I´m wandering in lending my nikon f and a my 24 (nikon too) to some entusiastic new photographer friend of mine, I was wandering if he will see this camera as I see it, I like composing into something you can read in your hands, I like the angles I´m able to see moving the camera wizardy ´cos of finder, but I can´t replace the direct watch view of a window.What do you think?

-- R. Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), April 03, 2001

Answers

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

Pure poetry, R. Really sublime.

;-)

Tse-Sung

-- Tse-Sung Wu (tsesung@yahoo.com), April 03, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

Do you mean 'wondering' as opposed to 'wandering'?

-- Chris Timotheou (nowayout@btinternet.com), April 03, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

The earliest 35mm SLR camera Exakta had such a waist level finder.

Later Zeiss Ikon of Jena invented the pentaprism SLR, which remains the dominant SLR finder

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), April 03, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

I've used waistlevel finders on various cameras over the years, they have their advantages and disadvantages. In particular the 35mm format is kind of small to use (and impossible to focus) literally at waist level, so most of the time a waistlevel finder gets used with my eye right up to the flip-up magnifier, so it's more like an eyelevel finder, and a dyslexic one at that, being as it's reversed left-right. However, last year while travelling I made a number of candid portraits, in instances where people would have been upset if I had pointed a camera at them, using an 80-200/2.8 zoom wide open at the long end, shooting my Nikon F5 from waistlevel after removing the prism finder. Although there was little DOF and I couldn't have seen the screen well enough to focus accurately, the AF nailed the focus and I could basically frame from waist or chest level just by lowering my eyes to take a quick glance. I held the camera steady with my left hand and triggered the shutter with my thumb on the vertical release. No one suspected I was actually shooting, it looked like I was just holding onto the camera and walking along. I apologize for singing the praises of a Nikon on the Leica page (but I sing Leica's praises often enough to be forgiven occasionally).

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 03, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

My apologises too for not talk leica, but I think we all have our histories on other cameras too, and please guess my english, sometimes I need a dictionary for spelling but I consider you can understand. The first time I saw a waist lever finder camera found it very interesting, specialy with wide angles at close distance and by force from a low angle of view, very limited camera but also discret, of course there were lots of shoots I missed ´cos of it´s limited use, I most say I don´t use it any more, neather any of my SLR´s, just keep them for copy work and things like that, I´ve been seduced by the unobtrusibe window of the Leica.Well thank you all for your coments hope it was of some interest at the end.

-- R Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), April 03, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

It would be unobtrusive, wouldn't it, for candid and street photography. When using zone focusing, the unmagnified groundglass would have no disadvantage. You could stand at an angle to your unsuspecting subject with the camera held sideways, with a puzzled look on you face, as though trying to remember how the camera works, and no one would know you were taking a picture. A TLR would work for this, too. Also, I find if I talk into my Minox while taking, people just think it's a recorder, or the latest cell phone.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), April 03, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

Bob,I have never use a TLR but would be nice not to have vertical- horizontal option, the screen is a joy to see specialy under a shadow, and if you are using a wide angle lens you don´t shoot much verticaly, sometimes it can do marvels, and people feel much better if you are not looking at them.

-- R Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), April 04, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

Of couse there is still nothing as fast as a window, for me the complete set of cameras for a working journalist would include EOS, a prismless reflex, and of course the leicas.

-- R Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), April 04, 2001.

Response to Do you like SLR´s without the prism?

You guys do, of course, know that Voigtlander is making a "waistlevel" wind-angle finder for rangefinder use, with interchangeable optics to match 15, 21, and 25mm framing? See Steve Gandy's Cameraquest.com page under the V'lander accesories link.

If Steve (or someone else familiar with these finders) can tell me: I've always wondered whether these are true waistlevel finders (i.e. you can see the whole frame from several feet away) or just right- angle finders where you must jam your eye right up against them (as with COntax, Nikon FM2, or the R-series right-angle finders). If they are true waistlevel (like the Nikon F and Canon F1 without prisms) I'll order one tomorrow.

Even as a Leica lover, I realize that sometime eyelevel is NOT the best point of view.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), May 03, 2001.