How do film Cameras have view finders?

orchidsofwrath

orchidsofwrath

Active member
This may be a stupid question.

I was wondering about this the other day: Film cameras must have view finders obviously, but how? I know for video the view finder can just be displaying the real time output of the CCDs or CMOS sensor but how would you do it for film? Since the lens it just focusing on the film squares, how would you get picture up to a view finder? Is it an electronic display or does it use purely optics?

If anyone knows the answer to this please, I really am curious.
 
In the simplest, most common, and most reliable type of technology... TTL (Through The Lens) viewing. Same as an SLR film camera.

Consumer-level film cameras had viewfinders mounted on top or to the side that gave the shooter a general idea of what was going on, but there is an offset with that type of viewfinder (same as your separate viewfinder on 35mm point-and-shoot cameras). If you look at Bolex H-16 film cameras, you'll see the standard H-16 that had a side-mounted v/f. The H-16 Reflex had the TTL viewfinder.

But for cameras equipped with output for video assist, there's a chip set inside that receives a copy of the incoming light, converts it to video and sends it out for monitoring. Believe it or not, video assist was pioneered by Jerry Lewis, who used video monitors to direct and act at the same time.
 
New School: A prism directs part of the lens light to a CCD sensor mounted to the camera body, which feeds the video signal to an external connector which can drive a monitor; most professional film cameras simultaneously employ a splitter which directs some light to an attached optical viewfinder

Old School: the shutter is mirrored so the image produced by the lens is reflected along an optical pathway ending at the eyepiece; alternately a prism in the light path splits off an image which is directed into the eyepiece (older Arris and Eclair NPRs used the former system; reflex Bolexes used the latter)

Older School: a prism splits light from the lens and directs it down an optical pathway separate from the camera body - technically a 'reflex lens' since the viewfinder is integrated with the lens and not with the camera itself

Oldest School: a 'rackover' mechanism literally shifts the light path from the film gate to the eyepiece by dint of "racking over" the entire camera body; when you have composition and focus the camera body "racks back" so the light path reaches the gate
 
Interesting stuff... I always kinda knew how they worked but now I really know.

Karl - regarding the "Oldest School" does that mean you couldnt view what you were filming when actually filming? Only able to compose and then film and hope you didnt move the camera when racking back over? Guess they didnt do much camera movement then? Or maybe very well planned moves?
 
The 'oldest school' cameras - like the circa 1930s-50s Maurers - had a non-reflex viewer stuck to the side that you could use to view an approximation of your shot, with the rackover system being used for focus and to nail the intended composition before rolling.

That system went out of use - I'm betting - long before any of us were born.
 
Ahh ok - yes thats way before I was born :) Always cool to know how things used to work though. Thanks for the infos!
 
Thanks guys. So for new school, when some light is redirected to a ccd would that ccd have to be the same size as a 35mm square to make focus and crop factor accurate in the monitors? Wouldn't that also result in significant light loss getting to the actual film?
 
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