>About large format cameras, I think the worst part is trying
>to understand your composition when your windpipe is choking
>you from trying to mimic a vulture. How did they do it? I
>think if I had a 4x5 I'd add an auxilliary Leica/Canon
>viewfinder to show a preview.
My Crown Graphic has two other "viewfinders". One is the "speed
finder" which is a wireframe that rises out of the top of things
kinda like the restless souls coming out of the ground in
"Ghost". It is essentially worthless, but I guess it worked
well for a few sports photograhers.
The second finder is a little optical finder attached to the
top. As you focus the camera it does actually adjust for
parralax. Slick. Unfortunately the framing is only moderately
accurate. As a focusing aid, there is a rangefinder which is
cammed in with the focus rail and the optical finder.
Oh, a cool feature is the built-in light in the rangefinder. At
night, you press the button and it casts two dots of light out
through the rangefinder lenses. Just line the dots up and it's
in focus. Of course, you can't find batteries or lightbulbs
anymore... :(
As far medium format is concerned--the Pentax 645NII has a very
nice, bright and big viewfinder image. It and the Contax have
the best viewfinders in the medium format business. The Mamiya
645-AF is worthless in comparison.
As far as digital viewfinders is concerned--the biggest problem
remains with delay. There will always be a processing delay
with CCD to digital display. An optical viewfinder shows
"real-time". The manufacturers will eventually get around that
by actually buffering images in memory and allowing an
adjustable user-delay. In otherwords, if there is a 150ms delay
between input and display output, the when you press the shutter
it will store the image taken from the CCD 150ms earlier. This
would only function in "sports" mode where timing is of essence
and shutter speeds are high.
For those of you considering trying out 4x5, I would highly
recommend trying out a Crown or Speed Graphic. They are
inexpensive, reliable, tough as a brick, and very usuable in
most any situation. For ground-glass focusing, they have a
folding snout on the back which gets you by. Lenses are a bit
marginal in today's standards, but are ok.
AG
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