AUSTIN — Metro Case has announced a lightweight viewfinder housing for use with a repurposed Canon 35mm optical viewfinder.
For digital and analog cameras, the housing works with the very large Canon Sure Shot Owl optical viewfinder, which is available very inexpensively on the second-hand market (i.e., eBay.) The Owl is known for having perhaps the largest viewfinder available in any point and shoot camera.
This viewfinder has a magnification of 0.68x, and has framelines that correspond to 35mm lenses on film cameras (such as the Leica M3) and on full-frame digital cameras like the Sony RX1, RX1R, and RX1R-II. It also works well with APS-C cameras such as the Fuji X-E series with their 23mm Fujinon lenses.
Weighing only 14 grams or 0.5oz, the Metro Case Viewfinder Housing is available directly from Shapeways. It is 3D printed using Nylon 12, the same material used in the Metro Case camera grips. Assembly is simple: the two pieces just snap together, holding the optics after removal from the Sure Shot Owl.
A great big view with almost zero weight!
The relevant Canon models are listed below. Each line represents an identical model; the different names are how they were sold in different markets.
Note: the Snappy LX models don't appear to have the close-up marks on the framelines. This is of little consequence as the viewfinder is primarily used for street shooting, not for close-ups.
sure shot owl - prima af-7
sure shot owl pf - prima af-9/date
sure shot owl/date - prima af-8/date
snappy lx / bf35 - prima bf
snappy lxII/date - prima bf-8/date - BF35D
snappy lx/date - prima bf-7/date - BF35 QDN
Based in Texas, Metro Case designs and manufactures grips and accessories for digital cameras as well as unique cases for Apple iPhone.
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