Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The bright line frames of the Leica M cameras are designed to show the picture area of a standard mounted slide (23mm x 35mm) at O.7 meter. This corresponds to about 93% of the full negative. As you focus further away, less of the picture area is included within the frame lines. With a 50mm lens focussed at 2.0 meters, the outer edges of the bright line frames show the picture area. When the 50mm lens is focussed at infinity the picture area is approximately the outer edges of the bright line plus three frame line widths all around. Leica decided it was better to be surprised by more than dismayed by less. Now if PopPhoto measures viewfinder coverage at infinity, then 77% sounds pretty accurate. This information comes from the book by Gunter Osterloh, Leica M, Advanced School of Photography. John Collier Mr. Meier wrote: > That Pop Photo article that is so glowing about the M6 TTL and lenses has a > nasty little sidebar (p. 74) that says the .85 M6's viewfinder frames show > only 79% percent of the on-film picture area, and that the M6 shows only > 77%! That means there will be almost a third more area on the negative than > what the vf frame is showing. Can it possibly be that bad? Couldn't Leica > make a viewfinder that's a little more precise than just 77%?