I just got a bright line finder to use with my 28 lens (for my M4 and M6). I find it helps tremendously in seeing the entire frameline. My question is regarding parallax error. At what distance should I really be concerned about parallax error when using the external finder for framing (especially since the placement of the finder isn't directly over the lens, but a little to the right of the lens). A side question is why the hot shoe isn't positioned such that it's directly over the lens in the first place. Thanks.

-- richard le (rvle@bellatlantic.net), May 09, 2001

Answers

About 10 feet, as I recall; note that the frameline doesn't quite cover the whole image anyhow. On the Leica I and Standard the accessory shoe was located directly above the lens, so apparently it was moved because it would somehow intefere with the rangefinder innards of the model II.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), May 09, 2001.

FYI... I posted a site for a new Leica finder on this forum, (see this thread, "M using wide angle fans... a new finder"), and the new finder is indeed centered over the lens via an off-set foot. I know this doesn't help your particular problem, but they are making an attempt to reduce the parallax error.

One thing I did was to mount my camera on a tripod several feet from a wall, view through my finder and have my partner place 4 small pieces of tape on the wall at the corners of my frame lines as per my verbal instructions. I did this at various distances, shooting some slide film. Viewing the unmounted slides, the farther from the wall that I got, the more space was showing around the tape, (which in theory should have been at the extreme corners). Try this experiment, and you might be surprised. As a minimum, you will have an idea on when to start mentally compensating. This test also made me appreciate my 100%viewfinder SLR for important compositions.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), May 09, 2001.

A very easy way to check your viewfinder is to take the back off your camera, put the baseplate back on, and use a locking cable release to keep the shutter open on B. Then you can alternately look through the finder and through the camera back to see how the two views compare. I use easily spotted targets--for instance the vertical sides of picture frames on my wall for the left and right edges of the finder. Just look through the back and swing the camera until the edge of the picture frame is on the edge of the film opening, and then look through the finder to find out what it's thinking. Same idea for the top and bottom, and at various distances. This is quicker than film.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), May 11, 2001.

It's a good method Michael, but it's very depressing.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), May 11, 2001.

Michaelīs trick is a fast answer to your dudes, I just donīt know why you find it depressing Bill, may it be īcos you have to keep the shutter "depressed" in B?

-- R Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), May 11, 2001.

It's because all that extraneous image which will be on the negative, outside that indicated by the framelines (CL, M4P, and M6).

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), May 11, 2001.

Ummm, you will of course need a focusing screen to be able to "see" the image at the film gate....

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@home.com), May 11, 2001.

No, you don't really need a focusing screen. Just use a loupe or another Leica lens backwards to focus on an image at the edge of the film plane. I haven't studied optics for over 50 years, and I can't recall if this is a "real" image or whateverthehell the other kind of image is called.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), May 12, 2001.

"Virtual"

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), May 12, 2001.

So the problem seems to be the full format view on prints?, I have done that of seeing with a loupe, and thougth of that as a real image, but the problem seems for me in determinating where is the plane you are seeing through the loupe, is funy I have work with my Leicas M for years, and never have a dude of what I was seeing, now Iīm allways chequing.

-- R Watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), May 12, 2001.

Virtual image? Or is it called an Aerial image? I seem to recall that an image formed just out there, in the air, is called an "aerial image." Maybe these two terms are interchangeable, though.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), May 14, 2001.