New composition tool, small, compact !

[Alan Davenport]

I guess I'm becoming more and more a Luddite. Simple = good! I made a composing frame from a piece of coat hanger wire, wrapped it with black tape and tied a piece of string to one corner. Knots in the string, when held to the tip of my (ample) proboscis, place the frame at the correct distance for each of my lenses. It's much more robust than cardboard or matboard, smaller too.

[Graeme Hird]

I clicked on this thread thinking someone had come up with a way to improve my compositions, only to find talk of a lens selection aid. Composition comes from your imagination and (ideally) should occur before a lens is selected.

Oh well, I'll just keep using my Linhof viewfinder - at least the optics approximate those of a lens, even if it is a little uncomfortable to hold. (BTW, why are people talking about rotating the ring on these devices? A simple cock of the wrist turns the whole device 90 degrees without needing to rotate a ring ....)

Cheers,
Graeme

[qeeqaig]

Bob, changing the fl settings is not a smooth operation.... it's fine for its intended purpose, but for constant zooming up and back, its a bit cumbersome vs. other options. Again, if its sits atop a camera and you set it, and leave it, its perfect. And the fact its can work with many lenses makes this product very unique indeed, it can replace using many different fl viewfinders.

gps, yep, sorry, I forgot to mention the compensation required for the smaller image size. But this is based on image diagonal and its a linear relationship.

CXC, you could surely build one of these out of cardboard, but the nice aspect ratio changer makes it appealing.... hey, keep in mind here, $9....

Agreed the size is small, but that also is the benefit, as I also had one of the larger 8x10 black boards with the cut out, which B&H sells, comes with fl tape measure.... and I too don't keep it with me enough..... but if I could put this in my shirt pocket, I would always have it....hey, its a $9 rough fl tool that can vary for different aspect ratio and fit in your shirt pocket? lets not loose perspective of what one can expect for $9.

Jack, not sure if your still ignoring me, but if not, what device converts B&W into color for composure? And your 4x5 L method is quite effective, till you start using 1200mm lenses, or very wide angle lenses, it gets hard judging the fl required.... but you always carry your hands :-)

What Jack was referring to was a Zone IV viewing filter that is in the 4X5 aspect ratio and filters the color scene to a approximate grayscale rendition. It helps you visualize what the scene will look like in B&W

[Doug Dolde]

I used to have the Linhof viewfinder but honestly with three lenses (110mm, 210mm and 300mm) it's ridiculus. I have no trouble picking the right lens just by being there. IMHO these a waste of money.

[Andrew O'Neill]

A piece of white card board with a 4x5 rectangle cut out of it in the middle. For 8x10, I use the same card but double the focal length. Simple and I have used this method for years to suss out compositions and to determine focal length.

[tombob]

something else that i find useful is a multi lens viewfinder for rangefinder 35mm cameras, mine is a zenit, but there's plenty around on ebay for a couple of quid, obviously designed for 35mm it has the focal lengths writen in terms on 35mm so you have to adjust, but it gives a range that would go as wide as 90mm and as narrow as about 300-350mm - also has a standard shoe mount

looks like this - http://photo.net/bboard-uploads/00FsMB-29196084.jpg

[Eric James]

I've used a device like the one Alan has illustrated but instead of coat hanger stock I used the thick plastic cover to a spent black loose-leaf notebook. It's stiff enough to hold its shape and flexible enough to stuff in a pocket without worries. The border on mine is about 4cm. I don't use it much anymore because I'm up to ~70% efficient at choosing the right lens on the second go around