Topic: Anyone ever mask their rangefinder viewfinder window?

[hookstrapped]

I just saw this movie, Dogtooth, and it made me want to shoot my Mamiya 6 in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.  Of course, the Mamiya 6 has a 1:1 aspect ratio so what I'm thinking to do is mask the top and bottom of the front of the viewfinder window so I can see fairly accurately what my 2.35 aspect ratio frame will look like.

I'm wondering if anyone here has done this and if you have have any tips.  First, I thought I would just use opaque tape to determine the proper height of the opening.  Eventually, it would be nice to have a one-piece mask that I could put on and remove quickly.  The viewfinder window is 20mm x 20mm with rounded corners and is inset 1mm from the metal body -- I'm thinking I could get some plastic material to fashion a mask insert...

[astrobeck]

you could easily do this as there is room in there for the diopters to change for eyesight corrections.
I have one (diopter correction) in the viewfinder of my Mamiya 6, so it should be a snap to make a mask.

 

[Francois]

An easy job to do if you use a graphics program.
If you use either Qcad, Inkscape or even CorelDraw, you can simply draw the outside of the viewfinder window, mark where you want the frame to be and align it all. Qcad and Inkscape are free open source vector drawing programs.

You can then either print it on transparency or have it laser cut at Ponoko.com

My Graflex Crown Graphic has a metal mask slot built-in so this is not something I've never seen.