Konica Pearl has a tiny (~6mm diameter) viewfinder like a typical mid century folding 120 camera. Seems like only more recent and more expensive premium folders have a decent sized VF Makina 67/670, Fuji GF670/Bessa III. For the >$2000 price difference, I've been making do with tiny finders. 6x7 would be fun though...
Is it worse that the Retina?
I have a Mamiya 6, I would call the rangefinder fair. Although not a rangefinder the Kodak Tourist has a good viewfinder. I use it landscapes usually at infinity so not an issue for me. Downside is it takes 620 film so I have to rewind.
Truth of the matter is that most (all?) of the mid-19th century rangefinders are going to have small and possibly hard to see viewfinder/rangefinders. I, too, have a Retina IIa and a couple of MF folders and I would say that none stand out above the other as having a great viewfinder/rangefinder. Usable? Yes. Nice as a Leica M6? No where even close.
I had a Certo SuperDolly camera. It was a folding 6x6 with an insert for shooting 645. No rangefinder, but a good viewfinder, however it had a wonderfully sharp Zeiss lens that took great photographs. The problem with taking 645 with the camera is that none of the modern films had the numbering for 645 line up with the window. So no practical 645, but I wanted 6x6.
At the Los Angeles Union Station, I walked through the tunnel to the tracks. On the far end looking up I saw this half dome window. I took a light reading and guessed the distance. When I printed a 24"x24" print, I could clearly see that what looked like dirt on a much smaller print was actually glass etching, and different etching one each piece of glass.
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I have a Retina IIa and a Konica Pearl III. While the VF on the Pearl isn't fantastic, but much better than the Retina. It's almost full FOV with eyeglasses. The Retina presents a signigicant crop and has yellowed.
Pearl IV was the only Konica Pearl with a coupled RF, but not a large one-- such small camera bodies kinda preclude them.
The best viewfinders for folders is the flap up like finders like on the 521.
They are clear and big and precise enough.
I’ve learned to not bother with build in rangefinders for MF folders for a number of good and interconnected reasons.
Simple RFs are often less than precise enough when you use them in the wild.
They need your eye to be absolutely perpendicular. That is probably the reason for the small finders.
They tend to drift over the range, being worst close up, where they are most needed.
They often develop all sorts of long gestation problems over time, and have often been tampered with by people who didn’t have the right tools and knowledge.
When shooting MF folders you should almost always stop down as much as you possibly can,
because:
- Alignment of all components is almost always lacking.
- The bellows will sometimes intrude into the lens projection, resulting in soft edges. Only real cure is to stop down. It’s very hard and not really worth it to replace an otherwise perfectly functioning vintage leather bellows that has a slight bow inwards.
- Stopping down alleviates most mild focus errors.
It forces you to become a better photographer since you have to remove clutter from the frame and you can’t rely on the modern kludge of just going close and using short DoF to separate subject and background.
You have to think fast and move around and reframe for living subjects.
For stationary scenes, you have all the time in the world to use a laser RF, external RF or measure with a tape from your tripod.
Then you can use the shallow DoF and really think about the composition, while being mindful of the aforementioned gotchas.
I have a Mamiya-Six folder and I love it! The rangefinder works really well, and the internal focusing is pretty cool. I'll be taking it with me back to Japan this summer...
Mamiya 6 gets my vote, not perfect finder but at least better than Ikonta.
Thanks. Unless I am focusing on something that is less than ten feet I really on the DOF scale on the lens. Set the aperture to f11 or 16 and use the hyperfocal scale.
Thanks. Unless I am focusing on something that is less than ten feet I really on the DOF scale on the lens. Set the aperture to f11 or 16 and use the hyperfocal scale.
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