I have one of the older Linhof Universal optical viewfinders (telescoping type to 90mm)

Question - on the front elemnt there are two rectangles - the larger that is formed by the silvering and a smaller outline within that.

Which is the correct one to use for the a field of view - the inner or the outer?

thanks

tim

-- Tim Atherton (tim@KairosPhoto.com), May 17, 2002

Answers

Outer for 4x5, and inner for 6x9.

-- Chris Ellinger (chris@ellingerphoto.com), May 17, 2002.

I too have one of the Linhof finders. Mine is evidently a "newer" one in that the scales are around the barrel rather than on the bottom as is the case with the older. Mine is not very new though from the look of it and there are no serial numbers so who knows?

My question is: how accurate is supposed to be? Mine is marked 75 mm to 360 mm but the actual view seen by looking through it is narrower than the corresponding lens on my 4x5. Therefore, it has an actual range of 90mm to 450mm. E.g., I have to set the gadget to 75mm to see as much as my 90mm lens sees. 130 = actual 150, etc. The lenses I own happen to fall in the range of 90 to 450 so I have nothing to quibble about. Except that as much as these things cost, they should be dead on and play a tune as well.

So far I see no advantage of my ancient square piece of Zone VI plastic with a 4:5 hole in it. Touching it to the brim of my baseball cap is exactly the 300 mm view, adding three fingers equals 450 mm, etc. Fits in my shirt pocket too.

But if I sell mine on Ebay, then I take it all back!

-- John Hennessy (northbayassociates@earthlink.net), May 17, 2002.

Your view through the finder (compared to the view on the ground glass), makes a difference depending on how close you are to the subject. It seems that these work best/are most accurate when you are focused on infinity. At least that is my experience with them.

-- Matthew Hoag (hoagm@bostonpizza.com), May 17, 2002.

"I too have one of the Linhof finders. Mine is evidently a "newer" one in that the scales are around the barrel rather than on the bottom as is the case with the older. Mine is not very new though from the look of it and there are no serial numbers so who knows? "

I believe you called me yesterday and you said yours has the knurled metal rings rather then the black rubber covered rings.

As I told you while you have the current version of the finder you have a very early version at least 20 years old.

While you are the first ever to complain of this problem to us directly it is old enough that it needs service.

Did you check with Marflex yet?

As an aside we have also made specially modified versions with special settings for people like Leitx-Wilde for their metric camera. While it is extremely unlikely you might have something that has been modified. But age and wear is more likely.

-- Bob Salomon (bob@hpmarketingcorp.com), May 17, 2002.