rangefinder ?

**gliderbee** · 1-Jan-2012, 06:38

I'll be looking for a separate rangefinder, to put it on a "to-build-myself" handhold 4x5. There are quite some on eBay (Kodak, Voigtländer, Certo, Bodenseewerk ...).

Are they any better then the others, are there any I should avoid ?

Thanks,
Stefan.

**IanG** · 1-Jan-2012, 07:24

Don't pay too much, I pick them up at camera fairs for about £1 ($1.60) each I wouldn't pay more than £10 ($16) unless it was quite new.

The one I use is fairly accurate and more importanly quite bright, I tested it with a tape measure and fine tuned it's calibration. Be aware what the distance scale is - metres or feet so it matches your camera.

I still have two but no matter what make the silvering can deteriorate on the mirrors particularly the half-silvered one so I prefer to check them first before buying.

Ian

**Sevo** · 1-Jan-2012, 07:31

Most are pretty basic, but work reasonably well - I prefer Wata type meters as these are particularly easy to adjust. I suspect that most, if not all later German ones were made by the same three OEM makers, Wata, Medis and Certo.

There was more variety in the thirties to forties, when Leitz and Zeiss Ikon made quite terrific wide base ones - but these often go for collector prices. US made Kodak ones from that period are pretty cool, too.

One thing to be aware of is that many seemingly more neat and advanced auxiliary rangefinders from the fifties/sixties are dedicated close-up rangefinders, to use on higher end cameras that already had a built-in rangefinder for regular distances. You may want to stay clear of anything bundled with auxiliary diopters, and of those that seem to belong to a RF camera (especially Kodak Retina and Zeiss Ikon Contax), unless they are positively identified to have a full range to infinity - most of that type only cover the 0.25-1m range. And beware, their scale going to infinity may be misleading - that sometimes only tells you what nominal distance to set the lens to for a real distance of 1m.