peter_kim2 Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 I have seen several medium format SLR's with waistlevel finders such has the Pentax 67 and the Pentacon/Kiev but does anyone know of any 35mm SLR's that have a pop-up wasit level finder? Are these pretty hard to find or expensive? I like the feel of my TLR with a waist level and it seems like it would be a great street photograghy camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
douglas_green1 Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 Most of your older pro-class cameras had interchangeable finders, and offerred a waist-level finder. Only a few of these retained the metering operation with the WL finder though. These include: Pentax LX, Nikon F3, F4, and F5. Canon F1 and F-1n Among those that sacrificed the metering (it was in the Prism finder) are: Nikon F and F2, Minolta XK & XK Motor, Topcon Super D & DM. A couple of notes of caution, however: Other than the Nikons and Canons, the finders will be very hard to find. Also, because the 35mm frame is so much smaller than the 6x6 frame, WL viewing is nowhere near as easy or useful in 35mm as it is with a Medium Format camera. I used to have a WL finder for my Nikon F2, but I never used it except on a copy stand, so I sold it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awahlster Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 Exacta made a whole bunch of their SLR's with Waist level finders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinconnery Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 Alas, they're pretty rare in the modern autofocus, autoexposure cameras; it's much harder to engineer for that with interchangable finders.<p> My older Canon F-1 was almost always used with their SpeedFinder, THE best viewfinder I've ever worked with. It gave a large view with the eye as much as an inch from the viewfinder, and could be rotated on-the-fly from waist-level to eye-level.<p> They're readily available used, as are the F-1's, but they lack many of the modern conveniences. (I had to give mine up to gain autofocus, when my eyes stopped focusing properly.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stemked Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 I had an old East German Practica (X3?) that had one, currently my only 35mm camera with a waste level viewer is a Pentax LX. It's a nice feature to have from time to time. However, because the viewing area is so much smaller than your TLR you'll likely find it a somewhat more challanging activity. For that reason I don't use the waste level finder a lot myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_n1664876959 Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 The Exakta VX IIa and III SLRs also had waist-level finders. Several currently on sale on the auction site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_n1664876959 Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 Sorry Mark, didn't see your earlier Exakta post - dithered too long over mine... ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Currie Posted March 16, 2004 Share Posted March 16, 2004 If we're rummaging in the vintage bins, we mustn't forget the Miranda F, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markci Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 There's a reason most cameras with waist-level finders are square format (ie 6x6). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_h._hartman Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Don�t forget the beautiful 6x high magnification finders for the Nikon F series. These are basically a 50mm f/2.0 lens looking down on the viewing screen. The image is large and very bright. The models are DW-2, DW-4, DW-21 and DW-31. They were made for the F2, F3 and F4 and the DW-31 is still made for the F5. I�m pretty sure a 5x or 6x finder was made for the Canon F1 and a 5x for the Pentax LX. I find the regular waist level finders for 35mm cameras quite useless. The 5x and 6x finders are very useful for macro, copy, low level, telephoto, astral or anywhere that high magnification and precise focus is needed. They are great with the Nikon M screen where focusing is done on the aerial image. Because of the bright finder and bright screen accurate focus can be achieved with slow macro setups at working aperture. The M screen has no matte focus surface, only a clear Fresnel lens and a condenser. There is a double cross hair and a millimeter reticule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_elek Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Praktica has the FX, FX2 and FX3 that used waist-level finders. Of the bunch, I find the FX3 to be a nice little camera. And as mentioned, Nikon offered waist-level finders for its SLRs. Among modern-day cameras, the Rolleiflex SL2002 and SL3000 (I think I have the model numbers correct, but possibly not) had built-in waist-level finders, as I remember it. However, also as mentioned, the tiny size of the 35mm frame makes the waist-level finder a bit of a pain to use in the real world for those of us who don't have "bionic man" type vision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_h._hartman Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Just in case I didn�t make it clear the 6x finders for Nikon F Series cameras and 5x and 6x finders Pentax LX and Canon F1 give a view that is 5 or 6 times larger than a simple waist level finder. The appearance of a 6x finder is that of a 6x9 inch ground glass that is very bright. This is what I meant by, "The image is large and very bright." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael_moon2 Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 And Rollei made a whole pro family of 35 mm SLRs that looked like scaled-down 600x series. The original was the 2000. I guess they were pricey for what you got and used prices are up there. Hard to find the lenses, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sknowles Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Minolta's XK (mid-late 1970's) and XK-motordrive version came with interchangeable viewfinders and focusing screens. Besides the AE and AE-S finder for metering, they made the non-meter prism finder, waist-level finder and high magnification (also waist level) finder. You can still find excellent condition XK's through the variety of on-line Web sites (Ebay, KEH, etc.). The XK has a lot of features comparable to the other highend models of that era, see: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/minoltaxk/index.htm You have to really want to use the camera and its features since the bodies, parts and extras aren't cheap anymore. There is an excellent group on Yahoo specifically for the XK and its variants. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winfried_buechsenschuetz1 Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 Not exactly a waist level finder but the Ricoh TLS401 had two viewfinder eyepieces: one in 'normal' viewing position and one which could serve as a 90 deg. viewfinder on top of the prism housing. A waist level finder does not make much sense on a 35mm camera since the image on the screen is not visible very good when holding it one or two feet away from your eyes. For focussing you will have to keep the screen close to your eyes and use a loupe anyway - and this is not very comfortable with a pop up waistlevel finder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h._p. Posted March 17, 2004 Share Posted March 17, 2004 I find that simply removing the pentaprism from my Nikon F gives me an adequately bright image for composing, even in bright sunlight. When I still had my F4s the same was equally true. My advice would be to try it and see if you like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
furcafe Posted March 22, 2004 Share Posted March 22, 2004 Zeiss Ikon's Contarex Special also had an optional waist-level finder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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