Using a prism viewfinder to flip the Letus image at DVinfo.net

Paul Ramsbottom · September 1st, 2006, 06:15 PM

Hi everyone,

Just an idea, was curious about whether anyone had tried this?

I just bought a Letus35A, which Quyen custom built to suit my Sony HVR-A1U. Thanks Quyen, you are a God-send to the extremly budget-conscious film-maker and a very patient man.

Obviously you cannot do the magnet trick on camera and I am already running into the well documented challenges of how to focus and frame the inverted image using the Sony's small screen and view finder.

I was tinkering with an old Canon F1 35mm still SLR last night, which has a removable prism viewfinder. Out of curiosity I flipped out the LCD, turned it face-up and layed the Canon prism on top.

Obviously it is much smaller than the LCD screen but obviously it flipped the image and did a remarkable job of resolving the image. It magnifies the LCD very sharply and there would be little doubt that this would also be a most effective focussing aid, only problem is that it only overs a small portion of the 16:9 LCD.

This got me thinking, there was a company called Bronica who made a large format still camera called the ETRS. This camera had a horizontally orientated 6cm x 4.5cm sized image and a a variety of interchangeable prism viewfinders. I think Mamiya also had one.

I don't know the exact dimentions of the viewfinders but looking at pictures, I'm betting there would be a close fit with with the Sony flip-out LCD, and was debating whether I could vecro one over the LCD and use it to get good framing and focus.

Weight might be a consideration but I'm betting that a non-metered version with a plastic housing wouldn't be a strain.

Obviously it would prevent access to the Sony's touch-senstive panel but I am sure it wouldn't be too difficult to work around this.

I don't think the view finder is exactly 16:9 but it should be close enough.

Thoughts anyone?

September 1st, 2006, 06:15 PM	#1
Paul Ramsbottom Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 85	Using a prism viewfinder to flip the Letus image Hi everyone, Just an idea, was curious about whether anyone had tried this? I just bought a Letus35A, which Quyen custom built to suit my Sony HVR-A1U. Thanks Quyen, you are a God-send to the extremly budget-conscious film-maker and a very patient man. Obviously you cannot do the magnet trick on camera and I am already running into the well documented challenges of how to focus and frame the inverted image using the Sony's small screen and view finder. I was tinkering with an old Canon F1 35mm still SLR last night, which has a removable prism viewfinder. Out of curiosity I flipped out the LCD, turned it face-up and layed the Canon prism on top. Obviously it is much smaller than the LCD screen but obviously it flipped the image and did a remarkable job of resolving the image. It magnifies the LCD very sharply and there would be little doubt that this would also be a most effective focussing aid, only problem is that it only overs a small portion of the 16:9 LCD. This got me thinking, there was a company called Bronica who made a large format still camera called the ETRS. This camera had a horizontally orientated 6cm x 4.5cm sized image and a a variety of interchangeable prism viewfinders. I think Mamiya also had one. I don't know the exact dimentions of the viewfinders but looking at pictures, I'm betting there would be a close fit with with the Sony flip-out LCD, and was debating whether I could vecro one over the LCD and use it to get good framing and focus. Weight might be a consideration but I'm betting that a non-metered version with a plastic housing wouldn't be a strain. Obviously it would prevent access to the Sony's touch-senstive panel but I am sure it wouldn't be too difficult to work around this. I don't think the view finder is exactly 16:9 but it should be close enough. Thoughts anyone?