On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 10:52 AM, Godfrey DiGiorgi <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 7:34 AM, Luiz Felipe <[email protected]> > wrote: >> Christine, the Mx is very close to a DSLR killer - when it comes to size and >> viewfinder. Even the full format DSLRs have problems matching the Mx finder, >> due to light losses in the mirror to allow for AF and fancy metering. True, >> a modern focusing screen can shine here, but the moment you give the same >> upgrade the Mx the results from the oldie shoud improve too... > > Not to be overly contentious, but the Pentax MX viewfinder had for me > the same issues I had with the Olympus OM1 and Nikon FM series > viewfinders: too much magnification, not enough eye point distance for > me wearing my glasses. I had to work to see the whole frame and find > the metering information and camera settings. The high-eye point > viewfinder on my Nikon F3/T, Olympus E-1, Panasonic G1 is FAR superior > ... I can see the whole image at a glance, as well as all the > in-viewfinder exposure settings and metering indicators, with no > strain. And the G1 finder is perfectly visible in light levels that > leave the MX with a 50mm f/1.4 lens like looking into a black hole. > > I hear this kind of praise of old 35mm SLR viewfinders all the time. I > think it's mostly just wistful fondness for things past. Brightness > and magnification are only two components to what makes a top notch > viewfinder for a camera ... they're important, for sure, but they're > not the entire world. > > The Pentax MX body, however, was perhaps one of the very nicest Pentax > 35mm SLRs. Simple, mechanical, direct and to the point like the Nikon > FM2n. Modest in size, well finished. If I had found myself shooting > any 35mm film, I might have kept mine even with one lens. > > -- > Godfrey > godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com >
Overall I agree with Godfrey on the finder, except being a non-eyeglass wearer I had no issues with the Nikon FM's. I actually found the MX's finder to cause eyestrain due to the low eyepoint and high magnification. The best finder I've used is on Sony's A900. It's big, bright and very easy to focus with (especially with an M screen). The closely related Minolta Maxxum 9 finder is also excellent. -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
