Viewfinder Coverage Downgrade?

I do a lot of tight framing of shots within the viewfinder.

 

I'm starting to find that I'm cutting my images too close. When I'm

burning thru lot of film, I sometimes clip something important. Also

while enlarging images, I often can't get a good 8x10 to include all

the elements of the picture I want, because there isn't enough extra

border.

 

I'm hoping to upgrade soon to an F5, with 100% coverage, and I think

that will make the problem even more serious.

 

Is there a way to not have 100% coverage, so that stuff I'm not seeing

might make up for my tight framing? Is there a focus screen that can be

'masked' or maybe have rectangles etched to show me standard 8x10

ratios on the screen (like TV cameras have 'viewing area' marks)?

 

Or do I just need to learn step my zoom back before every shot?

Try to find a lab that will print a 8x12-inch enlargement. The crop needed for 35mm to 8x10-inch leaves a portion of the negative 'not useable' with most machines. Or you can shoot the image less tight.

Unless you have some specific need for the F5, I would suggest the F100 anyway. It's not got a 100% viewfinder but it's an excellent camera for the money and IMO a better one than the F5 in some ways. I find it more responsive.

Experiences will vary, but if you haven't used the F100, I suggest checking them out at a store and seeing what specs you really need.

You can always use the same ultra-low-tech trick I used on an

Exakta. Take the screen out and mark on it with a pencil.

I drew lines 3mm from each edge, giving a 24x30 rectangle, which

enlarges perfectly to 8x10. OK, do this with

a spare screen if you prefer. If you can find printer's pica

tape, it would make a nice neat way of marking the finder.

Lyle,

 

You could put a mask in the F5 above the viewing screen and below the finder but you can�t reasonably do that with the F100. I�ve done this in an F2 but never had a reason to do it in the F5. I�d want the mask to fit inside the frame of the viewing screen as I think the finder is a tight fit. The top side of the F5 viewing screen is a glass condenser lens whereas the bottom and all of the F100 screen is optical resin or something similar. You could probably mark the F5 screen on the top with a sharpie and later remove it with alcohol and a nearly dry Q-Tip using a rolling motion. The price of a replacement EC-B screen is $94.95 as I recall and a plain B screen is $43.50 (USD). I wouldn�t I try the Sharpie thing with the EC-B. YMMV

 

If you make your own prints you can file your negative carriers. If you are having this problem with machine made prints it�s a common problem. I�m so used to printing with filed carriers that I get caught from time to time with machine made prints. Scanning your negatives and slides and having digital prints made by a Noritsu or Frontier might be another solution. If you shoot for an editor you might just want to learn to shoot with enough room for him/her to crop as they please.

 

Regards,

It could be a problem with minilab prints .. they don't print even nearly the whole frame. When you make enlargements, you can specify that you want the whole image printed, that way you'll get something like 6.7x10 for the final size.

 

David Rosen of rec.photo used to have markings in the focusing screen to make for extra space at the borders. You could do a similar thing, or if you get a camera with interchangeable viewfinders, you can mask it inside maybe.

 

Carl, in what way do you find the F5 less responsive than the F100? The F100's AF is just a tad faster in some cases (basically this is so small that you need to measure it to notice it) but again after focusing & lock, the f5 actually fires the shutter quicker than the F100 after you press the button all the way ...