Leica regret?

[georg16nik]

Agree. Too bad about the squinty finders though...

Proportionally correct for the Barnacks form factor and the majority of other brands as well - such VF/RF sizes were traditional back then. Past 1950's people got used to larger ones.

There was a reason so many famous photographers put a viewfinder on their rangefinder, and it wasn't all about focal length.

Prevalent poor eyesight is the reason

 

[flavio81]

Proportionally correct for the Barnacks form factor and the majority of other brands as well - such VF/RF sizes were traditional back then. Past 1950's people got used to larger ones.

True! Some cameras of that era had even tinier viewfinders.

On the other hand i have an Ensign Selfix 820 (1956) with a huge viewfinder, and it appears that it was one of the selling points of the machine.