I took to the city last week to test some JCH Street Pan 400 film with my F3. I had my MD4 drive (which is almost permanently attached) and, I mainly used my Nikkor f/1.4 85mm lens, complete with its big(ish) lens hood. I did use a 50mm and 24mm as well, but by and large, the 85mm lens was almost permanently on that day last week.
I have just weighed that combination on my electronic kitchen scales at 2,263g; this is the weight figure with the 85mm lens on the body.
I have also used this combination of body, drive, lens (85mm) and viewfinder, very successfully for quite a few portrait sessions
The DA-2 Sport finder is a wonderful piece of kit when used normally, better for those interesting shots you almost cannot get with a normal viewfinder.
I originally picked mine up to use on the back of motorcycles facing backwards to photograph bicycle races wearing a motorcycle crash helmet about 25 years ago. It worked perfectly and was a very useful addition to the armoury of tools one has, or attains over the years.
I just tested it in the back yard in brilliantly sunny cloud free conditions, alongside the standard HP finder. I wear eye glasses, so that in itself presents some problems for viewing the scene with some viewfinders; but not with the HP finder.
I also tested with the DA-2 viewfinder having sunlight on the viewfinder glass, as well as my spectacles having sunlight coming from the side and making the whole scene a bit of a glare. I could still see the image, albeit not that great, but I could focus and do whatever I needed to do. That would be the worst case scenario I could imagine under reasonably normal conditions, with that viewfinder. With the sun behind me, in front of me, or coming in from the side, the viewfinder worked.
With a motorcycle crash helmet, the DA-2 finder works perfectly; really perfectly. With Oxygen/Acetylene welding goggles, also being a perfect solution to a problem.
With usage in a city walkabout, the DA-2 does help a little in that you can focus perfectly with your forehead being up to and around the 75mm to 80mm from the viewfinder. This allows you to be far more aware of your surrounds, something that may or may not be an issue to you.
Probably the best feature is that you can focus on the entire image area at and around the 75mm to 80mm forehead distance from the viewfinder eyepiece. This is not possible with the HP viewfinder. With the HP viewfinder you can see the entire image area up to around 30mm forehead distance away from the viewfinder eyepiece, no more. 75mm to 80mm is about the limit, after that you can still focus, but, like the smaller HP viewfinder, only in the central portion and you don’t get to see the entire image area
There is a downside, there is no rubber to stop scratches on expensive spectacles, as there is on the HP viewfinder. However, this is nit-picking, it is supposed to be used with your body well away from the viewfinder.
I just had an idea about using longer lenses; which I rarely use free hand, so I whacked on my Nikkor f/2.8 135mm lens on. As I thought, with the longer lens on, camera shake becomes a bit easier to notice; this is for multiple reasons.
One, the camera viewfinder homing in on an ever tightening scene, certainly makes one more aware of camera movement.
Two, the fact that you use this viewfinder with the camera almost a hand distance away from the body, not against the head and eyebrow/spectacles as would be the case with the standard or HP viewfinder, almost certainly adds to possible camera movement.
Some thoughts, Mick.
