Zeiss 25mm and no external viewfinder

[pelagia]

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Please, anybody who has experience with 25mm ZM on the M9. How does the angle of view of this lens correspond to the outer frame of the camera viewfinder. Is this lens usable without external viewfinder?

 

Tom

[daniel buck]

have you ever shot with a 28mm? On my M9, 28mm goes beyond the 28mm frame markers, so my guess is that 25mm would be outside of your view all together.

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[bbijl]

I have de zeiss 25 on an M9. I do not work with an external viewfinder. I think it is useable without one.

[Per P.]

Try without, then buy a viewfinder if it doesn't work for you. A search of the forum would tell you that some people find it works just fine and others wouldn't dream of being without the viewfinder. The same goes for using a 24mm lens.

 

While you're at it, yet another search will tell you that, should you decide you need a viewfinder, all available products have their fans. As for myself I tried without and can get by if in a hurry. But I bought the Voigtlaender finder and it improves matters.

[lars_bergquist]

It is easier to get by without a fitting finder, the shorter the focal length is. The prime example is my 16mm Olympus OM semi fisheye, which has a diagonal image angle of 180°, and a horizontal one of appr. 150. (I can use it on my M9 with a Novoflex adapter.) Here, and also with a 18mm lens, the finder is really for levelling the camera. With 18mm, I know that 45° to the left and to the right is covered. But I would never shoot even a 35mm lens "from the hip" if I could avoid it.

 

With 24/25mm I really do feel the need to compose the image within a well defined rectangle. So the external finder is always on the camera. And I am old enough to remember the days when all focal lengths except the standard one, needed one! And when the rangefinder and the finder used different eyepieces! So I am not fazed by the external finder. Try it – you will find it bright and welcoming.

 

The old man from the Age of the SBLOO

[likalar]

Good advice to try shooting without it. And you can always peek at the screen to see if you're getting what you expected. Just don't tell anyone. ;-)

 

Larry

[Jerry_R]

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BTW:

- what is sense of x0.85 magnifier? To show all that is in viewfinder to people who wear glasses?

[Bill W]

I have the 24 and have never seen the need for an external viewfinder. By taking a few test shots I figure out just what is captured and go from there. Never been fan of the external finders but that is just me. Others may really like them.

[lars_bergquist]

Yes, let's go all the way and shoot with our eyes shut. Don't look, it justs stifles innovation. Gosh, did I really take a picture of that lovely dog po?

 

We could even stop looking at the pictures and call it "gestural photography".

 

The unreconstructed old man from the Age of the SBLOO

[pelagia]

Thank you everybody for answering, even if something was said eyes closed

 

The good recommendation which I got, was buying the ZM 25mm and seeing if it works without ExtVF. I am a bit of a "reportage" type photographer and therefore using ExtVF seems inconvenient for me. I agree that for landscape/cityscape/still-life/portrait it might be inevitable to use one. But amongst people in a quickly changing situation I would avoid ExtVF.

 

Tom

[lars_bergquist]

Zone focus and compose by external viewfinder. That's faster than anything else. I do that quite a bit in real mano a mano situations. As the old press photogs used to say, "f:8 and be there".

 

The old man

[photolandscape]

Please, anybody who has experience with 25mm ZM on the M9. How does the angle of view of this lens correspond to the outer frame of the camera viewfinder. Is this lens usable without external viewfinder?

 

Tom

 

I tried using my Zeiss 25mm without an external viewfinder, but it was too hard to compose/frame shots. So I opted for a 25mm CV external, and it worked fine. It's affordable, very bright.

[earleygallery]

What am I missing? The M9 has a widest frameline for the 28mm lens. If you use a 24mm lens then yes, you need a viewfinder if you intend to frame accurately.

 

If you're shooting from the hip then fair enough, but it's hit and miss of course and you may as well just use a 28mm lens or go wider still and get a 15mm lens to make sure you get your intended subject within the frame.

 

Sorry, but I just don't see why people are so intent on making life hard for themselves.

[pelagia]

What am I missing? The M9 has a widest frameline for the 28mm lens.

 

James, I suppose you are missing the point of my question. Maybe I was not clear. I know what is the widest FRAMELINE of M9. But do you agree that there is more space in the viewfinder behind the 28 frameline. I am interested how the WHOLE viewfinder coverage area corresponds to the 25mm lens coverage. By answering this simple thing you can make my life easier, thank you for your concern.

 

Tom

[earleygallery]

Well the simple answer is that if it covered the 25mm field of view Leica would have added the 25mm frame lines.

 

As I said before, one can guess, but I just don't see the point, apart from the odd hip shot. Buy a viewfinder.

[DennisK]

For what it's worth: I tried to shoot the 24 Summilux without an external finder and didn't like it due to the sloppy framing. You can roughly see the whole fov through the vf but not all at once - you have to peek around. I know I wouldn't want to do it again. 28mm is the widest focal langth i can comfortably use without a finder.

[Double Negative]

I have de zeiss 25 on an M9. I do not work with an external viewfinder. I think it is useable without one.

 

Same here. Just give it a little extra beyond what you see in the VF and go for it.

 

I don't care for external VFs, and they're also pricey for a decent one. This is about as wide as you can "comfortably" go without one, provided you don't wear glasses.

[Dougg]

James, I suppose you are missing the point of my question. Maybe I was not clear. I know what is the widest FRAMELINE of M9. But do you agree that there is more space in the viewfinder behind the 28 frameline. I am interested how the WHOLE viewfinder coverage area corresponds to the 25mm lens coverage. By answering this simple thing you can make my life easier, thank you for your concern.

 

Tom

 

What seems clear to me is that opinions vary with regard to how much imprecision one is willing to accept, and on one's fondness for external viewfinders. In the instance of 24/25mm on an M9, it's out of my comfort zone without the external viewfinder. I can barely see even the whole 28 frame much less anything outside it (without glasses). It's ok on the Minolta CLE which has much more area outside its 28 framelines, and also ok (45mm now) on a Bronica RF645, but it's sloppy and I don't like how you lose parallax compensation. YMMV!

[Archiver]

The Zeiss 25mm FoV goes way outside the M9's viewfinder, but if you can estimate the slippage, it can be acceptable. I regularly shoot the 25mm without the external VF, but I am not after precise framing.

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[Your Old Dog]

I just got a 24mm Elmarit off ebay. It is about 10% wider on both sides of my finder. It's a lens that I don't plan on needing to see the full frame. I will just generally point it at the intended subject and work by feel. I also rarely print all of any shot I take. I always do some cropping here and there to fine tune a shot. If I were using it for technical purposes I would likely get a proper finder for it.