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Leica Wide Universal Viewfinder


intex

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Worth repeating here that the universal finder is very nice to use - excellent eye comfort...

 

The old cylindrical universal finder is close to useless. The field is extremely fuzzy around the outer edges, meaning that not only is it difficult to delimit the field, but also to level the camera properly -- disastrous with wide angles.

 

Leica seem to have taken leave of their practical reason. It is high time for them to bring out a line of single length bright frame finders again -- and a reasonable 16 mm prime lens to go with them, before Cosina does it!

 

The old man from the Age of Grump

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The old cylindrical universal finder is close to useless. The field is extremely fuzzy around the outer edges, meaning that not only is it difficult to delimit the field, but also to level the camera properly -- disastrous with wide angles.

 

Leica seem to have taken leave of their practical reason. It is high time for them to bring out a line of single length bright frame finders again -- and a reasonable 16 mm prime lens to go with them, before Cosina does it!

 

The old man from the Age of Grump

 

Lars

 

I must wonder if you have a defective copy as mine is as sharp and crisp as I could ever want. The reason this finder is so expensive is that it is an apo corrected unit and i believe also has an aspheric element.

 

I hope we are talking about the same finder? I am referring to the one in my post above which is shown as a photo in Phillip Otto's post, also above.

 

cheers

Woody

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I am probably wrong about this but it would appear that the new universal finder is intended for use with the right eye? If this is true it is a problem for me because I can't seem to shoot with the right eye as I have been left eyed for the past 60 years!

 

Woody

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If you're buying a WATE, I'd definitely recommend you buy the kit because there's a useful saving and I prefer this finder to the zooming one. The spirit level is great. If you're getting on with the 30% offer, it's a no-brainer because you get 30% off the already discounted kit price.

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The old cylindrical universal finder is close to useless. The field is extremely fuzzy around the outer edges, meaning that not only is it difficult to delimit the field, but also to level the camera properly -- disastrous with wide angles.

 

Leica seem to have taken leave of their practical reason. It is high time for them to bring out a line of single length bright frame finders again -- and a reasonable 16 mm prime lens to go with them, before Cosina does it!

 

The old man from the Age of Grump

 

I agree. Had one, sold it. I thought that I would kill a few birds with one stone by getting it, but found it easier to kill the birds one by one.... :)

 

The main problem is lack of bright line and as Lars mentions, unsharp edges. Actually, it is not the optics that are unsharp, rather the frame edge; due to I guess the diopter set up of the finder. It is quite difficult to line up the picture horizontally with no sharp reference point in the finder.

 

Jan

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Some days ago I looked through both viewfinders at a Leica presentation.

My findings:

The new finder is a little less bright than the 21/24/28 finder.

I also (like others here) found that the 21/24/28-finder has the disadvantage of somewhat fuzzy "frame".

In this regard I prefered the new universal finder with the "real" framlines and the posibility to see whats going on outside the frame.

But: if you use the finder only on the M8, why bother with a finder which is made for a widest view of 16mm? Its like buying a 0.58-MP and using it just with 50 and 90mm.

(Would be funny if the 1.25 would fit on the univeral finder...does it?)

PersonalIy I might first try to get along with the Ricoh 21-28-finder. (So far I dont have the WATE anyways, but only 15 and 21mm primes)

The Zeiss 21/25 finder has a great reputation as well.

Regards, Tom

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But: if you use the finder only on the M8, why bother with a finder which is made for a widest view of 16mm?

 

That's easy, if you buy a CV 12, the 16mm setting will be just perfect.

 

Would be funny if the 1.25 would fit on the univeral finder...does it?

 

No, the eyepiece is threaded on the outside, not the inside...

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Woody, I took a serious look at one of these 21-24-28 finders in the store, but I also found it quite fuzzy. In fact, I looked at a series of viewfinders, all second-hand Leica ones, and then a new copy of this, and although I was ready to buy, I walked out with nothing. They almost all had very weak corners, and those that didn't had weak centres! I was quite disappointed. My CV15 finder is better, so I will probably just end up getting the 21mm CV finder.

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Well, there's a thing. Just compared the Universal Finder set to the 16 and the finder which came with the CV 15mm which cost (by comparison to the WATE) next to nothing. The CV finder is much brighter and although it doesn't have frames and a fuzzy edge, it's a rather better view.

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This might sound like a weird suggestion, coming from my years of using crappy cameras, but since you can see the M8 results instantly since it's digital, why not just get used to how much area on the WATE is outside the internal M8 viewfinder, and not use the universal one at all. It looks HUGE!

 

http://www.snapshotartifact.org/

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