I own an F1, the older models. I need to buy a waist lever prism that is bright and large. some have recommended one of the two:

Canon F1 Waist level viewer (this one flips up like the TLR cameras) or Canon F1 Speed Finder

anyone have any advice???

-- giselle (gisellefernandez@hotmail.com), April 03, 2001

Answers

Of the two, the speed finder is much nicer overall. But it tends to be much more expensive.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), April 04, 2001.

I always preferred the speed finder as it works either as waist finder or eyelevel finder - very handy. I have two of these for sale along with extensive set of Canon equipment.

-- GD Mangold (gdm@netins.net), May 24, 2001.

I have the speed finder and 6x finder for the new F1, and I used to have the flip-up type you mentioned in your question. I'm not sure of your intended use, but if it's general use the speedfinder is very nice. As another respondent said, it rotates, which is very handy. Also, you can view the full frame without putting your eye right to the finder. The flip-up type is nothing special at all, and if your use is very occasional, you might just as well remove the standard eyelevel finder and compose on the ground glass screen. Lastly, the 6x finder, while not as versatile as the speedfinder, is the best if your need is for copy work or studio still life. The image is magnified 6x, which makes viewing and composing and focusing luxurious. One last point, the speedfinder is the only one that corrects the image completely like a standard finder; the 6x corrects top to bottom, but not left to right; the flip up is like a view camera screen--backwards and upside down. Ted

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), May 27, 2001.