Viewfinder apps

[awty]

Hi
Been looking for a viewfinder app.
This one works and is free, doesn't do 8x10, so you'll have to find out what the equivalent is. Has grids and b&w option.
My phone isn't wide enough for wide lens, so there is some blank grid (anything wider than 160mm, 4x5), but there may be a work around.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.kadru.filmviewfinder&hl=en

Any other recommendations?

 

[jtk]

How do you use it...what do you use it for? Is it good for stand-alone phonography?

 

[awty]

How do you use it...what do you use it for? Is it good for stand-alone phonography?

I use it for my view cameras. I can chose 4x5 option in cameras and pick the focal length according to the lens I have, say 210mm and it will give me that view in the correct aspect ratio, so I can look at the phone and first off work out whether its worth the effort of setting up a large format camera, then I can work out where to potion the camera and whether to use portrait or landscape......a good composing tool.
You can also flick through other lens, to see whats best and use add magnifying adjustments for zooming in.
Thinking about making a clip to hold the phone to the hot shoe, so I can get a better view when using my ancient Bessa 1 6x9 and maybe my 4x5 press camera, by hand held.
It will do 35mm, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8 and 4x5. You can use a lens chart to find the corresponding lens for the same aspect ratio. So 35mm and 6x9 are the same aspect ratio as is 4x5 and 8x10.
You are constrained by how wide the lens is on your phone, my galaxy 4 phone isnt very wide and just shows a shaded area of what it misses.
You can take a photo at any time if you wish.
There are other apps, some cost money and have more features, this one was free. You need to remember to turn it off as it drains the battery when left on.

 

[jtk]

"Thinking about making a clip to hold the phone to the hot shoe, so I can get a better view when using my ancient Bessa 1 6x9 and maybe my 4x5 press camera, by hand held."

Would be great if it'd do 47 Super Angulon for my baby Graflex...but that's probably asking too much. 47 is a great lens but this is an f8 which is optically great but pretty tough to see. I found a Samsung 21mm/35equiv (was intended for a discontinued digicam)....better than Leica's plastic 21 finder...planning to install a hotshoe for it on that Graflex.

 

[jim10219]

I looked at quite a few a while back, but ran into the same problem of them not handling wide angle lenses, of which I use a lot of. I also looked at some director's viewfinders, but they're all pretty expensive. My eventual solution was to cut out a 4x5 hole (or actually a bit smaller, the size of the imaged area on a regular 4x5 sheet of film) out of a small piece of plywood (card stock or sheet metal would work too), and attach a cloth tape measure (like the kind a tailor might use). Then I hold the wood mask in front of my eye and measure the distance from it to my cheek with the cloth tape measure. I have to compensate a bit because my cheek sticks out further than my eye. Anyway, the distance from the wooden mask to my eye gives me the focal length for the lens I want to use, and the mask gives me the composition. It's not perfect, but it gives me a good enough idea of what lens I want to use, and how I want to set the camera up.