Daft idea: add-on angle viewfinder for SLR?

ChrisR

ChrisR

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As you probably know, I mostly shoot with a Pentax MX, which has a fixed prism viewfinder*. It's a great viewfinder, and most of the time I'm very happy with it. However, I occasionally find I want a low (or high) viewpoint, and at my stage of decrepitude kneeling or lying on (damp, nay wet) ground is not desirable (or even really possible... it's not the lying down, it's the getting up again :(). But it struck me that all SLRs have one thing in common: they all provide a little window to view the image through. Presumably the light from distant points comes out parallel, ie at infinity (maybe the light from closer points does, too; I don't remember a real sense of depth in my viewfinder).

Are there any add-on chimney or angle viewfinders? If you added one mirror you'd effectively get a small waist-level finder, presumably with the left-right inversion (and maybe an up-down inversion, I can't quite visualise); not ideal but workable.

I also wondered about a gadget that would clip over the VF that you could slot a smart phone into, and use it's camera to view the viewfinder. You could couple that with an app to do any inversions for you.

Either of these could probably be made (if at all) with enough flexibility to fit on a number of SLRs. I'm thinking mainly about an aid to framing for compositional purposes, rather than a focus aid. I'm guessing it would be hard to judge critical focus, and it may have to be focused by other means...

*If I had shelled out the £150 or so for a Pentax LX I could spend another Lord knows how much for a replacement chimney finder, which might do the job...
 
Lots on ebay, this one says it fits Pentax M series.
 
Musicman said:
There were earlier generation models for FD bodies and you could get a WLF for the Canon F-1.
Click to expand...

Had forgotten about that, I used to have one. Was strange using it alongside the Mamiya RB67 I had then :)
 
Pentax did make an official right angle finder which slots into the viewfinder, for the MX you need the Pentax Right Angle Finder II (which also works with the rest of the M series cameras - the original Right Angle Finder I works with the Spotmatic and K series, they changed the attachment for the M series onwards so they won't fit).
 
im sure nikon do something like that as well
 
Wow, that's amazing! The Zigview looks far, far out of reach at about 1.5 times the cost of a Pentax LX, but some of the others at the £40-£50 mark look as if they might sort of be affordable. I wasn't clear which ones reversed the image and which didn't, so some careful reading would be required before buying. Thanks very much guys. I guess this wasn't such a daft idea after all!
 
Adapt a vf from a folding camera to sit in the hotshoe hole?
 
The latest Zigview is pretty expensive, but they've had a few versions. I had a zigview 2 and it went for about 100 quid back in 2010 on the bay, so it could be worth looking at second hand versions if you are interested in it.
 
The Zigviews do seem rather rare at the moment; only various cables or new ones on the bay.

I did wonder whether they could make a cheaper version by dropping the screen and adding a wifi or usb connection to a smart phone or tablet runing an app. One connected to a retina iPad might qulify for the over-used "awesome", specially if it also had the ability to half press and release the shutter!
 
Or you could swap to a 35mm SLR that simply lets you use a waist level finder: the Pentax LX (if you can source a finder) would probably be the best bet. I don't know if you could even dispense with the finder, if the screen sits securely in place rather than being held by it.

I have a right angle finder for my OM cameras, and it's not the same thing at all as a WLF - you do need to have your eye right up to the window, rather than being able to use it at a distance. No chance of raising the camera above your head and using the screen to see where you're pointing it.
 
I used to have a waist-level finder for my Nikon F3 but to be honest never used it, so I sold it on again. Since the F3 has removable finders it was essentially little more than a shade (with a pop-up magnifier, like a TLR, to get critical focus). Downside of it obviously is that any dirt/dust gets straight onto the focusing screen which is completely exposed to the elements (not a massive problem in an F3, as the focusing screens can be removed instantly with your fingertip, no tools required, so you could even keep a separate focusing screen for when you're using the WLF, and keep your normal one nice and clean in a case.

Other benefit of this setup in an F3 is that its metering system is not in the prism (unlike F2, F4 and others), so you still get metering including aperture priority while using the WLF.
 
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When I was using an Exakta, I nearly always used the WLF as I found it easier to focus. The pentaprism had the image set at infinity (modern cameras seem to set it closer, but in the 60s I think all eye level finders had infinity focus) whereas the waist level finder had nothing - the image was as far away as the screen was from your eye. With the magnifier, my short sight became an advantage for focusing.

I'm afraid I just ignore the dust - I did deign to dust down the screen on my RZ67 last year (first time) - as it doesn't really bother me.

I take the point about the metering, as it's not something that immediately occurs to me since I don't use cameras with metering built in.
 
SRB- Griturn in Dunstable do a right angle finder for £39.95 it is supplied with a number of adapters for different cameras Ive no doubt they will be able to advise you if one of them is suitable for your camera. :D
 
@ChrisR I co-incidentally just noticed that Croydon Photo Centre actually have one of the official Pentax right angle finders in stock for £50 (quite pricey but accessories like that tend to go for quite a bit):

http://www.croydonphotocentre.co.uk/

Look for "right angle finder for ME/MX etc in case" near the bottom under Pentax K Mount
 
Thanks Samuel; might wait until (if) it reduces again, as they're going for less than that BIN on the bay.
 
Bit of a thread revival here... I bought a Pentax right angle viewfinder last year, and only used it a couple of times. Yesterday I took it to Cothay Manor with the MX and my new 100mm semi-macro lens, thinking it would help me with some low level flower shots. It does reverse the image, as per TLR; thinking about it, I suspect all optical right angle viewers would do so, and so (presumably) would the tower viewfinder on the Pentax LX. It also doesn't seem to have 100% of the main viewfinder (itself 95% of the image, IIRC).

Anyway, in practice, with a close-up, low level image of the flower and hand-held, it was pretty much unusable. You lose the contact with your nose and forehead that helps keep the camera stable, it's hard to keep your eye to the RAVF without poking the eye, all coupled with a bit of extra magnification and the reversed image, plus the need to move the camera to focus rather than focus with the lens, all made it too hard. After a few minutes I pulled it off, crouched down low, and got the shot in 10 seconds or so. Probably 3 times as long to get myself vertical again, but hey, you can't have everything!

EDIT: In summary, I think this will work well with a tripod, or perhaps with wider lens, but not macro.
 
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