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Anyone use a Leica 1.25 or 1.4 Magnifier with a 50mm?


A miller

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I purchased a 1.4x a few months ago for my M9 and have been using it mostly with my 50mm as that is my most used lens. I am struggling with the trade off b/n more mag and thus slightly quicker focus vs effective loss of framelines in quick street shooting situations.

 

How have others dealt with this trade-off?

 

I am leaning toward not using the mag for the 50mm or trying out a 1.25x, though im guessing that the quicker focusing results on the 50mm will be proportionally even more marginal with the 1.25x.

 

I'd be grateful for your views and experiences.

 

Best'

 

Adam

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Thanks for the tip. I tried the one made by the company that makes the Thumb's Up and it didn't work b/c my prescription is greater than 3.

 

I'm reluctant to heavily invest in this solution b/c of the fact that I would need to take off my glass when I shoot which is complicated especially when taking random spur-of-the-moment shots.

 

So far, there aint nothing better than my M3 viewfinder. But then again in many cases there's aint nothing better than shooting digital!

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I occasionally use a Megapearls 1.33 adjustable diopter magnifier with my 50 and 90 mm lenses. I find the magnification just about right but the focus constantly needs to be readjusted. (I say occasionally because I use a 35 mm lens far more often than anything longer.)

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Hi Adam,

After trying almost every magnifier I've settled on a stacked 1.4x and Megapearls 1.35x. This makes the viewfinder all but impossible to use except for the 135mm framelines. The megapearls has a diopter adjustment making it easier to dial in the perfect diopter correction.

Add an external viewfinder to the shoe, the Leica SBOOI is a beautiful finder that is clear and unobstructed. This slows down the whole picture process and makes if difficult to see the viewfinder readouts, but with a little practice is quite workable.

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I have been using the 1.4x, and it seems to work fairly well. I am a new Leica user, and I like the fuller frame image you get with the magnifier.

I need to try the one with the adjustable diopter (did not know there was one), as I need to dial in about +0.75 to see everything with perfect sharpness.

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I occasionally use a Megapearls 1.33 adjustable diopter magnifier with my 50 and 90 mm lenses. I find the magnification just about right but the focus constantly needs to be readjusted. (I say occasionally because I use a 35 mm lens far more often than anything longer.)

 

Shouldn't the 35mm frame lines be visible/usable with a 1.33x magnifier?

I still didn't decide whether to get on or not, but my plan was to buy 1.35x and use it with 35mm and 75mm.

Do you have to move your eye to see the framelines when using a 1.33x with a 35mm lens?

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I purchased a 1.4x a few months ago for my M9 and have been using it mostly with my 50mm as that is my most used lens. I am struggling with the trade off b/n more mag and thus slightly quicker focus vs effective loss of framelines in quick street shooting situations.

 

How have others dealt with this trade-off?

 

I am leaning toward not using the mag for the 50mm or trying out a 1.25x, though im guessing that the quicker focusing results on the 50mm will be proportionally even more marginal with the 1.25x.

 

I'd be grateful for your views and experiences.

 

Best'

 

Adam

 

After I have 35mm, it's the most frequent used lens to me. I use 125x for it.

 

But with 50mm or longer, I always keep the 1.4x on it. I found it;s very convenient and helpful to have the 1x scale through view finder. I cant appreciate too much for shooting with both eyes seeing the same view.

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Shouldn't the 35mm frame lines be visible/usable with a 1.33x magnifier?

I still didn't decide whether to get on or not, but my plan was to buy 1.35x and use it with 35mm and 75mm.

Do you have to move your eye to see the framelines when using a 1.33x with a 35mm lens?

 

I like a naked viewfinder for the 35 frame. The M9 viewfinder and the 35 mm frame are perfect together, especially when used with a small 35 mm lens. I use a 35 Summicron type IV.

 

The 28 mm frame is a bit of a eye ball twirler without a magnifier and impossible with one. However, a naked viewfinder with the 28 is doable now that I no longer wear glasses.

 

The 50 frame lines are nicer with the magnifier as are the 75 and 90.

 

I use a 135 Elmarit occasionally. "Big ugly" has a built in magnifier so that the 90 mm frame lines are used rather than the 135 frame lines. This makes framing easier but the lens is a beast... in Leica land anyway.

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I occasionally use a Megapearls 1.33 adjustable diopter magnifier with my 50 and 90 mm lenses. I find the magnification just about right but the focus constantly needs to be readjusted. (I say occasionally because I use a 35 mm lens far more often than anything longer.)

 

Focus for infinity and 1m are about a quarter turn apart.

I marked both with a drilled dot ...... its aluminium based so easy to do and looks ok.

Untoward rotation is fixed by a rubber O ring ...... a bit of experimentation is needed to get a size that allows rotation but stops it moving too easily.

 

The fit of the variable part is often a bit loose and I have lost one as a result ... so an O ring is a good idea if only for safety reasons.

 

The Japan Exposures 1.35 is on all my M's and as I usually drop from 35 to 21 and then need an external VF I rarely take it off. Clarity of view and contrast is the best of all the available mags.

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As I don't have much experience with the rangefinders this confused me even more.

I didn't now that the focusing patch would have different focus/sharpness based on where you focus the lens. In other words, I don't understand why one needs to constantly adjust the viewfinder. I mean the viewfinder without any magnifier doesn't need any adjustment, right?

