All:

I recently acquired a Canon P & while it's fine in all mechanical aspects, the viewfinder is "flarey" to the extent that the framelines & RF patch can sometimes be difficult to see. Can this be fixed or mitigated, or is it simply an inherent flaw of the P's reflected (as opposed to projected) frameline system? I know that Stephen Gandy indicates in his CameraQuest profile of the P that the flare problem can't really be fixed, but am looking for 2nd opinions.

Thanks in advance, Chris

-- Chris Chen (furcafe@cris.com), October 05, 2001

Answers

My brand new P had the problem in 1963.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), October 05, 2001.

Thanks, Bill. Maybe my P is in better condition than I thought!

-- Chris Chen (furcafe@cris.com), October 05, 2001.

Chris, every classic rangefinder I have ever owned had at least some haze in the finder. Even if the camera was somewhat prone to this, it will be alot worse if there is a haze covering all the glass surfaces. Check the finder with a flashlight, and if it isn't super clear throughout, it would benefit from a cleaning. I had my M3 gone through and it not only cured some flare problems I was having, but also made the double image twice as easy to use.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), October 05, 2001.