Rangefinders for 4x5

[sapata]

I've bought a couple of german rangefinders ( Medis and Watameter) to be used on my Zeiss and Voigtlander cameras. As my Toyo View has the shoe adapter I was thinking of trying to use as well, just wondering if anyone has used and what is like.

Another thing is that I'm not sure if they're calibrated, I've done a test and it seems to be ok. Basicaly I put an object and measured, let's say 3feet and checked with the rangefinder if was accurate. After a few spins on the dial calibration I managed to get the object's distance same as the rangefinder. Am I doing correct or there's something missing?

Thank you all

[David A. Goldfarb]

I have a Widor rangefinder that normally lives on my Voigtlander Perkeo II, but I used to have a pre-war Linhof Tech II, and I used the rangefinder with it, and it worked. The rangefinder has two calibration screws for vertical and horizontal alignment. I usually check it at infinity and a close distance measured with a tape measure, and I'll confirm with some intermediate distances. I made a distance scale for the camera using tape on the camera bed, marking infinity by focusing on a distant object and measuring the shorter distances, and it all worked fine as an uncoupled rangefinder system.

[sapata]

Thanks David !

[Ken Lee]

The lenses on the old rangefinders cameras (I have a few), are fairly short: 80-105 mm, depending on the film format. When stopped down a bit, they have enough depth of field for a reasonable margin of error in focusing.

On 4x5, we are more likely to use lenses twice as long - with 1/4 the depth of field.

So on 4x5, you may want to set your lenses to 2 stops smaller, to achieve the same effect.

[Paul Droluk]

We (Fotoman Camera) currently manufacture a modern day version of the classic Voigtlander external Rangefinder. It mounts in any standard accessory shoe, comes in either feet or meters, and has easy user calibration capability of the bright patch for both vertical and horizontal.

You would need to make a corresponding distance scale to affix to your rail or bed... or you could add one of our helical focus mounts to your lens board, and have both distance and DOF scales available.

[Ken Lee]

That's a beautiful item !