Re: plans for a "Brilliant Viewfinder?"

From: ryberg <cryberg@comcast.net>
Subject: plans for a "Brilliant Viewfinder?"
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 17:34:41 -0700

> Most of the list has seen the viewfinder which was common on early
> cameras--it consisted of a mirror with a lens facing forward and one facing
> up so that the user could look down into it and get an (only approximate and
> not very good, as I remember) idea of what was being taken. I'd like to try
> to make one as a finder for a 6x6 folder which I'd like to use at waist
> level. Yes, I know a TLR is ideal for this, but my folder fits my jeans
> pocket.

I've thought about the same idea many times and gave up each time I
thought about it... I'm too young to draw an example from those box
and folding cameras, but Yashica T5 (T4 Super in the North America)
had one such viewfinder. I couldn't stand that camera (noise, shutter
lag, so-so optics, etc.) but I always wanted that viewfinder mounted
on the flash clip of my Konica Hexar (or Auto S2 for that matter).

I do all sorts of photos but waist level TLR worked the best for some
of street photography. People have perfect idea of what I am doing but
they don't react the same way as when I have a rangefinder camera at
eye level.

Some Japanese guy called TLR a bowing camera. Perhaps that may be
somewhat related to why TLR's are less offensive to people on the
street.

--
Ryuji Suzuki
"Well, believing is all right, just don't let the wrong people know
what it's all about." (Bob Dylan, Need a Woman, 1982)