Mamiya 7 - Field Coverage at Infinity

Jesse Taylor

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Messages
24
Location
Vancouver, B
Format
Medium Format
I'm reading online that the field coverage at infinity is 83%.

My question, will I get less photo on the film or more than what is framed in the viewfinder?

Say if I have a mountain framed perfectly to the edges, would I have to move closer or further away?

Probably a silly question, but I just want to be sure.
 

TimmyMac

Subscriber
Joined
Apr 12, 2010
Messages
311
Location
Guelph, Onta
Format
Medium Format
Coverage is normally the percentage of the frame (film area) that is covered by the viewfinder frame lines.
 
OP
OP

Jesse Taylor

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Messages
24
Location
Vancouver, B
Format
Medium Format
So if a mountain was framed perfectly to the edges of the frame lines at infinity, would it cut off some of the mountain or would the film show more than the mountain?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Matus Kalisky

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2006
Messages
630
Location
Aalen, Germa
Format
Multi Format
The film would show more than the frame-lines suggest. To account for this effect you would have to move a bit closer. The reason for this non 100% viewfinder "coverage" is that while the size of the frame-lines is fixed, the true angle of view (or the effective focal length) of the lens changes as you focus closer - namely it gets a bit longer. Most frame-lines are calibrated for some middle distances of a few meters so that in the infinity they show less than what ends up on the film and for the closest focus (about 1 - 1.5 m for Mamiya 7 lenses) they show a bit more.

This problem (of changing fraction of the image shown in the viewfinder with different focus distance) does not exist with SLR cameras - their viewfinders show always the same fraction of the image (usually between 90 - 100%) as you are looking through the lens.

I hope this makes sense.
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…