The one thing stopping from buying a Lumix LX3 is the lack of a proper optical viewfinder. Well, that and the fact that I love my Canon
G9, which also lacks a proper optical viewfinder (Canon opted to put a glass-filled pinhole in its place).
Panasonic does sell an accessory finder, but it costs from $200 to
$300, the price of another camera. Its not surprising, then that some have decided to roll their own solutions using old ‘finders, originally used on rangefinder cameras. Rob over at Boing Boing Gadgets pointed us to one but, because I couldn’t find where the picture came from, I searched Flickr and found a wealth of hackery. Keep reading to see some great home-grown solutions.
The shot above is from Dave Kee and is notable not just for the old Zeitar viewfinder slotted into the hotshoe but for the black tape clothing in which the LX3 is wrapped.
Photo [Dave Kee/Flickr]
Below we have pictures from Sam Venn (the cool, out-of-focus one), vickie_s (the round one in the garden). Joining them is the rather steampunkish viewfinder from aphovasse, although it doesn’t appear in his photostream. Here’s what he says:
A great find. I actually had one of the simpler circular finders on an old Fed (a Russian Leica clone) but I gave it away. Sigh.
Old Russian analog viewfinder gives Lumix LX3 Red zazz [BBG]
Photo: vickie_s/Flickr
Photo: Sam Ven/Flickr
