Very quick question: Have the individual brightline viewfinders been discontinued now that the uni-finder (21-24-28)has been introduced? A visit to the Leica site did not clarify this.

Thanks in advance.

-- (dem331@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002

Answers

The 21 finder has been discontinued.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), February 27, 2002.

Therefore, when you buy e.g. a used 21A, make sure you get a/the corresponding finder (hopefully) offered at the same time.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), February 27, 2002.

John is correct. The 21 mm finder is d/c'd, but the 24 and 28 are still made (I believe all of these are/were made by Leica Portugal). That's a curious situation, since they make cameras with the 28 mm VF framelines but not with the 21 mm, so the former would seem to be more important in a separate finder. I personally find the view through the 21-24-28 finder claustrophobic and prefer the individual finders.

The 21 and 28 mm finders have been made for many years, orginally in silver and black chrome versions and then with metal replaced by plastic. The older metal versions (which are sought by collectors) are beautifully done and provide a touch of elegance missing in the current BL finders. You can also by Cosina/Voigtlander finders for 21 and 28 mm focal lengths which work as well, but don't say "Leica".

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), February 27, 2002.

i even think, the voigtländer brightlines are better than the leica ones, for half the money. they don't come with a leather pouch, though.

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

I just got a brightline 24mm finder yesterday. I much prefer it to the zoom finder as it has the framelines while the zoom finder has none, you frame out to the edge.

As for Voigtlander finders on M cameras something to check would be the position of the foot on the finder. On an M finder the foot is offset as the shoe is not right over the finder.

Never seen a CV finder but photos look as if the foot is centered under the eyepiece so the shoe had better be right over the lens.

I have a CV brochure here. On the Bessa-L the shoe is right over the lens, that camera has no finder at all. But on the Bessa-R the shoe is offset so any finder for a 15mm or whatever, that lens first for the "L" wouldn't compensate for the offset shoe of an "R" body.

So going by that if all CV finders are centered feet finders than any CV finder on an M or a BessaR wouldn't line up right.

I know the finders are vague anyway but at least they should sit where they belong.

-- Neil Swanson (neilsphoto@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.

I'd be interested to know how often people use brightline finders, even though framelines within the M6 may cover the viewing area. For example, do you find that the 50mm brightline frees you in some way or facilitates your style of photography? What advanatages to you find from using the finders?

-- Peter B. Goldstein (peter.goldstein@us.cgeyc.com), February 28, 2002.

Hello Peter. Shooting with 50mm. brightline finder on Leica M is like driving an open top sports car .. you are photographing/driving with both eyes open, can see clearly lifesize all around,with just that nice frame/windscreen in front. Notwithstanding a little parallax correction closer up, shooting with this finder is a different sensation to the inbuilt finder. Regards.

-- Sheridan Zantis (albada60@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

Those 50 brightlines are great. I have one on my IIf, and it makes that camera a real user. I've used it on SLRs on occasion. Really beats squinting through tiny finders or lenses with filters.

-- John (johnfleetwood@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

Concerning the 24mm finder: how much curvilinear distortion is there, compared to the 21mm (which has considerable)?

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), February 28, 2002.

The 24mm BL finder (Leica) has considerable linear (barrel) distortion at the edges. Apparently Leica took an awful lot of trouble to correct the 24 mm/2.8 Elmarit ASPH for distortion but not much trouble to correct the finder. It is annoying, but you learn to live with it.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), February 28, 2002.

Neil

That was a real revelation. I had never noticed, although I have used a 25mm and 15mm viewfinder on my M6. This morning I put a 15mm viewfinder on the M6 on a tripod and lined up the centre of the image with a reference point. Then I looked through the M viewfinder and this central point was shifted about 15-20% right.

I will now buy a M viewfinder for my V/C lens, or sell the lens. Totally the opposite from what many are recommending -use V/C finders with M lenses since they are cheaper, better built, etc.

Thanks for your comment.

Enrique.

-- bmw330 (dem331@yahoo.com), March 01, 2002.

I use the 35mm voigtlander viewfinder with the M and find it very pleasant to use. Sideways parallax is not a problem so much (in fact the aux viewfinders are closer to the lens axis than the built in viewfinder window) but I have found vertical parallax to be a problem, especially with the 24. However, this only really annoys when doing verticals, with horizontals it isn't much of a problem really.

Enrique: As for the 15/20% displacement of the 15mm viewfinder, I think you should take another look at the situation before getting rid of the lens. I think you're a little confused about what's happening. The built in viewfinder is far worse than the aux finder in terms of being horizontal off-axis. You're adding two errors, the greater of which is in the M's built in viewfinder.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), March 01, 2002.

OK Rob. I am confused. Specially since I have never noticed the error in my pictures. I will take some tests this weekend and see how they come out.

-- enrique munoz (dem331@yahoo.com), March 01, 2002.

Neil, Rob, Enrique - this is very enlightening! I have NEVER noticed or appreciated before that the shoe mount was offset from the lens mount - no wonder all my close in 15mm shots have shown more on one side than I remember! Dohhh!

As the Leica finder is parallax corrected (almost prefectly, not quite) both ways this avoids problems with standard lenses etc but what should we do with the Voigtlander 15mm finder - mount it very slightly crooked?

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), March 01, 2002.

The perfect solution might be if Voigtlander utilised the 12mm finder with a brightframe for the 15mm lens including parallax correction.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), March 01, 2002.

Giles, the built in viewfinder is only parallax corrected in the sense that it shows you the frame (approx) at the focus set distance. It doesn't account for the difference between the lens axis and viewfinder axis, as indeed it can't. However, the latter difference is very much less in the horizontal dimension with the accessory viewfinder, although if you take the total displacement it might well be about the same.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), March 01, 2002.