Waist Level Finder

[wiltw]

But how close must you get to the eyepiece to see the complete screen?

If you have to bring your eye to it, a right-angle finder attached to any prism-finder should do the same and even be more versatile.

Eye needs to be right up to the eyepiece to see full screen.
Right angle finder would NOT MAGNIFY the image, not improving the ability to focus precisely with ground glass or see a split image focus aid match up under magnification.

 

[AgX]

There are 3 kinds of right angle finders:
-) plain (mirror)
-) right orientation (prism)
-) right orientation with flippable (2x) magnifier

 

[wiltw]

There are 3 kinds of right angle finders:
-) plain (mirror)
-) right orientation (prism)
-) right orientation with flippable (2x) magnifier

The Nikon finder was 6X mag and the Beseler was 6.5X mag!

 

[John Koehrer]

No one's mentioned the Canon F1 & F1n with either wlf or speedfinder.
The speed finder rotates from standard eyelevel view to horizontal by rotating the eyepiece.
The camera is still held at eye level though.

 

[Dinis Figueira]

At first the WLF seemed off for me. But as I insisted, I find a new world of options when using it.

 

[TheRook]

Sometimes the best, most flexible option is simply to get two different cameras which, when paired together, will fulfill all of your needs.

 

[onre]

Exakta has interchangeable finders. It's very handy to have a WLF in your pocket. After getting used to it, I've begun to miss WLF on other systems.

 

[GRHazelton]

I have my Father's Asahiflex, which is a WL finder with a flip out magnifier. Not fun to use! The image is reversed right to left, and in vertical orientation is also upside down. It is thus not suitable for any sort of action shooting. I have the magnifying finder for my Pentax LX, which is bright and magnified, but still has the problems like the Asahiflex, I think they are inherent to the design. I also have Pentax's equivalent to the Canon speedfinder mentioned above, a nice unit. For the proper WL experience, I'd agree with the post advocating for a 6 x 6 machine, like a YashicaMat or a Bronica.