Voigtlander or Leica Viewfinder?

[Ferry Zievinger]

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I just received the Leica VF for the X1, it is bright, clear, no problem with glasses (which I wear), the finder is well constructed, solid and does not feel cheap at all, it slides in very tightly in the flash shoe and feels/looks as one with the camera. When using the finder the green focus light is clearly noticeable even if you are looking straight through the finder.

[JanCderidder]

I even think Leica might buy it's OVF from VC .... they say "made in Japan" and are visibly/optically not any brighter than the VC ones. One argument which I contemplated was the "tightness of specs" or whatever you might call it, that the Leica would be more specked towards the X1 in terms of centering and such ... This is clearly not the case, unlike with the Oly OVF which I sent back immediately.

 

I sent the Leica OVF back as well (in Germany there is a 30 day exchange period where one can ship anything back and get full refund) after having tried the VC "round" OVF which I think is perfect and not all that expensive.

 

I have had a marking engraved on the exact center of the OVF, use single spot-AF and this works fine.

 

Best of all the VC is about 140€ cheaper than the Leica, and I think, but this is subjective, looks better on the X1

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[clair-obscur]

I'm curious, which OVF shows the frame-lines better in bright light, in particular because I wear glasses, the Leica or the Voigtländer?

[ChiILX1]

The only person who compared the two on this site said the Voigtländer had brighter lines and returned the Leica one. Everyone does say that the Leica lines are bright though.

 

The main differences between the two are

- The Leica is plastic and the Voigt is metal

- The looks

- The Leica sticks out past the back of the camera more so your nose doesn't press the LCD and you don't need to turn your head (but this isn't something that anyone who has the Voigt minds)

- The Leica has a rubber slip to protect against glasses and the Voigt doesn't, but seems to have a soft area your glasses hit that may be rubberized, and does't scratch.

- You can see the autofocus light better on the Leica one since it sticks back further. I never use the autofocus light as an indicator anyway though since the internal mechanics give away the autofocus first anyway (which you can feel and hear).

 

I personally got the Voigt because I thought it looked way better and was cheaper. I wish the back came past the camera more though.

[ChiILX1]

I got a chance to try the Leica X1 viewfinder recently in New York and compare it to the Voigtlander one I own:

 

I was very disappointed in the Leica viewfinder. It is made of plastic as opposed to the brass of the voigtlander, and functionally the bright lines are dimmer and less consistent and uniform. When I say less consistent and uniform I mean that the left side of the frame lines could be bright, and the right side could completely disappear. They were consistently dimmer than the Voigtlander but the worst part was that when you turned around in the well-lit camera shot the bright, dim, and disappeared parts of the bright lines would change. The Voigtlander one is noticeably brighter, has thicker bright lines, they are uniformly lit and never disappear, even in the darkest places I can see them dimly. Also I like the breakup of the Voigtlander's lines which make it natural and easy to find center so you can set focus and exposure consistently using the half-shutter method before framing.

 

The nice parts of the Leica were just that the eye opening was noticeably larger (maybe 25% larger) and it stuck out further from the back of the camera. So ergonomically it was easy to use.

 

With these differences it's a no-brainer to get the Voigtlander since it's half the price and feels more "like a Leica" product.

[rlade]

I used both finders and found the Voigtlander to be the brighter of the two. The Leica version seemed to have a bit more eye relief and slightly more magnification, but not enough for me to justify more than double the money. I got my Voigtlander boxed, used in mint condition off ebay for $120.00 compared to the $349 for the Leica finder. I've had no problem with the Voigtlander wearing my glasses either. Can't beat it for the money!!

[wda]

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I got a chance to try the Leica X1 viewfinder recently in New York and compare it to the Voigtlander one I own:

 

I was very disappointed in the Leica viewfinder....., and functionally the bright lines are dimmer and less consistent and uniform. When I say less consistent and uniform I mean that the left side of the frame lines could be bright, and the right side could completely disappear. ......

I think this perception has much to do with where you position your eye relative to the eyepiece. This variation can happen with many suspended reflected frames.

[ChiILX1]

I was aware of that possibility while trying it out, but that wasn't the cause

[superlunes]

I even think Leica might buy it's OVF from VC .... they say "made in Japan" and are visibly/optically not any brighter than the VC ones. One argument which I contemplated was the "tightness of specs" or whatever you might call it, that the Leica would be more specked towards the X1 in terms of centering and such ... This is clearly not the case, unlike with the Oly OVF which I sent back immediately.

 

I sent the Leica OVF back as well (in Germany there is a 30 day exchange period where one can ship anything back and get full refund) after having tried the VC "round" OVF which I think is perfect and not all that expensive.

 

I have had a marking engraved on the exact center of the OVF, use single spot-AF and this works fine.

 

Best of all the VC is about 140€ cheaper than the Leica, and I think, but this is subjective, looks better on the X1

 

 

 

Hello....

 

I work with the X1 - and love it.

without VF in bright light it is almost imposible.

I will now buy a secon X1 body and wanted to try the VC viewfinder.

I have the Leica VF as well but I missed a center point.

So your solution is great.

 

can you give me some more details of how you made it ?

 

than you so much

 

Luca

[RT_NEY]

Am I the only fool going for the X1 viewfinder?

 

X1 Viewfinder works for me....

[involuntarysoul]

i have VC round metal, leica finder and olympus VF-1 side by side. the VC and VF-1 has a lower magnification looks like 0.5x. The leica is much bigger, looks like 0.7x. However, the leica has some distortion and is much dimmer. The VC is is about 2 stops brighter and the VF-1 is about 1 stop brighter. If you wear glasses, VC is very hard to see the full frame, even with the finder touching my glasses I still cannot see all the frame, you will see the framelines but around 10% will be covered. The VF-1 is actually the most comfortable to use, it is brighter the the leica, no distortion, and you can see the full frame and a little bit outside the frame easily even when wearing glasses.