Heavy viewfinder Vignetting - Mamiya C330

[arrandavis]

I've recently bought my first TLR camera, used Mamiya C330F 80mm 2.8, it arrived about a week ago and I've been pleasantly pleased with the overall condition. After using the camera everything seems to be working fine (although i've not developed the film yet) my only gripe so far is that the viewfinder has a bit of vignetting around the edges. Its an older camera so I know there will be defects but I was wondering if anyone knew what could be causing it and what I can do to mend the issue?
Any advice on this would be great thank you

 

[Kirks518]

I'm guessing you have the Porrofinder, which is a somewhat dark finder. There's probably nothing wrong with your unit, other then it's inherent deficiencies. You may want to upgrade to the prism finder, or just use the waist level finder (which is my reference n the C330).

 

[MattKing]

Welcome to APUG.

Which finder are you using?

 

[arrandavis]

I use the waist viewfinder and the prism.

 

[Ian Grant]

Screens on TLRs are often much dimmer at the corners, a lot will depend on which screen is fitted - they are interchangeable on the C330. The fresnels and screen used on 35mm SLRs are very much brighter, as us the screens on my MAmiya 645 cameras.

I fitted a Chinese screen on my Microcord and that's a lot brighter than the original.

Ian

 

[Alan Gales]

I recently bought a C220 and found the waist level finder too dark for my liking indoors so I replaced it with the newer C220 F. I find the C220 F screen fine.

From what I read on the internet the C220 F screen is as bright as the latest C330 S screen. The C330 series has interchangeable screens so you might want to update your screen to the latest version. There are also Beattie screens available for the C330 series. I had one in a Hasselblad and it was really bright.

 

[benjiboy]

They may be available on E bay secondhand but Beattie have ceased manufacturing screens.

 

[Alan Gales]

They may be available on E bay secondhand but Beattie have ceased manufacturing screens.

Thanks Ben. I've seen them advertised used on Ebay for the C330 series.

 

[Kirks518]

Problem with buying, or attempting to buy, Beattie screens, is verifying that what is being sold is in fact the Beattie. Most of the time, it's the screen that was in the camera, placed into the Beattie box for storage, and now the seller assumes it's the Beattie screen.

 

[grahamp]

Going back to the original issue, by vignetting are we talking about corner darkening, or actual image cut-off? And are all four corners equal? When the flip-up magnifier is used with the WLF, it is hard to see the corners, and they will appear darker, but overall the screen should be reasonably even. This shot of a C220 (which is a little less bright than the C330) shows what I would expect to see: http://grahamp.dotinthelandscape.org/images/c220/c220screen.jpg .