Unlevel 43mm external viewfinder problem

[tobycline]

I just purchased a 43mm lens for my Mamiya 7II. I found that the

external viewfinder wasn't consistent in what it was telling me was

level. The internal "bubble sight" showed one thing, and the

internal frame lines showed another thing - ableit, off by only a

few degrees, but enough to be annoying, especially for the price

paid.

 

I sent it back to the shop and they said over the phone that they

were looking through my finder and two others and they ALL were the

same! When the bubble was centered, the frame lines leaned left.

They said that it must be a manufacturing problem and they get a lot

of complaints on this. Has anyone else seen this? What can I do?

[arthur_gottschalk]

That's funny. My set-up seems to lean to the right. But this has got to be an insignificant matter. The external viewfinder will be aproximate at best, just as it is on the Hasselblad SWC. I'd go with the bubble level as that should keep everything perpendicular. And if you're making prints, framing can be easily adjusted in the darkroom.

[tobycline]

You are right that it is not very significant in its amount of "leaning", and that with prints, some cropping would fix the issue, but is that what we should expect for paying between 1800 and 2500 bucks for a new lens? Couldn't Mamiya be a little more accurate? I know that the finder is just a guide for our own window of creativity, but why not at least get the frames lines to be right level? Anyone else have this problem?

[wharridge]

Since you haven't had any satisfaction going to the dealer, why not complain directly to Mamiya (or their distributor/agent) ?

[trevor_littlewood]

I come across a similar problem using Nikon bodies.

 

I use a hotshoe spirit level with which I arrange lets say an FM2 body horizontally - fore/aft and left/right. Then without moving the Manfrotto tripod in any way, I'll change to another FM2 or my F801S to find that neither of them are shown by the s. level to be level! The Manfrotto tripod itself has a centre bubble in the head and that rarely agrees with the s. level on a camera.

 

Incidentally one of my major gripes about the Bronica ETRSi system is that the camera has no hot shoe for the placement of my s. level. I know the speedgrip has one but as I invariably shoot from a tripod I don't use one.

 

Trevor Littlewood.