Best director's viewfinder

[Satsuki Murashige]

The outer ring at the large end of the lens adjusts framing to cover these ratios- TV, 3516, 1.66, 16.9, 1.85, 2.35, and 2.55.

Why do they even bother with 2.55? Might as well replace that with 2:1 Univisium (or whatever Storaro's aspect ratio is called).

[Greg Gross]

I prefer framing with a video camera and developed my taste for it through experimenting.

I wonder maybe though if I would go for a finder when shooting film. I saw Mr. Damon in

an interview(actors studio,yesterday). He was talking about what it was like being directed

by Mr. Deniro. Anyway they showed some location footage and Mr. Deniro was holding a

finder that was about 3X longer than the one shown in posts here. It had a grip or handle

approximately at its center and looked a little weighty. I have to admit that I know nothing

about director's finders. I've been a long time professional photographer so I'm pretty good

at visualizing in my mind and at making a choice about focal lengths in relation to the frame.

Just out of curiosity does anyone no what kind of finder Mr. Deniro was using?

 

Greg Gross

[Paul Bruening]

Since I use Nikon lenses anyway, I just taped off the mirror with some electrical tape on an old Nikon SLR and use it as a veiwfinder. The Cavision is good for angle finding, but the Nikon SLR gives me an acurate idea of what the lens will actually look like. It's just a lucky convenience of using these lenses.

[Guest Stephen Murphy]

Just out of curiosity does anyone no what kind of finder Mr. Deniro was using?

 

Greg Gross

 

Greg,

Sounds like he was using a pentafinder, which is basically an eyepiece that allows you to preview the scene with the actual taking lens you intend to shoot the scene with, showing amongst other things the correct field of view and the actual focus. Much easier then carrying a 35mm camera on your shoulder:)