Which brightline for my D2?

W

wblanchard

Guest
I need some advice on which Voigtlander optical finder I should order for my Leica D2? I plan on shooting cityscapes and street photos. My budget will only let me buy one...i was thinking the 35mm 1.2 metal brightline finder. Any suggestions?
 
Do you mean that you are going to use a Digilux2 at a set focal length and hyperfocal distance with an external VF - if so it sounds like an excellent case of adapting a machine to your needs instead of the other way round which is so often the case.:)
 
I tried this and it works ok but takes some getting used to. The problem is that the aux finders are made for 35mm format and your D2 has a different aspect ratio from 35mm. A better finder might be one of the new ones made for the Epson RD1 camera. these will have the correct ratio, I think.
 
gns said:
I tried this and it works ok but takes some getting used to. The problem is that the aux finders are made for 35mm format and your D2 has a different aspect ratio from 35mm. A better finder might be one of the new ones made for the Epson RD1 camera. these will have the correct ratio, I think.
Click to expand...
interesting..I will have to take a look. Thanks for the info.
 
It's unlikely that the Digilux2 will have the same size sensor as the RD-1. It is after all a compact, and even though the sensor is larger than most, they are all a magnitude smaller than ones inb 35mm type bodies. Anyhow, looking at the pictures on the Leica site, it has 35mm equivalents marked as the main indicators of focal length on the lens, so a normal VF should do fine.

David
 
iMacfan,

Yes, the sensors are different sizes but you could still use the finder. The RD1 has a 1.5x crop factor so the field of view for the 25mm lens finder will be 38mm equiv. So, set the zoom on the D2 to 38mm... Is that right? Or am I missing something?

GNS
 
gns said:

Yes, the sensors are different sizes but you could still use the finder. The RD1 has a 1.5x crop factor so the field of view for the 25mm lens finder will be 38mm equiv. So, set the zoom on the D2 to 38mm... Is that right? Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Well, the aspect ratio of the sensors are different, IIRC the D2 has a 4:3 format while the RD1 has 3:2 just like film. This should not be a problem, though, since one could just adjust the focal length used a bit to either have the same width coverage as the finder frame and a bit more above and below or have the same height coverage and get a bit less on the sides.

I have no idea if parallax correction would work correctly (in case the finder has that).
 
I didn't know the rd1 had a 3:2 ratio. That puts you right back in the same spot as with the standard aux finders. You can adjust the focal length for correct coverage top-to-bottom or left-to-right, but not both.

Thank you for clarifying that Anders.
 
Thanks Anders. I'm also curious if the parallax would work.
 
iMacfan said:
It's unlikely that the Digilux2 will have the same size sensor as the RD-1. It is after all a compact, and even though the sensor is larger than most, they are all a magnitude smaller than ones inb 35mm type bodies. Anyhow, looking at the pictures on the Leica site, it has 35mm equivalents marked as the main indicators of focal length on the lens, so a normal VF should do fine.

David
Click to expand...

This is correct. The lens is a 28mm to 90mm equivalent, and is marked as such (28,35,50,70,90). I just put my 35mm finder that I use on my Zorki on the D2 and checked it against the VF with the lens set on 35mm, and it agreed exactly. HOWEVER, something I discovered in this process is that the camera recognizes the accesory finder as a flash unit, and changes its exposure accordingly. It appears that it will be necessary to shoot in full manual mode if you use the shoe-mounted finder.
 
Krasnaya_Zvezda said:
This is correct. The lens is a 28mm to 90mm equivalent, and is marked as such (28,35,50,70,90). I just put my 35mm finder that I use on my Zorki on the D2 and checked it against the VF with the lens set on 35mm, and it agreed exactly. HOWEVER, something I discovered in this process is that the camera recognizes the accesory finder as a flash unit, and changes its exposure accordingly. It appears that it will be necessary to shoot in full manual mode if you use the shoe-mounted finder.
Click to expand...

Interesting..I look forward to trying it out. question about exposure..if i manually set the exposure by shooting at a grey card or expodisc, do i need to do this everytime i want to shoot an image or will it keep the settings until the camera is shut off?
 
I believe it keeps the setting even after the camera has been shut off. I can't recall if I have seen this with the manual WB setting, but I know that the D2 remembers all other custom settings even after powering off. I know that I've left it in BW mode between sessions for sure. I can't check the manual WB thing out right now because I'm minding the baby (took me 10 minutes to type this one-handed) but I'll do so asap.
 
OK, I just checked it and it does remember manual WB settings even after powering off. I just shot a photo in auto WB, then manually set it with a grey card and shot the same scene to verify there was a difference. Turned off the camera, waited 5 minutes, powered back up, checked the WB setting in the menu and it was still set to Manual. Shot the scene for a third time and the result was identical to the previous manual WB shot. So there is no question. I thought it did have user-settings recall, and I believe somewhere in the voluminous manual it states that WB settings will remain as they are set until the user changes them.
 
Wow..thanks for checking. You did good for one-handed. This camera continues to impress me everyday with the little things I learn about it, like the wb settings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom