Re: [Leica] Which M6?

["Dante A. Stella" <dante@umich.edu>]

Canon did the 1:1 for 35mm in the P.  It was ok, but the eye relief is the
killer problem.  You can see the lines ok without glasses, but with... it was
every man for himself.  To do this right, you would need to make the  finder
windows reeaaally big to pull it off properly.  The P had a pretty big set of
windows, I believe as big as the Bessa has now.

It would be probably a good idea for Bessa in terms of focusing accuracy, but to
make any more lenses usable a quantum leap in magnification would also have to
go with a quantum leap in real BL.

The problem with the 1:1 idea, if there is one, is that the natural evolution of
designs showed it to be a dead-end.  The M2, since it had a completely different
finder and top plate, would have been the logical place for this to be done.
Canon dropped the P's 1:1 finder and went to a 0.8x in the 7 and 7s.   Leica
declined to even go as high as 0.91x in the M6J/M6HM, which means that there was
some reason, practical or economic, to forget about 1:1.  Only Konshiroku
continued to use 1:1 magnification at all, and that was in the IIIA and IIIM
rangefinder cameras (and what finders those were!).  The Soviets had roughly 1:1
in the later Zorkis.  It may be that a certain amount of empty space around the
framelines is desirable.  Certainly it would seem harder to make a good
wide-angle finder.

Personally, I find low-mag finders easier on my eyes than high for the wideangle
stuff.  You can wear sunglasses or real glasses.  The shooting with both eyes
open thing is appealing for a 50mm lens, but its usefulness really depends on
whether your mind filters out the framelines and RF spot.  The Zeiss Kontur is a
fundamentally different design for a reason - overcoming the mental filtering --
although (wheels turning) you could tape your M3's VF window and RF window,
leaving only the illuminator open and do the same thing (which, by the way,
actually works).




TTAbrahams@aol.com wrote:

> Ken. I have talked with Mr Kobyashi of Cosina about the idea for a 1:1
> finder. He is mulling over the technical difficulties and estethics of the
> camera body for that. He was the one who said " Yes, it is possible to do one
> for the 50 frame, but I also think that one for the 35 frame would be nice!".
> I think the term. 35 1:1 finder "being nice" is a great understatement. I for
> one would get a couple of those bodies as soon as they were made available!
> Can you imagine a high speed 35/1,4 ASPH on a body with a 1:1 finder! I would
> not care if there were any other frames available. It would be a dedicated
> body. In the meantime I am having a great deal of fun shooting with my
> Bessa-T and the 28/1,9 and the 21/4. I will post my information on this stuff
> on the 15/3 as there is a "Official Release" date on this stuff.
>  Have to go out and finish an other 5-6 rolls of Fuji ACROS while there still
> is light.
> All the best,
> Tom A