I recently acquired a Prazisa optical rangefinder while thrifting in Kamloops, B.C. I had been wanting a rangefinder since acquiring a Leica rangefinder camera (IIIf) with a broken rangefinder. 

This camera could be used in zone focusing mode, but I didn’t have the confidence to do that unless shooting at f/8 to f/16 as my guesstimating of distances is really poor. Using f/8-f/16 would provide significant almost infinite depth of field it doesn’t allow you to isolate the subject and forces you into slower (sometimes blurry) shutter speeds.

I had looked on eBay for an optical rangefinder but didn’t have great confidence in finding one that actually worked, wasn’t foggy/fungus etc. I also wanted one that mounted horizontally on the camera cold shoe and not one that mounted vertically which I thought would attract too much attention when in use (like the Leica Fokos rangefinders).

I had wandered around the whole thrift store 2x. Given the thrift store was in support of our local hospitals  where I work, I was determined to find something to buy. I took a look in the cabinet under the cash register which was full of jewelry and trinkets, and noticed the rangefinder in a box. The two circular windows were staring up at me.