Contax 645 and Hartblei...not the lenses, guys, the WLF

[Martin Wouterlood]

I’m on a little mission…specifically, I’m trying to garner interest from Contax 645 users on a few medium format forum sites who like/prefer the waist level viewing experience.
Before letting go of the Hasselblad 503 not so long ago in favour of the Contax (for about the 3rd time over the years) I had been using it with the Hartblei adjustable 52x52mm 4x waist level finder. It has such a nice way of drawing me into the image that once I mounted it, it stayed.
Back to the Contax 645. I was fiddling with the Hartblei wlf on it recently and...what a difference! The extra magnification and resulting clarity compared to the native prism and waist finders is just immense. C645 users know that its viewfinder brightness and magnification are not it’s strongest suit, but this was like looking through the ‘Blad again.
The Hartblei finder will need some reworking though, to get the distance from the focusing screen right as well as the step up shape to fit over the front display readout.
Here’s where Hartblei may come to the party...I contacted them and received a couple of replies from their guy Vitaliy, stating that there is a realistic possibility that they may produce the viewfinder to fit the Contax 645. He is happy for me to open forum discussion and provided a link to post for anyone wishing to contact him about this idea.

http://www.hartbleilens.com/shop_content.php?coID=7

I would think that the Contax version would probably cost a little more than the $150-odd I paid for the ‘blad version, but heck, in the past the Contax wlf has sold for up to 4 times that. Nevertheless, I will be counting myself in on one of these.

I have just one more thing to say…

Go Contax, go!! There’s another breath of life in you yet…

Cheers, Martin

[Theodoros]

I’m on a little mission…specifically, I’m trying to garner interest from Contax 645 users on a few medium format forum sites who like/prefer the waist level viewing experience.
Before letting go of the Hasselblad 503 not so long ago in favour of the Contax (for about the 3rd time over the years) I had been using it with the Hartblei adjustable 52x52mm 4x waist level finder. It has such a nice way of drawing me into the image that once I mounted it, it stayed.
Back to the Contax 645. I was fiddling with the Hartblei wlf on it recently and...what a difference! The extra magnification and resulting clarity compared to the native prism and waist finders is just immense. C645 users know that its viewfinder brightness and magnification are not it’s strongest suit, but this was like looking through the ‘Blad again.
The Hartblei finder will need some reworking though, to get the distance from the focusing screen right as well as the step up shape to fit over the front display readout.
Here’s where Hartblei may come to the party...I contacted them and received a couple of replies from their guy Vitaliy, stating that there is a realistic possibility that they may produce the viewfinder to fit the Contax 645. He is happy for me to open forum discussion and provided a link to post for anyone wishing to contact him about this idea.

http://www.hartbleilens.com/shop_content.php?coID=7

I would think that the Contax version would probably cost a little more than the $150-odd I paid for the ‘blad version, but heck, in the past the Contax wlf has sold for up to 4 times that. Nevertheless, I will be counting myself in on one of these.

I have just one more thing to say…

Go Contax, go!! There’s another breath of life in you yet…

Cheers, Martin

Hi Martin, it would be great to see a super wide angle lens (25-28mm) for the Contax, those of us that use slightly cropped sensors miss going wider than the 35mm can with smaller sensors. Such a lens could be with no AF and with manual aperture to keep the price reasonable and could provide an alternative to all Pentax 645, Mamyia/Phase 645 and Leica S users... Surely there is enough market to support such a lens. Also, Harblei could work on an 100mm super rotator for all the above cameras...  Now, as far as the WLF is concerned, I think that priority should be given to the "chimney" finder instead... I happen to have an Arax 88cm MLU (the latest SE version with the bright screen) and have used all CZJ glass with it and do have all three fingers... I believe the chimney (marked Hartblei for Hasselblad) would be most peoples first choice for tripod work.

[ErikKaffehr]

This one?



Best regards
Erik

[Theodoros]

This one?



Best regards
Erik

Yeap!

[Martin Wouterlood]

Hi Theodoros
I do think many would be with you in using a wider angle than the C35, but I find I can live without (though I quite likely would play with one, were it available)...I agree that the wlf would be most at home on a tripod mounted rig.
Yes, that's the one, Erik..tell me you don't find it a dream to use, esp with your digital hindquarters?
Martin

[Chris Livsey]

I have one on a 500c/m, it almost makes me not notice the P20 crop. It is my most used finder shooting digital both tripod and hand held.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

No, I am using a PM5 prism viewfinder right now. I found the Hartblei very hard to use when I was tilting the camera slightly down, because I found myself bending over the camera.

Initially, I found that I could use the PM5 with a Zeiss 3X monocular, the combo giving me 9X magnification. After that I used a special made ocular for the PM5, that is corrected for my eyesight, but that doesn't work with the Zeiss monocular. Very obviously, the sensor can resolve far more detail than the eye, something like the group to the left of the yellow box.




For the next shoot I will go back to the PM5+Zeiss combo, using the original ocular.

Best regards
Erik



The image below shows the details I can visually resolve with the PM5 (red), with the Hartblei magnifier (blue) and the PM5 + Zeiss monocular (yellow). Very

Hi Theodoros

Yes, that's the one, Erik..tell me you don't find it a dream to use, esp with your digital hindquarters?
Martin