 

 

 

What did you do to your magnifier? It seems quite different than the one shown on the jp exposures site.

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Focus for infinity and 1m are about a quarter turn apart.

I marked both with a drilled dot ...... its aluminium based so easy to do and looks ok.

Untoward rotation is fixed by a rubber O ring ...... a bit of experimentation is needed to get a size that allows rotation but stops it moving too easily.

 

The fit of the variable part is often a bit loose and I have lost one as a result ... so an O ring is a good idea if only for safety reasons.

 

The Japan Exposures 1.35 is on all my M's and as I usually drop from 35 to 21 and then need an external VF I rarely take it off. Clarity of view and contrast is the best of all the available mags.

 

Nice, clean modification. Does the O ring keep the diopter in place other than increase resistance to loosening?

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I use the 1.4X Leica magnifier, but really only for the digital M bodies because of their default low magnification, & only w/the Noctilux & 75 Summilux wide-open.

 

I wear eyeglasses, so sympathize w/your trade-off re: framelines, but you can partially compensate for the lack of space around the framelines by simply keeping both eyes open (something I do w/the M3 & cameras w/1.0x VFs like the Nikon SP/S3 & Canon P). For me the biggest problem is ergonomic--i.e., the big bump created by the magnifier tends to get in the way.

 

I purchased a 1.4x a few months ago for my M9 and have been using it mostly with my 50mm as that is my most used lens. I am struggling with the trade off b/n more mag and thus slightly quicker focus vs effective loss of framelines in quick street shooting situations.

 

How have others dealt with this trade-off?

 

I am leaning toward not using the mag for the 50mm or trying out a 1.25x, though im guessing that the quicker focusing results on the 50mm will be proportionally even more marginal with the 1.25x.

 

I'd be grateful for your views and experiences.

 

Best'

 

Adam

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Nice, clean modification. Does the O ring keep the diopter in place other than increase resistance to loosening?

 

The mag fixes very firmly to the camera .... but the rotating part that adjusts the focus in some of these is easily rotated by accident and not only puts the focus point off, but can result in the back part completely unscrewing and vanishing. The correctly sized O ring stops any untoward rotation of the focussing bit but still allows adjustment. I bought a selection and just tried them by trial and error to find the right restriction in movement. I'll post a few more pics tomorrow...

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As I don't have much experience with the rangefinders this confused me even more.

I didn't now that the focusing patch would have different focus/sharpness based on where you focus the lens. In other words, I don't understand why one needs to constantly adjust the viewfinder. I mean the viewfinder without any magnifier doesn't need any adjustment, right?

 

 

 

What did you do to your magnifier? It seems quite different than the one shown on the jp exposures site.

 

No magnifier will give you a perfectly sharp image at infinity and 0.7m.... they are optimised usually for distance use, so when used close up it's difficult to achieve perfect focus. Also, with magnification, correction of any errors in your vison becomes more critical. With a variable diopte magnifier to can get PERFECT adjustment for distance ....... but you will find below 5m or so things will get slightly blurry - unless you are young ..... and a slight adjustment is needed to correct for this...... about a 1/4 of a turn in the Japan Exposures 1.35x case.

 

The only thing you can see different is a rubber O ring between the main body of the mag and the adjustment knurled ring....

 

The M series rangefinder is made so that virtually everything from infinity to 0.7m is in focus ...... but adding a magnifier changes the optical properties of the system ....

Edited by thighslapper
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I've used a Leica 1.4 magnifier on my M8.2 for some time and find it very helpful.

 

Working without glasses, the field of view almost exactly corresponds to the 35mm framelines and the 50mm framelines are visible.

 

This suits me fine as I tend to shoot with 35mm and longer focal length lenses.

 

Here is something about a different solution, posted by another forum member some time ago, which may be helpful - I've not tried it myself:

http://walterrxeyepiece.com/

Edited by robert_parker
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The only thing you can see different is a rubber O ring between the main body of the mag and the adjustment knurled ring....

 

I'm a bit confused as in the picture from jp the outer ring looks flat while the one in the picture above has two rings where the inner one looks as if it was inside the outer one :confused:

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I think they have changed the design since the photo you posted.

There are a lot of small independent optical workshops in Japan and Dirk at Japan Exposures has these made for him ..... possibly he is sourcing them from another maker....

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I just had cataract surgery done on both of my eyes and now that my vision is as close to perfect as it is ever going to get, wanted to revisit the 50 mm lens with a viewfinder magnifier. I'm using a MS_Mag X135 MC, an adjustable diopter magnifier which is now called Japan Exposures. You can see a few photos of one just like it posted above.

 

Using this 1.35 magnifier, the 50 mm frame fills the viewfinder. The 75 corner marks are quite visible and easy to use for composition. The 90 frame is a joy to use. However, it could just be the sensitivity of my eye - what with all of the fussing it had to deal with over the last few weeks, but I found I'd like just a bit less magnification for use with the 50. With the 1.35, I have to have my eye right up against the optic to see all of the frame clearly and I'd like just a bit more separation. Again, it is probably just my nervousness with anything touching my eyelashes at this point in my recovery, but I think I'd rather go with the Leica 1.25 magnifier now that I do not need an adjustable diopter anymore.

 

Anyone want to trade?

 

Tom

Kauai's Printmaker

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