When did Tewe finders appear?

[landsknechte]

Out of curiosity, when did the Tewe viewfinders first appear? Obviously sometime before 1951 given the famous Feininger photo, but does anyone know for certain?

[Terao]

They certainly made universal finders for Robot, not sure if that was the pre or post WW2 version though

[jlw]

Originally Posted by landsknechte

Out of curiosity, when did the Tewe viewfinders first appear? Obviously sometime before 1951 given the famous Feininger photo, but does anyone know for certain?

Here's a page (click) from a company that sells the "director's viewfinders" used in cinematography, mentioning that Tewe introduced a widely-used cine viewfinder around 1946. The page suggests that these Tewe finders remained in production until around 1970 (!)

There's no way of knowing from this info whether the still-camera finders predated or postdated the cine finder, but it's certainly reasonable to suspect that in the cash-poor immediate post-WWII period Tewe might have started out by introducing the low-production, higher-value professional cine finder, then used their learning from that to design a smaller, high-volume "consumer" version for still cameras.

[RichC]

The UK's Amateur Photographer magazine reviewed the Tewe zoom finder in 1949, supplied by Nevelle Brown & Co. Ltd for £21 10 (including £6 10s purchase tax). Converting £15 to today's prices using the retail price index gives £518

The review is complimentary, and finishes with "The Tewe finder is beautifully made ... and leaves nothing to be desired."

[jlw]

An Alan Gordon Enterprises Mark Vb cinematographer's viewfinder lists for US$ 699 and the smaller Mini II viewfinder for $450 -- so that "converted" price for the Tewe, although steep, isn't totally loopy...

[jlw]

Originally Posted by RichC

The review is complimentary, and finishes with "The Tewe finder is beautifully made ... and leaves nothing to be desired."

Well, yeah, I guess back in 1949 they didn't get too bothered about a tiny, squinty eyepiece or the fact that the field of view is only fuzzily defined -- most camera viewfinders of the era being similarly afflicted.

But if you want to see a REALLY nice zoom viewfinder, you've got to dig up the one Canon made. The image is brilliantly sharp (and unlike the Tewe's, doesn't change focus as you zoom) and the edges of the field are sharply masked, like those on a Zeiss turret finder. The eyepiece is reasonably large and has a diopter adjustment.

But of course it's a wildly pricey collectible today, and doesn't cover as wide a range (my Tewe goes from 35 to 200; my Canon only covers 85mm to 135mm. Canon made a wider-range model, but that required two tiny zoom lenses on a turret, and is even costlier now.)

Still, it was a great idea, and something that probably would have a lot of utility for RF users today if someone would produce a modern version. Paging Mr. Kobayashi...?