digicam with accessory viewfinder - possible?

mojones

Hi,

So I'm looking at getting a digicam for street/lightweight shooting. I'm used to a DSLR, so at the moment I'm favouring the sony DSC-V3, as it has a reputation for low shutter lag. Trouble is, I don't like using an LCD and the optical viewfinder looks poor. Is there any reason I can't just buy a Voigtlander 50mm viewfinder, stick it in the hotshoe, zoom the lens to 50mm and snap away? Has anyone done this?

Any insights from rangefinder-types much appreciated.

mojones

cmason

mojones wrote:

Hi,

So I'm looking at getting a digicam for street/lightweight shooting. I'm used to a DSLR, so at the moment I'm favouring the sony DSC-V3, as it has a reputation for low shutter lag. Trouble is, I don't like using an LCD and the optical viewfinder looks poor. Is there any reason I can't just buy a Voigtlander 50mm viewfinder, stick it in the hotshoe, zoom the lens to 50mm and snap away? Has anyone done this?

Any insights from rangefinder-types much appreciated.

mojones

Would that accessory viewfinder at 50mm represent the same FOV as the 50mm on the Sony lens? I suspect not, and you would likely have to do extensive testing to get the focal pts to match up.

mojones

cmason wrote:

Would that accessory viewfinder at 50mm represent the same FOV as the 50mm on the Sony lens? I suspect not, and you would likely have to do extensive testing to get the focal pts to match up.

My understanding (which is sketchy at best!) is that accessory viewfinders have a slightly smaller field of view than the lens that they're meant to be used with, to allow for the fact that the effective focal length is longer when focussing on a close object. Presumably this is so that, even when focussing close, you're guaranteed to get everything in the frame - when focussed at infinity, you just get a bit more.

E.g. this site gives a 40 degree (diag) FOV for a 50mm viewfinder, versus 46 degrees for a 50mm lens on 35mm film.

So if I zoom the sony lens to, say, 60mm in 35mm terms, it should have roughly the same FOV as the viewfinder.


If any of this sounds incorrect, it probably is - this is just what I've been able to pick up from my reading on the web. Anyone who can confirm or correct what I'm saying will be much appreciated!

mj