CV Finders: those plastic feet break- a replacement?

In three years of regular shooting and abuse, I have broken the plastic feet off of two out of

my three CV plastic viewfinders. They are great optically, but after a few hundred mounts/

dismounts, one side or the other tends to break off, leaving them unstable at best. There has to

be a better solution besides ponying up another $150 for a new finder. So recently I pulled a

broken finder apart with a jewler's screwdriver and found a guy with a machine shop. I showed

him the parts, explained the situation, and asked if he could make a foot out of metal

for me. After a couple of weeks, he showed me one made out of brass. It works like a charm.

Now he's working on an offset one, to

put the finder more directly over the lens mount.<p>My question is: Are any of you interested in

such a thing? I'm sure a few of you have broken the feet off your CV plastic finders- I've seen

threads to that effect before. My friend can make them out of either brass or aluminum, or

probably just about any other metal you'd like. He has the measurements all worked out, and the

first two done, so making more is fairly easy. Anybody interested? Shoot me an email, and we'll

see if it's worth going forward on a larger than one-off scale. adailingerATyahooDOTcom. Thanks.

Hey,

 

show us some photos of the finished product. Also, how much did he charge you? I'm sure some would be interested.

 

Cheers,

Shakil

Yes. But same provisos as above. Brass would be nice.

i would need one as one of my viewfinder broke off at the edge...

let me know if you decide to proceed...

I would be interested in two, one for each CV finder I own, assuming good quality and reasonable price. Thanks. Mike F

"There has to be a better solution besides ponying up another $150 for a new finder."

 

Before my little Atlas crashed I hooked up the milling attachment and spent several hours making a foot for one of my VF's (I rarely use them on the camera anymore) to replace the busted plastic abortion. It took me three hours for the first one and half that for the second. Factoring in time and amortization of my tools I figured I could sell them at cost for about $100 apiece after installation. Then I got smart, went over to the local camera shop and dug around in their junk box and found several defunct items that had salvageable accessory feet for nominal charge. I still had to drill new holes to mount them. When I finally got through it occurred to me that mounting such impedimenta on a camera was a PITA at best and the old trick of learning the field of the lens and composing in the mind was a better solution to the problem. Nevertheless, salvage is much less cost sensitive than custom machining. Actually a good machine shop with a computer driven mill could turn them out a lot cheaper in quantity, but I still doubt the venture would be cost effective!

Broke mine last year, emailed Stephen Gandy. His reponse; "I don't sell parts."

 

Had an antique shoe mounted flashbulb reflector, the kind that opens out like a fan. Sad to see it go, it looked cute over the Samoca on my bookshelf, but it had a metal shoe. So: a tiny Titanium drill bit, a tiny Phillips, some screws from a glasses repair kit, and Bob's yer uncle.

 

How'd I break it? I was sitting in a chair, and it fell off my lap. Now that's what I call "build quality"!

From The Graduate:

 

I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

 

Yes, sir.

 

Are you listening?

 

Yes, I am.

 

Plastics.

"Plastics." LOL.<p>%?&@ing plastics.

One of these days, someone will invent a camera that lets you compose and focus right through the lens, instead of using auxiliary finders.

"One of these days, someone will invent a camera that lets you compose and focus

right through the lens, instead of using auxiliary finders."<p>Yeah, but it'll have

three fatal flaws: 1) it'll have to have a mirror and prism system to do that, which will

slow it down, weigh it down, and require more complex lenses 2) the lenses will have

to project across the extra space for that thing, which will reduce it's overall optical

performance vs. projecting directly onto the image plane and 3) you'll be blind when

looking through such a camera at the most important moment- when you are making

a picture. <p>No thanks, I'll deal with fixing finder feet for my wide angles.

It is important to ensure that the metal used in the foot is softer than the camera shoe, that is why plastic is often used.

There are some plastics that are strong enough to withstand the stresses of camera use (and sometimes, abuse) but these are rarely used in such items. It should be obvious that the plastic used for the housing of the VF isn't up to such stress. It is purely a matter of cheapening an already expensive item just to save a small part of the production cost. It is the triumph of the bean counters over the producers.

The relative cheapness of one plastic or another doesn't seem the issue.

 

We'd all pay $25 more per finder if we were given a choice between junque and excellence...Leica's got the same blind spot as CV in this respect.

 

That flashgun foot idea seems the answer.

Couple of my older flashguns (Vivitar 253 comes to mind) have a lever lock on the accessory shoe foot, letting the flash head slide in easily and then lock solidly. Maybe these cvan be adapted; most camera shops have buckets full of discarded peanut flashes.