Has no one ever made an external view/rangefinder combo?

oinkmoo32 · Saturday at 9:01 PM

I've been having fun modding an old plate camera, recently attached a blik rangefinder. Yes it's velcro'd on.. I considered mounting it in a shoe screwed into the tripod mount but this is really a lot cleaner.

It would be so nice if this RF had a 40mm viewfinder built in. I'm using the wireframe viewfinder now but it's on the other side of the camera, a bit awkward to find range then flip the whole thing 180 to compose.

I'm wondering if there's ever been a mountable view/rangefinder combo produced? It seems like that would be so valuable for large format handheld work. I can't find anything but maybe there are some recent projects, as I've noticed a lot of 3d printed cameras with accessory shoes being developed lately.

Any ideas?

mshchem · Saturday at 9:34 PM

Good question. I'm not aware of anything like what you are after.

The Velcro is a good idea!!

Dwight Anderson · Sunday at 3:40 PM

Zeiss made a viewfinder/rangefinder for the Contina with interchangeable front elements. Model 425. Unfortunately for your purpose it's a 75mm for 35mm format.

oinkmoo32 · Sunday at 8:23 PM

Dwight Anderson said:
Zeiss made a viewfinder/rangefinder for the Contina with interchangeable front elements. Model 425. Unfortunately for your purpose it's a 75mm for 35mm format.

Ah that looks perfect, what a cool little device. 75mm.. out of all the focal lengths, that's just tragic.

OAPOli · Sunday at 9:13 PM

Maybe you can modify the Blik RF? You can make a simple VF with two lenses.

Galilean Viewfinder Design — Panomicron

The Mathematics of galilean viewfinders and how to design them

www.panomicron.com

oinkmoo32 · Monday at 12:51 PM

OAPOli said:
Maybe you can modify the Blik RF? You can make a simple VF with two lenses.

Galilean Viewfinder Design — Panomicron

The Mathematics of galilean viewfinders and how to design them

www.panomicron.com

Interesting read. I guess I would need to dremel out the front window and then replace the front and back glass with the correct focal length lenses and make sure they are the correct distance apart, all without interfering with the chunky beamsplitter that sits in between (which might have its own optical effects?).

I think this might be a little beyond my fabrication skills, especially since the Blik is not a very high quality component itself.

OAPOli · Monday at 2:13 PM

Another option would be to attach a VF right above the viewing window of the RF?

snusmumriken · Monday at 3:52 PM

OAPOli said:
Maybe you can modify the Blik RF? You can make a simple VF with two lenses.

Galilean Viewfinder Design — Panomicron

The Mathematics of galilean viewfinders and how to design them

www.panomicron.com

That’s a very useful link, thanks. I don’t want to derail this thread, but I’ve been pondering how to contrive a reversed telescope that would allow me to see the 35mm framelines of my Leica while wearing spectacles.

wiltw · Monday at 5:15 PM

In high school (ancient history '64-'68), I shot for the newspaper with a Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 press camera. It had a ranefinder and it had a viewfinder for framing. The lens had its leaf shutter, but there was also a focal plane shutter available, for use with lenses that did not have a built-in shutter. Plus a Speed Graphic can be used like a view camera by utilizing its ground glass for composing and focusing.

reddesert · Monday at 5:36 PM

IMO, there are two issues here:

- making an integrated VF, you have to choose an angle of view, and then if it doesn't match the angle / focal length people want, they won't buy it. See post #4.

- typically an aux rangefinder has a somewhat greater magnification than a viewfinder. That might be merely that the RF is 1x and the VF is 0.75x or whatever, but the designer of the RF has an incentive to increase magnification to increase focus accuracy, while the designer of the VF has an incentive to decrease magnification to allow a slightly wide angle field of view without the optical elements becoming too large.

That's probably why that one example of the Contina vf/rf came out to equivalent of 75mm field of view, and why vf+rf doesn't exist generally. IIRC, for cameras like the early Leicas with separate rf/vf windows, they may have different magnifications.

oinkmoo32 · Monday at 9:02 PM

wiltw said:
In high school (ancient history '64-'68), I shot for the newspaper with a Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5 press camera. It had a ranefinder and it had a viewfinder for framing. The lens had its leaf shutter, but there was also a focal plane shutter available, for use with lenses that did not have a built-in shutter. Plus a Speed Graphic can be used like a view camera by utilizing its ground glass for composing and focusing.

They're very cool but also triple the size of this camera. I've come to find 9x12 is the perfect balance between portability and the tonality I'm after.

reddesert said:
IMO, there are two issues here

Both could be solved with a zoomable finder like that badass Linhof one

OAPOli said:
Another option would be to attach a VF right above the viewing window of the RF?

That's not going to work great with my velco attachment. Viewfinders really need to be locked in place whereas a little wiggle doesn't matter on a RF..

Dwight Anderson · 2025-09-23T11:09:26-0400

reddesert said:
IMO, there are two issues here:

- making an integrated VF, you have to choose an angle of view, and then if it doesn't match the angle / focal length people want, they won't buy it. See post #4.

- typically an aux rangefinder has a somewhat greater magnification than a viewfinder. That might be merely that the RF is 1x and the VF is 0.75x or whatever, but the designer of the RF has an incentive to increase magnification to increase focus accuracy, while the designer of the VF has an incentive to decrease magnification to allow a slightly wide angle field of view without the optical elements becoming too large.

That's probably why that one example of the Contina vf/rf came out to equivalent of 75mm field of view, and why vf+rf doesn't exist generally. IIRC, for cameras like the early Leicas with separate rf/vf windows, they may have different magnifications.

The Contina III and Continamatic III had interchangable front elements (30mm and 75mm) like a Kodak Retina IIIc. But they are scale focus cameras. So the 425 rangefinder was designed to help accurately focus the 75mm lens.

reddesert · 2025-09-23T16:19:34-0400

oinkmoo32 said:
Both could be solved with a zoomable finder like that badass Linhof one

It's luxurious, but it's also large. Add an RF to it and it would be optically complex and enormous.

A nice combined VF/RF that seems not outrageously complex, is the one in some Canon screwmount rangefinders, like the L series. It has three magnification/view settings labeled 35, 50, RF - RF is about the field of a 100mm but is intended to give a more accurate view of the RF spot. It changes the view by rotating an assembly in the middle of the VF path. There's no technological reason that such a VF/RF couldn't be built as a separate unit, but I expect no one ever saw a market for one. It would have been a lot more expensive than a Blik (and perhaps more likely to lose alignment bouncing around in a camera bag).

Has no one ever made an external view/rangefinder combo?

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