35mm problems

[removed account4]

i am used to viewing everything upside down and backwards and want to build
a prismatic adapter for my leica, so i don't have to view everything right side up, or frontwards ...
does anyone know if a ground glass was made for it ?
i have searched some of the specialty sites and since i don't know the code names or numbers
i can't figure it out. if i have to, i'll adapt a different maker's gg, my toyo and rollei are too big ...
as a last resort i have had people wheel me around on a dolly
but going over curbs is a real PITA

 

[David Brown]

so i don't have to view everything right side up,

Gee, John, is this really a problem?

 

[AgX]

"backwards...frontwards"

???

 

[Whiteymorange]

Just hold the camera behind your head and use a hand mirror, John... or, more easily done, just think backwards and upside down. I thought that was required for driving in RI anyway

 

[E. von Hoegh]

i am used to viewing everything upside down and backwards and want to build
a prismatic adapter for my leica, so i don't have to view everything right side up, or frontwards ...
does anyone know if a ground glass was made for it ?
i have searched some of the specialty sites and since i don't know the code names or numbers
i can't figure it out. if i have to, i'll adapt a different maker's gg, my toyo and rollei are too big ...
as a last resort i have had people wheel me around on a dolly
but going over curbs is a real PITA

Is it very sunny where you live? Do you spend a lot of time outdoors?

 

[ntenny]

Common advice for evaluating composition is to look at the image upside down (excuse me, I mean "umop episdn"). So in your case, accustomed as you are to LF ground-glass viewing, shouldn't you be getting the same benefits by viewing the right-side-up image in a prism viewfinder? It sounds to me like you should embrace the challenge.

As an alternative, cognition experiments have established that if you wear prismatic glasses that invert your view, after a few days your brain adjusts and you start seeing that inverted view as right-side-up. So a few days with inversion glasses should be enough to convince your brain that the right-side-up view in a 35mm viewfinder is in fact umop episdn. I'm not too sure that anyone makes these glasses commercially, but a homebrew job shouldn't be too difficult as compared to many of the DIY projects we see on APUG. Try it and get back to us with a report, say I.

-NT

 

[cliveh]

i am used to viewing everything upside down and backwards and want to build
a prismatic adapter for my leica, so i don't have to view everything right side up, or frontwards ...
does anyone know if a ground glass was made for it ?
i have searched some of the specialty sites and since i don't know the code names or numbers
i can't figure it out. if i have to, i'll adapt a different maker's gg, my toyo and rollei are too big ...
as a last resort i have had people wheel me around on a dolly
but going over curbs is a real PITA

John, hi there and look no further than what I consider the most useful gadget, namely the Leitz Vidom universal finder as shown in my Avatar. For those not familiar with this little device, let me mention that many years ago I noticed 2 pictures of HCB with a camera, one taken when in his 20’s and one taken when in his 50’s and on both pictures he has a little device slotted into the hot shoe of his Leica. For many years I thought this was just a viewfinder that provided an angle of view for a specific lens not built into the bright-light frame finder of the camera. However, some years later I was reading a student’s personal study written about another magnum photographer. I even remember the actual day and where I was standing in the room, as it hit me like a sledge hammer. This other magnum photographer described how Henri showed him what this device did.
In short, it allows adjustment to view at a variety of focal lengths (something I never use it for and probably neither did HCB I believe) and it also adjusts to correct parallax, but here is the best bit, it also allows you to view the image inverted in a horizontal plane, should you wish to print shiny side down for compositional reasons. This means you can view from viewfinder to Vidom finder and see the image flipped horizontally. However, that is not all, its best function is that by turning the small prism at the back you can view the image upside down in both landscape and portrait format, thus giving the objectivity of shapes and forms only normally seen when working with LF.

 

[removed account4]

thanks for your suggestions so far.

david - it is a HUGE problem, especially when i try to parallel park.
i'm usually a few feet from the curb.

whitey - i tried the mirror, but i had trouble seeing beyond my own reflection ..
and i have just tried to just think upside down and backwards but the problem was
that as soon as i got in "the zone" ... the decisive moment was gone

evh - lots of snow and sun and cold there these days, but that hasn't kept me inside
i was roasting coffee in my driveway just a few days ago

nathan - i was thinking of prismatic goggles like you mentioned
but my optician suggested i just stay in the dolly and get wheeled around
because it was a more practical solution.

clive - i goggled the doohicky you mentioned ... it looks like it might work.
i wish i could just get glasses like that, it would make things easier ...

 

[boswald]

Easy John, just make yourself a mirrorless TLR. You might try a cheap compact zoom on a cheap slr with the back replaced by gg, velcro on the baseplates, lens alignment marks on the backs, and a loupe painted black over the gg. It's a Goldbergflex! (easier to say than Gowlandflex)
Which reminds me, everyone should go to the Peter Gowland site, look at the pictures he did even as a child, and feel inadequate.
Good luck, hang by your thumbs, and write if you get work; David

 

[cliveh]

Some people may joke about John's original thread, but he has a very valid request. Most LF users may appreciate what I mean.

 

[Chan Tran]

i am used to viewing everything upside down and backwards and want to build
a prismatic adapter for my leica, so i don't have to view everything right side up, or frontwards ...
does anyone know if a ground glass was made for it ?
i have searched some of the specialty sites and since i don't know the code names or numbers
i can't figure it out. if i have to, i'll adapt a different maker's gg, my toyo and rollei are too big ...
as a last resort i have had people wheel me around on a dolly
but going over curbs is a real PITA

If you're used to view everything upside down and backwards I assume that you mostly use a view camera. I assume you're used to composing, focusing on the ground glass before loading the film and make an exposure. In such case simply remove the Leica's back put a ground glass at the film plane and lock the shutter open. After you're done you can load the film and make an exposure. That way you can frame your shot a lot more accurate than you can with the Leica viewfinder.

PS: Well I don't know if you could mount the Leica on tripod without the back or how to load film without removing it from the tripod.

 

[bdial]

Build a ground glass viewfinder?

 

[removed account4]

i think i just figured out what i need to do ...

i think i am going to build a BOX that i can stick my head INTO ..
i'll look out of the box through waxed paper or ground glass or ... something frosted
then my world view will be upside down and backwards ,
i wonder though, what will happen when i use my view camera ?

 

[Wade D]

Unless there is a lens in front of the ground glass or frosted surface the view will not be inverted.

 

[removed account4]

Unless there is a lens in front of the ground glass or frosted surface the view will not be inverted.

bummer

 

[E. von Hoegh]

i think i just figured out what i need to do ...

i think i am going to build a BOX that i can stick my head INTO ..
i'll look out of the box through waxed paper or ground glass or ... something frosted
then my world view will be upside down and backwards ,
i wonder though, what will happen when i use my view camera ?

A nice frozen mug of cider?

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Some people may joke about John's original thread, but he has a very valid request. Most LF users may appreciate what I mean.

After 25+ years of using view cameras, I actually have to think to remember the view is rotated 180 degrees - sometimes I'm surprised when people comment.

Oddly, I have no problem using the viewfinder of an SLR or rangefinder camera, I make the same errors with these as I do with the view cameras.

 

[cliveh]

After 25+ years of using view cameras, I actually have to think to remember the view is rotated 180 degrees - sometimes I'm surprised when people comment.

Oddly, I have no problem using the viewfinder of an SLR or rangefinder camera, I make the same errors with these as I do with the view cameras.

But the point is that sometimes you need to see both views within the confines of the frame. Although with LF you can use your eyes outside the ground glass, it’s not quite the same as seeing both views within the confines of the frame. So in that way the LF user is almost as restricted as the SLR/Rangefinder user.