Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The best VF for the LTM camers is possibly the Soviet/Post-Soviet clone of the Carl Zeiss Jena 436/70 viewfinder. This provides 28mm, 25mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm fields of view. The later models have coated optics and are MUCH more useable than the Imarect as they are both lighter and smaller and as they provide a magnified image. (The VIDOM/Imarect was possiibly the dumbest design to ever emenate from Ernst Leitz!) These are often available on eBay for under $100. I have several but generally use a Carl Zeiss Jena original which came with my IIIc all those years back. It has had one cleaning in decades and still works wonderfully. Other worthy multiframe VF were made by TEWE and Astro in Germany and by Nikon in Japan. I have a small collection of these and most, other than the Imarect, are quite pleasant to use. For solid single-focal-length use, I'd stick to the ones made by Zeiss or Leitz, though you will pay some hefty freight for both. The Soviets also made single-focal-length VF in 20mm, 35mm, 85mm, and 135mm lengths: these are quite nice but are becoming a bit hard to find today, as KMZ ceased production of all of these some years back and Great Rostov is no longer producing its line of 35mm and 85mm VF to my knowledge. I recall paying $35 on eBay for my last purchase, an 85mm KMZ VF. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!