View Finder for Sinar F2 - Recommendations

[celtic9]

Hello everyone,

I was recently looking into View Finder solutions to use on my Sinar F2 and I was wondering if you could recommend a particular model? I'm a beginner, hence not super familiar with all the different kind of solutions. I mainly wanted to get a view finder for composing and to avoid having to use a dark cloth, then using a loupe for crucial focusing. Does this make sense?

I was looking at these two view finders in particular ...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Sinar-4x...item3f471db552

http://www.ebay.de/itm/4x5-Collapsib...3D391129226154

thanks for your feedback!

[Peter De Smidt]

I recently paid $110 for a Sinar Binocular Reflex Viewer, one like this: http://s838.photobucket.com/user/jet...ewer3.jpg.html
These work really well.

[celtic9]

Thanks Peter! I stumbled across them myself seveal times. What I liked about this one (http://www.ebay.de/itm/4x5-Collapsib...3D391129226154) was its swing-away function when using a loupe for focusing. How does your Reflex Viewer work? Do you have to completely unmount it to access the GG/Fresnel?

As you can see, I'm a beginner, which means your feedback is even more appreciated

[fishbulb]

Sinar viewers do have to be detached, at least partially e.g. removing the back half, if you want to check your focus on the GG with a loupe. However, some of the viewer designs have magnifiers built in so you can flip up the magnification lenses and check focus that way. I have this type, which has a magnifier but does not reflex so the image is still upside down. http://m.ebay.com/itm/371361761851. I believe the reflex version that Peter posted also has a magnifier that you can flip up.

Personally, if you want to be able to still access the GG but also shade it without a dark cloth, I'd say just get a spare Sinar bellows and attach it to the GG, like the viewer in the link above, but without the viewer. Then support it with one of these http://m.ebay.com/itm/271912242186 Bam, bellows shades the GG and you can still check the focus. By the way, the first link I posted should include this piece but it seems like it doesn't. Without it, the bellows will flop around.

[Peter De Smidt]

I've tried most things, bag bellows with a magnifier board, monocular viewers.... I greatly prefer the Sinar bino reflex viewer. It has a built in magnifier. Mounting it takes seconds. The only downside is that it's fairly bulky.

[Bernice Loui]

Better to learn how to view the image directly on the ground glass with a magnifier and dark cloth. While this can be an entirely alien act in the beginning of using a view camera, it remains the best way. Learning to do this is part of the learning curve of using any view camera.

Early on in my view camera days, the Sinar system purchased had a Sinar reflex viewer and it was used to some degree, eventually, it was discovered that the traditional direct viewing on the GG with magnifier turned out to be the best way for every reason.


Bernice

Hello everyone,

I was recently looking into View Finder solutions to use on my Sinar F2 and I was wondering if you could recommend a particular model? I'm a beginner, hence not super familiar with all the different kind of solutions. I mainly wanted to get a view finder for composing and to avoid having to use a dark cloth, then using a loupe for crucial focusing. Does this make sense?

I was looking at these two view finders in particular ...

thanks for your feedback!

[mdarnton]

I have a reflex finder for my Cambo that looks very similar to the second box in your links, but with one very important difference: it rotates, which I don't believe the new Chinese ones do. You really do not want to get one where a vertical film orientation forces you to view an upside down image sideways! Did Sinar make a rotating mirror finder? I don't know.

Anyway, I love my Cambo reflex finder--it's easy to use and the focus is precise, for me, without swinging it away for a separate magnifier.

There's one of these on Ebay right now, if you don't mind upside down: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...wing_hood.html

[moltogordo]

Better to learn how to view the image directly on the ground glass with a magnifier and dark cloth. While this can be an entirely alien act in the beginning of using a view camera, it remains the best way. Learning to do this is part of the learning curve of using any view camera.

Early on in my view camera days, the Sinar system purchased had a Sinar reflex viewer and it was used to some degree, eventually, it was discovered that the traditional direct viewing on the GG with magnifier turned out to be the best way for every reason.


Bernice

Absolutely, positively and completely. It doesn't take long, and the upsidedown/reversed viewing (and I'd say the same about the reversed image in a TLR) ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY and COMPLETELY will improve your compostion, because you look at it in a more abstract manner, and this detachment leads to better photos once you're used to it.

A learning curve is one of the most exciting things in life!

[Drew Wiley]

Excellent advice! A mere six months viewing the world upside down on a groundglass is excellent practice before any trip to the southern hemisphere, where
everything will appear rightside-up again. Just remember to carry special lens release cables, since the sockets down there are threaded the opposite direction.
Same for thread-in filters.

[Luis-F-S]

I recently paid $110 for a Sinar Binocular Reflex Viewer, one like this: http://s838.photobucket.com/user/jet...ewer3.jpg.html
These work really well.

+1 only way to go as far as I'm concerned. They were a whole lot more expensive when I bought mine 20 years ago! L