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Shoe mount rangefinder?

I have a very nice Agfa Isoly III that I plan on getting to know soon.
It seems like a well thought out camera even if it is plastic:) But I would like
to be able to get a better chance of focusing my shots without estimating the distance.

I have seen several makes of shoe mount rangefinders (i.e. Walz) and concerned that it might not clear
the rather tall viewer on the camera top due to the shoe being offset.

isol III.png
rear.jpg


Anyone have a suggestion for a rangefinder that could be of use?

Thanks, Tom
 
I can’t think of a current shoe mount rangefinder off the top of my head. Some of the old rangefinders mounted vertically but I suspect those are hard to find.

For cameras like that I find that there is enough depth of field that guesstimating the focus usually works well enough.
 
Think I've come up with a workable solution..

Digging around the 'net and stumbled on a neat site (Human Rangefinder Card Generator - https://tomchuk.com/rf/)
that can generate a rangefinder card that can be used to "eyeball" distances to an object.

The card generated is based on the user's physical arm length, eye separation, and customized using
distances on the focusing ring of a particular camera so it is individual use.

untitled.png

Easy to use, line up the zero with the edge of the object at distance using the left eye, use the
right eye to read off the distance. The card could be laminated to make it last. I didn't want to worry about
forgetting the card when out, so I made some marks along the bottom edge of the camera back and dotted
them with colour (i.e. zero is white at far left and fluorescent orange is 10 ft.) instead attaching the paper to the camera.

DSCF1664.JPG

I just sight using the camera the same way as with the card. Seems accurate when checked with a tape measure, can't
find a tape with inf. on it so I checked up to 15 ft.;)
 
Think I've come up with a workable solution..

Digging around the 'net and stumbled on a neat site (Human Rangefinder Card Generator - https://tomchuk.com/rf/)
that can generate a rangefinder card that can be used to "eyeball" distances to an object.

The card generated is based on the user's physical arm length, eye separation, and customized using
distances on the focusing ring of a particular camera so it is individual use.

View attachment 1186548

Easy to use, line up the zero with the edge of the object at distance using the left eye, use the
right eye to read off the distance. The card could be laminated to make it last. I didn't want to worry about
forgetting the card when out, so I made some marks along the bottom edge of the camera back and dotted
them with colour (i.e. zero is white at far left and fluorescent orange is 10 ft.) instead attaching the paper to the camera.

View attachment 1186556

I just sight using the camera the same way as with the card. Seems accurate when checked with a tape measure, can't
find a tape with inf. on it so I checked up to 15 ft.;)
Ingenious!
 
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