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LX3 60mm optical viewfinder

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StephaneD

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hi everyone

Just bought a LX3 that I am very satisfied with, except I really miss an optical viewfinder

I'm most of the time shooting at 60mm, are there any optical viewfinders that would closely match this focal lens?
will a 60mm viewfinder perfectly match the 60mm focal of the camera?

Searching this forum, I heard of wideangle ones which sometimes shows different focal frames (petri), but it is not a convenient solution for me,
I'd prefer to only view what I'm shooting in the viewfinder

I checked voigtlander viewfinders are either 50mm or 75mm, does it make a big differece?

thanks for your help
 
I have an LX3 too, but not a finder for it.

However, a friend of mine who is a pro shooter also has an LX3 and wanted the optical finder for street candids at night with the LCD turned off. And thought the Panasonic one was a tad overpriced..

He uses a Helios viewfinder he got off eBay.co.uk for about £30 iirc.

Although it only has bright lines for 35, 85 and 135mm, he says it works fairly well, the vull view outside the 35mm line is 'close enough for the 24mm setting' and he uses the 85mm as a framing guide for the 60mm setting. There is no parallax control either, so it is all a bit of an educated guess, but according to him the results improve with practice. And he enjoys the 'happy unexpected things' that pop up in the shots now and then ;)

I don't think I've ever seen a hotshoe finder for 60mm by any manufacturer, really...

35, 50, 85 and 135 seem the most common, with 28 being rarer and 24 hard to find and expensive (may as well get the original panasonic one...)

There are currently (15-01-2009) 2 of them on ebay.co.uk, search for helios viewfinder if you're interested
 


It's variably adjustable between 35 and 135 mm (not framelines). It also has a parallax adjustment above the hotshoe, which moves the whole unit up or down based on the setting.
--



Jeff.
 
StephaneD said:
...
I'm most of the time shooting at 60mm, are there any optical
viewfinders that would closely match this focal lens?
will a 60mm viewfinder perfectly match the 60mm focal of the camera?
...
Click to expand...
The tele frame lines of the Petri tele wide auxiliary viewfinder are close. The actual frame is just wider than the tele frame lines. The view through the finder, even outside the wide frame lines, does not cover the 24mm FOV, however.

The Petri finders are sometimes available on ebay, although there are none for sale there now.

Jeff
--
Whatever it is, this is it.
 
--I have the Voigtlander 50mm viewfinder (got it off the big auction site).

The bright line frame seems to match the LCD very close at 3:2 aspect ratio. Plus, I found that the parallax dashed line gives a very good reference when using the 16:9 aspect. For $75 at the time I felt it was worth a try and am very pleased with the results. It also gives the camera a very nice retro look.

One caveat though, is to remember that any viewfinder including Panasonics 24mm (which only gives 82% view) still require some experimenting.

pK
 
What viewfinder is that one pictured?
 
looks very interesting (especially the paralax correction), I had no idea this kind of viewers existed
I guess its pretty difficult to find
 
--I have looked at Leitz Wetzlar finders on the big Auction site and elsewhere.
It would certainly be great if you can find a used one that hasn't been abused.

In pristine condition they are very expensive and often cost as much as the LX3 or substantially more. You will definitely pay for German high quality.

As I have said in this post .... I am using the Voigtlander 50mm with great satisfaction ...... I also just won an Auction for a Yashica Tele-Wide finder that is on its way to me .... will see how it matches the view in the LCD ... will report results.
 
I can easily find voigtlander viewfinder here in paris so I am tempted.

what I am wondering now is if it wouldn't be more confortable to use a 75mm than a 50mm so the camera takes a little more than what I frame.

this way I can really frame as if there was no difference between the camera lens and viewfinder focal and crop later in photshop.

anyway I am still a bit worried about the paralax issue, but as you said it surely needs some experimentations anyway.
 
I have a Voigtlander 28-35 mini viewfinder that I use on my Epson R-D1. When fitted in the shoe of the LX3, the entire view in the viewfinder, including the area outside the bright-lines, is equivalent to 24 mm as near as makes no difference. However you do need to get the eye very close to the eyepiece to see to the corners & this may not suit those wearing glasses. The viewfinder is not cheap but it's cheaper than the Panasonic one. Best of all it is small, black & hardly adds to the size of the camera.
--
Howard Denner
 
At least one other alternative out there:
The tele/wide viewfinder made for the Yashica Electra rangefinders.



It's kind of rare, and originally came with the tele/wide conversion ad-on lens set. I bought one cheaply from MrCad the other day.

It has lines for (aprox.) 60mm, lines for (aprox.) 38mm, and the frame as a whole is somewhere between 28 and 24mm. It's a nice and bright finder, and would suit a LX3.

Like the company that made it, it's kind of underrated. Therefore it sells cheaply, even on that large, american auction site.
 
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