Is a viewfinder necessary for 35mm lens on Leica screw mount ?

BradS · Jun 22, 2018

What's the deal with short focal lengths on the Leica Screw mount cameras? Does one necessarily need a aux viewfinder? Specifically, what about the 35mm focal length? Does the built in viewfinder cover "enough" or will the lens "see" significantly more than what is shown in the built in view finder?

R.Gould · Jun 22, 2018

The built in viewfinder on a Leica LTM covers only 50mm, 35mm i wider so you will lose a lot, so yes, for other focal lengths you need a aux viewfinder, I suggest you get a universal viewfinder such as the Voigtlander Turnit or the russian turret viewfinder which cover all focal lengths from 35mm though 59,100 and 135, for the turnit or for the turret 28,35,50,85 and 135, the viewfinder on the leica is a bit squinty, and I find with my 111f that I use the built in finder only for the rangefinder, composing is a lot easier with the Turret I use,

mgb74 · Jun 22, 2018

My Canon P has frame lines (in the VF) for 35mm. However, it can be a bit difficult to see the full 35mm frame if wearing glasses.

R.Gould · Jun 22, 2018

I have many cameras with the frame lines for 35mm and other lengtns, they are a great help, the best is either my Canon 7 or my Ambi sillette, but my Vitessa, like the \leica has a viewfinder for 50, and you need to use different finders for the other lenses, the best is the Voigtlander turnit, accurate framing and parralex correction,

jimjm · Jun 22, 2018

On a Leica LTM body, you'll want to use an aux finder with 35mm lenses. I even use a 50mm aux finder sometimes (with 50mm lenses), as it makes viewing and framing much easier than with the squinty built-in VF.

Get a good brightline finder like the Leica SBLOO or one of the Cosina-made Voigtlander finders.

R.Gould · Jun 22, 2018

jimjm said:
On a Leica LTM body, you'll want to use an aux finder with 35mm lenses. I even use a 50mm aux finder sometimes (with 50mm lenses), as it makes viewing and framing much easier than with the squinty built-in VF.

Get a good brightline finder like the Leica SBLOO or one of the Cosina-made Voigtlander finders.

A bright line viewfinder is fine, but is normally for just the one focal length, and the Cosina Voigtlander ones can be expensive, Leica the same, I recently saw a SBLOO for over £100GBP, for the Voigtlander (The orginal German Voigtlander) turnit I have was around £30GBP, and the Russin made turret viewfinder was the same, in mint condition, and they cover all length's from 35 ,50,100 and 135, with almost the sane magnifaction as using a SLR, the turret viewfinder covers from 28,35,50,85 and 135, aging, it looks like you ate iusing a slr viewfinder, makes using the LTM much easier, and if you want extra lenses you have the viewfinder there for them and much as I love my Leica the viewfinder is one of the worst to use that I have ever come across,and I only use old cameras viewfinders and rangefinders, but if you want just the one viewfinder then I would suggest you look out for a Voigtlander Kontor fijnder in the correct focal length, a great both eyes open finder from the old Voigtlander Germany

BAC1967 · Jun 22, 2018

I use the VIOOH finder, it covers 35, 50, 85, 90 and 135. It also has parallax correction for close focusing. If you're patient you can find one for around $40.

Leica IIIf with Summaron Lens by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

elmontanero · Jun 29, 2018

For whatever reason I've come into a pile of viewfinders. Left to right: Canon 35mm finder (made for their 35mm Serenar, dial for parallax on back side) Canon multi, Zeiss multi, Leica Multi. The little Canon 35mm is what I'd go with if I was only using a 35mm, it's tiny, clean and looks the part on an old body. The multi's are a little bulky for my taste on clean looking, minimalist cameras. (the multi's came with two Leica lllf donations and a Contax lla purchase)
Might be heresy but the Canon Multi is definitely the best of the multi's in my eye.
Of course, YMMV.

guangong · Jun 30, 2018

jimjm said:
On a Leica LTM body, you'll want to use an aux finder with 35mm lenses. I even use a 50mm aux finder sometimes (with 50mm lenses), as it makes viewing and framing much easier than with the squinty built-in VF.

Get a good brightline finder like the Leica SBLOO or one of the Cosina-made Voigtlander finders.

Correct. I also use a separate finder for 50mm lenses.
If you are like me and use a Leica screw mount for its pocketability, I would recommend the nice little voightlander 28-35 finder that was sold by Steve Gandy at Camera Quest. I don’t know if they are still available. On the other hand the Leitz 35 finder is very very bright. To complement jimim’s remarks, the 50mm finder is also very bright. Since rf and vf are separate on Leicas, there is not much difference in camera operation.

darinwc · Jul 5, 2018

The "tele wide" finders that come with add-on lens sets are pretty good for the 35mm focal length. They give a nice bright projected frame.

M. Axel Wikstrom · Jul 25, 2018

Depends on how you use the camera, and if you can visualize a 35mm frame using the 50mm frame lines as a reference. I use a 35mm lens on my M3 which doesn't have 35mm frame lines, and it's not an issue.

Sirius Glass · Jul 25, 2018

A viewfinder is useful, but for me it would be necessary. I prefer to do my cropping before I take the photograph, especially when shooting slides.

Pioneer · Jul 25, 2018

I shoot 35mm lenses on my Leica III with and without an auxiliary viewfinder. Often I forget to carry the extra viewfinder.

Certainly the built in 50mm viewfinder is a bit squinty, and it will not show you everything that will be captured by the 35mm lens.

But, if you need to see exactly what is inside the frame of your lens, a rangefinder camera is the wrong camera to be using anyway.

All that being said, if you do intend to use a viewfinder, spend the money to get a good one. The Voigtlander brightline finders are expensive for sure, but they are also very, very nice to use.

mnemosyne · Aug 13, 2018

To answer your original question, why not give it a try without an external viewfinder first and see how you get along? The framing of the built-in vf is quite loose in my opinion and while not covering the whole 35mm field of view is definitely wider than 50mm, so using it for 35mm is not entirely impossible. As some correctly point out, if you need precise framing, a rangefinder camera is the wrong concept. OTOH, if you do feel a bit more precision compared to the built-in guessing device would be in order, nothing really beats the original Leitz accessory finders. The SBLOO is expensive but worth the money IMO. Compared to the squinty built-in finder it is pure luxury. The image is huge and bright and comfortable with easily visible frame lines. The Cosina Voigt metal 35mm finder (the round one, not the combined 28/35mm) which I also own is more compact but as a consequence the image is also quite a bit smaller and I find the framelines harder to see. I dropped it once and to my dismay the frame lines shifted and I have not found a way to correct that. The Voigt is still much better than any of the multi finders I have seen so far like Leitz VIOOH or Nikon Varifocal. Those really only make sense if you carry an assortment of lenses that you want covered. I wouldn't consider them for 35mm only.

Ko.Fe. · Aug 13, 2018

I'm not sure if OP is still interested. You have to use viewfinder. For framing. Here is no estimate, but 21mm lens is very close to normal vision.

Where are plenty of crapped out Olympus XA for low cost. Those and ebay plastic hotshoe covers from China makes tiny, brightline viewfinder not blocking shutter speed dual.

Most likely crapped out Minox 35 would give the same. I put two of them on recycle, instead of using them for VF.

Is a viewfinder necessary for 35mm lens on Leica screw mount ?

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