China to the rescue! Fisheye lens viewer.

Gentle reader,

As you may know, I am a photographer and have been a camera collector. I still have film in the freezer, B&W and color and some fine film cameras.

My ebay user ID is "rfcollectin". Which means I collect rangefinder focusing cameras. My goal once was to own a Leica, the ultimate  RF camera. Here's mine, which I covered in red sea-snake skin:

Pretty, isn't it? That is a Russian Jupiter 8 lens which is a copy of a German Zeiss Sonnar lens. It is f2.0, I also have an f1.5 version. Leitz lenses are SO expensive. 

The one camera I really use, Nancy bought me. It is a modern version of a Leica made by Cosina in Japan and bearing the Voigtlander name. Which Cosina acquired and produced numerous versions of in various lens mounts. See:

Voigtlander Bessa R 

Here's mine with with all the lenses I have for it, save one.

Below, it has the 12mm fisheye lens which was made by Sigma and sold by many other brand names. It is a "T mount" lens which can be adapted to many cameras with the right adapter. I made a number of shots with it mounted on my Nikon DSLR. With the APS-C sized sensor, the field of view is similar to a 35mm film 18mm lens. See:

The Robb Collections: A 12mm Experiment

I found, on ebay, a fisheye viewfinder for Holga fisheye cameras. It came direct from China and fits the Bessa R fine and gives a good view of what the lens "sees". A RF or rangefinder camera does not view through the lens as all non-SLR cameras. So, one needs an appropriate viewfinder to compose the scene correctly. 

While it is all-plastic, it works well. Below, mounted atop the camera in the flash shoe.

Below, from the top. Note the knurled metal piece between the lens and camera body. This is the T-mount adapter for non-SLR cameras. RF cameras are shallower than SLRs because the have no mirror that must flip up to make the picture. An SLR T-mount adapter is 1/4" thick.

I plan to make a series of photos with this camera mounted vertically on a tripod going in a full circle. Then get the film developed and put on CD. Then, using Photoshop Elements, create a 360 degree photo. 

That's it for now! Thanks for looking!

Scott