Viewfinder accessories

[cliveh]

How important do APUG members find viewfinder accessories? I think they are very important, as recently I have been trying to achieve a high speed panning effect using a Kontur finder. This little device allows you to keep both eyes open and superimpose the image on the finder screen.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Ah that sounds like a cool accessory I'll have to look it up.

I personally love eyecups. Almost all my cameras have their own. I prefer the circular ones instead of the oblong type. They make focusing that much more comfortable especially in bright light.

The one I have on my f3hp is probably the best engineered type with a locking ring, the ones for om bodies are the worst, not only do they slip or get askew, they block the film door.

 

[Trask]

Yeah, the Kontur is cool. I've never quite been able to figure out how many different models there are, as I have the impression that they made them for 35mm film dimensions (which is the same as 6X9), and maybe 6X6.

 

[BradleyK]

Another vote for eye-cups being the most essential viewfinder accessory. The best-ever design goes to (drum roll, here) those - factory supplied - on the Nikon F3HP/F4/F5/and F6. The worst ever? The two piece effort that came standard with the Nikon F2 series. In the 33 years that I have shot and owned F2s, I have probably spent well in excess of $300.00 replacing the eye-cups on my F2s because the rubber cup separated from the metal ring and went bouncing off to parts unknown...

 

[John_Nikon_F]

Eyecups. That, and diopters. Glasses are too uncomfortable to wear, except when driving, so I tend to use diopters for my photograping purposes.

The factory supplied F3/F4/F5/F6 "eyecup" is just a rubber covering for the regular eyepiece ring. Commonly lost. DK-4 and DK-2 (and DK-19) have a metal ring that holds the eyecup in place over the eyepiece ring. The F2 generation eyecup has threads allowing it to take a regular eyepiece, which helps hold the eyecup in place on an F2 (or an F - tend to use it on the F, whereas the F2AS has a DK-4 eyecup). The Nikomat eyecups are the worst. Keep falling off the eyepiece ring and disappearing, never to be seen again. The one sold for the F was almost as good as the F2 version, except that there were no threads, so you couldn't use it with a diopter.

-J

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

Your post made me go an check for the eyecups and glass attachments on the bay just now, since I realized I needed another locking type and antifog piece for my 2nd f3hp (it only has the standard glass with regular non locking eyecup). What happened to the prices?! They are ridiculous now... Ugh.

 

[EKDobbs]

If only they made Konturs for every camera. It sounds like a great way to shoot action. It also sounds like something you could DIY, but I'm not that handy.

As for eyecups, I've never found them to be all that necessary. Maybe because I'm on a student's budget and $20 a pop sounds like a waste when I could get film/chemicals instead.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

What's the difference from using a 1:1 accessory viewfinder and keeping both eyes open and the kontur? If you do that frame lines are seemingly projected as well.

 

[j-dogg]

Vote to all the Canon EOS cups being the worst design ever, I bought two and they both broke within a week, the first met its fate on my 5d d*****l in a bar fight in Miami (yes I won, you dont ever swing on the guy with the brassed Nikkormat sans film rolls over his shoulder, was rocking film that night too. Both cameras survived) the second one just broke off while walking around shooting street on my EOS 650, both Eb's, and both of my Elan A2's have broken eye cups.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

My EOS 1N has a right angle finder; I have adjusted the dioptric correction with excellent precision using both the EOS 1N's correction facility and the right-angle finder. Terrific for ground-level work, or even when shooting upside down. Other than that, an eyecup is a must-have to make the viewing experience and critical assessment of focus just that bit easier.

I don't need anything more cumbersome like a right-angle finder for my 67; an eyecup I picked up off FleaBay for $16 has worked a treat in protecting the meter from influence.

I have never in many, many years had a broken eyecup on any of the EOS 50e, EOS 5 or the super-trooper of them all, EOS1N. You can lose or break most things through carelessness.

 

[cliveh]

What's the difference from using a 1:1 accessory viewfinder and keeping both eyes open and the kontur? If you do that frame lines are seemingly projected as well.

I don't know, but I can say the with a Kontur finder it's black and the only thing you see through it are the frame finders. This may make it easier to superimpose with the image seen by the other eye, but this is just a guess.