TTV

I have wanted to try a Through The Viewfinder (TTV) shot for a while so when I was finishing off a roll of Kodak Porta 160 in my Olympus OM-2 I took the opportunity to try a shot through the waist level finder (WLF) of my Exakta Varex 11a. The resulting photo has proved very popular in Flickr:

Spurred on by its success I tried a few more, although this time I used my Lumix digital camera. It actually is pretty tricky to get the lighting and the focus just right. The couple of TLR cameras a have (A Rollicord and a Microcord) produce viewfinder images which are really too dark. My Kodak Brownie Reflex 20 was a little better:

Here it is viewing my Varex IIa.

But I still got the best results with the WLF on my Varex. Here is the Varex IIb viewing my Zeiss Ikonta:

I think the lighting needs further work! My 'studio' set up is a little basic!:

I need to by some more powerful lights to replace my ones with home made cardboard reflectors!

I think a lot of people who are into these TTV photos make a tube with black card or something to keep stray light off the viewfinder. Maybe I will try that one day.