Mercury Viewfinder Guide

Unless you are exclusively using ground glass to frame your photos, you will need a cold shoe mounted viewfinder for your Mercury camera. You have several options: Mercury makes four differently sized viewfinders. Mercury also makes cheap, simple sportfinders. Finally, a variety of third-party accessory viewfinders are available online, new or (usually) vintage. Each option is further explained below.

Regardless of which type of viewfinder you use, you will need to match the finder itself with the format and lens focal length of your current config. The Mercury system gives each viewfinder a number; that number corresponds with various format/lens combinations, as seen in the chart below, with formats in the top row:

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* Also 6×8, and 6×7, 6×6, 645, and 135 Pano with appropriate viewfinder masks.

** Available as sportfinder and as masks for our #5 viewfinders only.

*** Use our 5W viewfinder’s full view (beyond the framing lines). Our regular #5 viewfinder doesn’t have this option available.

To discover your viewfinder number, simply cross reference the format you are shooting (top row) with your lens focal length (somewhere in your format column). Mercury makes viewfinders that cover sizes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 5W. Mercury #5 and #5W viewfinders can accept optional masks to act as #4. Mercury sportfinders cover these sizes, plus #4. Third party viewfinders must be used for format/lens combos wider than 5W. In these cases, check the 35mm column on the right to determine which 35mm (135) viewfinder will function as the proper equivalent for what you need.

For format other than those listed above, you will need to use a viewfinder with a mask cut to the proper shape and size of that format.

Viewfinder Masks

Mercury viewfinders have all been designed to accept optional masks. The chart above assumes no mask. If you want to shoot formats other than those listed above (for instance, square or panoramic), you will need to cut and insert a mask for greater accuracy.

Masks can also be used to reduce the field of a view from a wide viewfinder to the equivalent of a narrower one. This is one way to get by with fewer viewfinders! Our #5 and #5W viewfinders have masks to make them #4s, we we do not make a #4 viewfinder (only a #4 sportfinder).

Printable PDF masks for each of our five viewfinders are available on this page in our Downloads section.

Mercury Viewfinders

Mercury’s #1, #2, and #3 viewfinders contain no optics, and function on the principle of masking the human eye’s field of view.  They all accept (and require) a rubber eyepiece (included) for comfort and proper eye spacing.  Mercury also makes two #5 optical viewfinders.  The Standard model is small, compact, and provides a #5 field of view.  The Deluxe model has a wider and brighter field of view, and therefore covers both #5 FOV (using its included etched brightlines) and #5W (using its full field of view), for more versatility.  Both viewfinders, like our non-optical ones, accept a full range of masks, including for #4 FOV.  Our Deluxe 5W viewfinder comes standard with black caps, or in a “Plus” version that includes front and rear caps in any of our highlight colors, with a soft fabric pad on the eye side.  The Mercury #5W Deluxe viewfinder (pictured below) uses special vintage optics and represents the highest quality and most versatile viewfinder you can purchase for your Mercury camera.  We developed it for high-end use.  All Mercury viewfinders are marked with their FOV # on their base.

 

Third Party Viewfinders

Nearly any cold shoe mounted accessory viewfinder will work with your Mercury, so you have a wide range of options, especially on the used market.  In the rare cases when such a viewfinder’s cold shoe foot doesn’t fit your Mercury well or is missing entirely, it is usually possible to glue a Mercury accessory cold shoe foot onto it.  Just ask us for this part.

Third party viewfinders rarely accept masks, and thus aren’t usually as versatile as Mercury’s viewfinders.  However, especially for very wide lenses (FOV larger than #5W), they may be your only option.

Because third party viewfinders don’t use the Mercury FOV system, to determine the correct one to use for your lens/format combo, you will need to use the above chart to cross-reference your need with an available equivalent rating and format (most viewfinders assume 135 as their format).  For example, if you are using a 47mm lens and shooting the 6×9 format, one equivalent viewfinder would be a 21mm meant for 135 use.