Viewfinder Question

[Smith2688]

I was reading the manual for my Chinon CE-4 online, and I was wondering what it meant about the viewfinder whent it said:

Viewfinder - CE-4: Fixed eye-level pentaprism, central split image with microprism collar and ground glass

I know what a pentaprism is, but what's the italicized part mean?

 

[ThatCameraThingy]

Hey Smith#### (can't remeber those nr's)

I Believe what the italics refer to is the focusing screen.

If you look through the Fiewvinder and see a round spot in the middle with a split image and the rest of the images has concentric lines around the middle then I belive you have Split image microprism (center part) and Groundglass (concentric part).

This is an educated guess.

Any one welcome to porve me wrong.

Hanno

 

[will965]

Yeh that camera thingy is right. The viewfinder is split and has a circle of ground glass to help you focus correctly (when the center is out of focus you will notice the image is slightly shifted diagonaly up or down and when the image is in focus it will be central). (I think anyway...)

 

[Smith2688]

Thanks both of you! You better learn those numbers TGT or or or...

Will - you're right about the OOF bit. Thanks a lot...now I don't need to rely soley on how it looks haha...that was a little annoying after a while.

Lemme ask you, do you know what it means when the bottom half of the circle turns black? What about when the top half turns black?

 

[DocFrankenstein]

Lemme ask you, do you know what it means when the bottom half of the circle turns black? What about when the top half turns black?

Yeah, it means you're using a long and/or slow lens and the split circle is useless. You'll have to focus on the groundglass with long/slow lenses.

My guess is that it happens the most with your Auto Promaster Spectrum 70-210mm f/3.8 lens.

That's normal. Learn to live with it.

 

[Smith2688]

hah! You're right it does happen more with the telephoto. However, I can make it happen with the 50mm prime if I make the f/stop smaller and press the DOF preview button. I thought it might be for exposure? or would it still be for focusing and I just can't use the split circle for focusing with small f/stops?