Vintage-style accessory finder options

[squirrel$$$bandit]

I've been making noise on this forum for a few weeks about turning a Zorki-1 into a "Leica Standard," with two accessory shoes. As it happens, I wrote to Oleg at OK Photocameras, and he had a Zorki to sell me for this, and offered to mount the shoes as well! So I have this camera coming in the next few weeks & will recover it with gray Griptac. Should be pretty sharp.

Anyway, I'd like to match it with an accessory finder--a SBLOOI would be great, but it's a bit expensive...I'm also looking into sports-type finders (this Retina finder on eBay looks pretty good, actually)...and I'm wondering if perhaps there's an accessory finder out there that looks more or less like the permanently attached one on the Leica Ic.

This is to be my weird fun camera that people stop me and ask what the hell it is I'm shooting with. So what's the appropriate finder for it?

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Ha ha! Voigtlander Kontur looks pretty neat.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Zeiss albada...

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Russian turret of course

 

[John Lawrence]

One thing to watch out for with the Kontur finder is that when mounted on my Leica II it only just clears the shutter speed dial, making changing speeds virtually impossible. Depending on how your Zorki is configured / adapted you may or may not have the same problem.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Thanks for the tip! I probably won't go for a Kontur...it just seems like an interesting idea.

Did canon make an SBLOO style brightline finder?

 

[John Lawrence]

Thanks for the tip! I probably won't go for a Kontur...it just seems like an interesting idea.

Did canon make an SBLOO style brightline finder?

Yup. Canon did make a 35mm brightline finder. There are a couple of examples for sale at www.leicashop.com . However they tend to fetch quite high prices, although not as much as the SBLOO finder. One cheaper option (if you can find one) is the Helios finder, which has framelines for 35mm, 85mm and 135mm and a lousy reputation - but a few years ago www.mrcad.co.uk were knocking these out at around US$8.00 new!

 

[John Lawrence]

If Mr Cad still have those Helios finders, might be worth getting a couple to see if they can be improved on - perhaps by Oleg?

 

[John Lawrence]

Just for good measure, how about the Wata 35mm Viewfinder? These sometimes turn up on Ebay. They have a dial on top to adjust for parallax error and don't cost much - possibly because people confuse them with the more common shoe mounted Wata rangefinders.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Just for good measure, how about the Wata 35mm Viewfinder? These sometimes turn up on Ebay. They have a dial on top to adjust for parallax error and don't cost much - possibly because people confuse them with the more common shoe mounted Wata rangefinders.

There's one on British eBay now with the worst photo I have ever seen in my life of an eBay sale item. Bookmarked!

35mm here is referring to the focal length, not the type of camera? I'm really looking for a 50mm one, though 35 would be useful too.

 

[sevo]

Just for good measure, how about the Wata 35mm Viewfinder? These sometimes turn up on Ebay. They have a dial on top to adjust for parallax error and don't cost much - possibly because people confuse them with the more common shoe mounted Wata rangefinders.

Like the Wata rangefinders, these are very basic - I never had any desire to use it on anything that had some other sort of peephole.

Sevo

 

[John Lawrence]

Sorry, I thought you were after a 35mm finder similar to the Leica SBLOO from your earlier post.

See what you mean about that picture on Ebay!

 

[John Lawrence]

Like the Wata rangefinders, these are very basic - I never had any desire to use it on anything that had some other sort of peephole.

Sevo

The German Wata rangefinders had a very good reputation in their day, and even today are often cited as one of the best makes amongst those still using them. Still, horses for courses .....

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Sorry, I thought you were after a 35mm finder similar to the Leica SBLOO from your earlier post.

See what you mean about that picture on Ebay!

Maybe I meant SBOOI...I can't keep that stuff straight!

And here's that photo 😀

 

[Bill58]

Thanks for the tip! I probably won't go for a Kontur...it just seems like an interesting idea.

Did canon make an SBLOO style brightline finder?

I've got a nice, vintage, Canon 35mm finder for sale, if interested.

Bill