Viewfinder for ebony sw45

[Former Member 8144]

For those occasions when a darkcloth is not practical..Are there any recommendatiosns for a fold up viewfinder for use on an ebony sw54...something that can be left on the camera when it is put away?

thanks.

[darr]

I do not know of any that will fold up besides the Ebony Bellows Focusing Hood. I did have a Cambo Reflex Hood modified by Ebony Japan to fit their 4x5" cameras. SK Grimes can modify the back of your camera to accept the Cambo Hood as well. I decided against the back modification and opted for the Hood to be modified itself and I am glad I did since I sold one Ebony and recently ordered another, and the hood will be useful once again. Jeff at Badger Graphics handled the modification for me and I highly recommend it as an option to having the camera back modified. IIRC, the cost was around $200 with shipping to and from Japan.

[Brian Ellis]

Robert White used to sell a folding focusing hood for Ebony cameras that was very similar to the one made by Ebony that Darr cites. It cost about half the price of the Ebony version. I bought one for my SVTe but didn't care a lot for it. Not that there was anything really wrong with it, I just didn't like peeping through the little round hole to view the ground glass, it reminded me too much of using a 35mm camera. And as I recall, with a wide angle lens you couldn't see the entire ground glass at once, you had to move around. So I sold it a few months before I sold the camera.

[Former Member 8144]

thanks guys..just picked up my ebony today..waiting for lens panels and lens now..then will start looking into viewing options..cheers.

[Former Member 8144]

having another idea here..i will be shooting a 612 project on the ebony and once I have framed my scene and then set up roll film back i will need to wait for (almost) decisive moment within the frame...is there any way of using an optical viewfinder with the ebony..like one of the ones made for the fotoman, swd, cameras etc..that has a masking frame for 612 with certain lenses..or even zoom ones from china..this is not for critical focussing at all..just for seeing what the 612 sees in that perfect moment.

thanks.

[Ernest Purdum]

The only difficulty I can see in using any viewfinder with the format masking you want woud be the matter of initially aligning it with your groundglass.

For comfort while waiting for the moment, maybe a big open frame finder would be better than an optical one.

[Robert Fisher]

IMHO, the Cambo viewer is useless for wide angle work.

[Former Member 8144]

this would be mainly for a 75mm with 612 rollfilm..rare occasion a 55 and 180mm also...i do not need great optics etc..it is just to let me look through once all ground glass framing has been done and roll film holder is on...and wait..and wait..and wait..and fire!

[John Hoang]

I have been using a Linhof Viewfinder with a 6x12 home made mask as seen in the attached photo. The mask is a bottom part of a plastic bottle. The opening is carefully cut so that it shows about 90% the image on the ground glass (6x12 portion, of course). If you are lucky you can find a genuine Linhof 6x12 mask but I could not locate one. Besides, mine costs nothing, works well from 75mm to 360mm.

[Paul Droluk]

Mark, our Fotoman Viewfinder has masks available for 58, 75 and 180mm. Sorry, the optics are really good though we don't charge what Linhof does. Bare in mind that our Viewfinder does not correct for parrallax error, so when shooting close subject matter the framing will not be exact... a distinct plus for the Linhof Finder.

The Chinese "zoom" finders are heavy, not terribly accurate, and exhibit considerable distrotion at the wide end (58mm). I'm somewhat embarressed to say we supplied them for a very short time when we first introduced our cameras.