On Mon, 5 Aug 2002 22:43:24 -0400, "That Annoying Twit..."
wrote:

>I recently made the switch from Yashica and Contax over to Canon. The
>reason for the switch was my inability to focus in mixed, and low light
>conditions. Now I find myself wanting to go back (or at least part of the
>way back). My question is does anybody have any side by side experience
>with say the Yashica FX series of cameras and the Contax either Aria, RTS
>and 167. What I am looking for is a brighter viewfinder than that of the FX
>Series cameras. I am hoping that it would resolve part of my focusing
>problems by going this route. I would love an AX but that is just a bit
>beyond my price range.

Even within a brand, there are variations in focus ease.
With Nikon, all the MF models had excellent, sharp finders
(which were often not exceedingly bright - but there is
generally a trade-off between brightness and sharpness
in the VF image - and also one I discovered later: a
trade-off in sharpness between VFs optimized for fast
lenses (about f2-2.8) and slow lenses (about f4-5.6).
Most of the Nikon early AF bodies also had sharp VFs
with the lenses I used, but then I found the N90 and
N70 unusable for MF with fast lenses (as I had found
the Maxxum and some Leicaflex models earlier...). Good
VF design is a compromise between physical size,
brightness, lens aperture designed for, and lens rear
end design (the same FL and f-stop lens of different
designs can appear bright or dark in a given VF...).
Fortunately, with the F100 and F5, Nikon returned to
making excellent viewfinders again for my use...