Bessas and telephoto lenses

[lars]

I'd like to see some people's shots using their Bessas and telephoto lenses. I'm trying to guess used to my 75/2.5 and am still finding it odd to compose through an unmagnified viewfinder. Has anyone found it difficult to focus with the 75 or a similar length lens?

...lars

[Doug]

Hi Lars... Aren't you composing through a *reduced* magnification viewfinder? That's what bugs me about using my 90 Tele-Elmarit on the Minolta CLE with its .6x or so view. The framelines are tiny, and the low magnification reduces RF accuracy that suffers from a short baseline anyway.

But it's not bad on my M2's .72x viewfinder, though still a reduced view. Framelines appear larger so I can see more clearly what's in there. :-)

After pondering this a bit, I ordered the 90mm VC viewfinder from CameraQuest and slapped it and the TE on a Bessa T. Ah, that's better! This view finder is bright and crisp, and has a 1:1 lifesize view of the world.

Only remaining problem is that I seem to be in a wide-angle mode and just don't see much that makes me reach for the 90mm. Tough to test the hypothesis this way. And I need to remember to twiddle the viewfinder's parallax adjustment...

[lars]

Um, yeah, you're right, it is reduced.

So the shoe-mounted finder is only 1:1? I thought they would make it magnified.


...lars

[Doug]

Yep, 1:1. I think that's pretty handy, as I can keep both eyes open, and the bright framelines appear to float in mid-air. Nice finder!

Doug

[rover]

You always see the 75mm finders on Ebay and I have always scratched my head about them since the camera has 75mm bright lines. When considering the 75 though I have been thinking against it because of the tiny bright lines and composition. Perhaps the finder is a valid option and I should keep that in mind. Thanks for the info guys.

[Doug]

If one is blessed with a camera having framelines for 75mm (which I don't), then the external 75 finder is a bit of a luxury, perhaps, as my 90 finder would be on my Leica M2. It occurs to me that if you're in a hurry, you could just "suffer" with the camera's small framelines. Or maybe as time permits use the external finder to "find" the picture, then use the camera finder to focus and catch the moment. Maybe I should try this... :-)

Doug