'are. Tricky...

 

[BillBingham2]

A lot depends upon where you are. Over in England and in Japan I have seen dealers with special polarizing filters for rangefinders. One has a hand held copy you look through, take the number down that is pointing to the top and turn the filter on the camera to the same number. I want to say White over in England had something like that for sale. I've seen adds for fancy ones that are built together. You turn the top which sits in front of your finder and the bottom is turned through gears.

No easy answer on this one. Not a lot of a market here in the US so I've not seen them here.

B2 (;->

 

[bmattock]

Doug is right. You can mark the top of the filter when you find the appropriate orientation with a crayon or similar marker that can be wiped off later (since it won't be the same spot each time). Then mount the filter and rotate it until the part you marked is on top again.

 

[wontonny]

get one of these http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost-classifieds/showproduct.php?product=7747&cat=10

and one of these http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost-classifieds/showproduct.php?product=7751&cat=10

but change the actual lens filter to the appropriate size

 

[nfenton]

Thanks for the replies everyone, much appreciated.