View upside down in Variframe finder

[Woodtower]

Hi all,
This may be a stupid question but...
I came across a Nippon Kogaku Tokyo MIOJ Variframe viewfinder.
It's labeled 24 X 36 and has the 7.3 & 9 markings so it was made for the Leica market. When I look through it, the image is upside down. Is this normal or is something missing?
Thanks

 

[peterm1]

I imagine it is to do with the optical design. Some early Leitz designed finders had optics which reversed the image (not upside down in their case). Later Leitz finders gave a correctly oriented image. I am not familiar with your specific finder though.

See here: https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19697

You may also find some useful info on this page or subsequent ones (which I have not had time to read- sorry) But its a good resource on all things Nikon especially optics. Note that there are several pages of info (with links to the next page at the bottom of each. Just check them out.) I think the main Leitz one with a reversed image was the early one with a code name "vidom" I did happen to see in one of the pages below that some Nikon finders were copes of the vidom.

https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photograp...kor/RF-Accessories/Nikon-RF-Finders/index.htm

 

[wes loder]

Rear eyepiece missing?

 

[Vince Lupo]

As Peter suggests, some versions of the Variframe finder look a lot like the Leica VIDOM finder. If it’s anything like that, the rear eyepiece knob might rotate for use in portrait orientation. With the VIDOM, when the eyepiece knob is rotated for portrait orientation and left there, the image will appear upside down in landscape orientation.

Maybe see if that’s the issue.