Photography Gear and Technique / Archived topic
Started by Alex_Mustard ·
Read-only discussion
Not sure the angle is any use for UW shooting. But this could be housed to solve DSLR viewfinder woes?
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0506/05060701zigview_lcd.asp
Seriously though, a lot of people who "upgrade" to DSLRs from compact digital bemoan the loss of their LCD screens. Now they don't have to.
Alex
Call me a sceptic, but this kind of technology i'm warry off, the image taken off a focus screen can't be that good, but i'll rest my final judment until I see trough one of those... meanwhile I foresee no manufacturer running to their autocad software anytime soon. Cute thing for the X-mas sock, for the diver who has everything 
this can't be sharper than the viewfinder!?
I rather spend on a magnifying viewfinder like the Subal rather than on more electric stuff and a 45-60 degree angle...
Unfortunately my Subal D100 can't be fit with one...
Cheers
Torben
Well, I rather like the 45 degree angle in e viewfinder, as it means that I don't need to kink my neck and bore my chin into the muck to "shoot up"
Anyway, Seeing thru smal viewfinder underwater is my main challenge. I have been concentrating on 1:1 macro where AF is useless, and getting the critical focus thru small viewfinder is really hard! Also seeing every corner of the image is difficult on my small viewfinder. I have come home with loads of images that I thought were "right on" in the water, to find that the shrimp eyes or blenny finns were in fact soft.
Shooting with a canon dreb, I don't have the option of going with a Seacam housing and a giant seacam viewfinder (neither would I pay close to 2K for a viewfinder), so I really hope that there will be product on the market soon for some of the other brands. In fact, it so happens that I wrote Ike last week and inquired of his plans on this front. I am happy that he replied that although not yet available, this is a priority item!
I highly doubt this product would ever be housed for use underwater. But I can see the technology adapted to become usefull underwater.
If you remove the power supply, buttons, memory, and LCD how big would a 1MP digtal camera be?
I bet you could make one the size of a coin. This coin sized camera could be a replacement eye-cup and probably wouldnt have to be any bigger than the origional eyecup. So it is small enough that it would fit in any housing with out any modification.
You then have a wire coming out of this wich leads to an external LCD like what is used for video housings. The LCD has to have a battery in it so you use that battery to power the camera.
Would be easier to use underwater than the zigview and when you add the cost of adapting a housing to work with it would be cheaper to produce as well.
Ok, which ever housing manufacture desides to make this devise owes me a free copy for coming up with the idea.
In fact, it so happens that I wrote Ike last week and inquired of his plans on this front. I am happy that he replied that although not yet available, this is a priority item!
That's an interesting development, Marjo. Thanks for letting us know.
I remain unconvinced about 45Ëš and 90Ëš viewfinders. If they are so desirable why don't all land cameras come with them as standard?
Alex
p.s. James has also posted a news item about this on the homepage:
45Ëš and 90Ëš viewfinders are exelent for video housings.
For DSLR Housings I think that it will only work if somebody redesign a UW Housing and tries to find the best way to perform underwater.
We don't hold and use the cameras unterwater the same way as we use it on land.
Instead of building a housing to fit the camera maybe the priority should be to construct the perfect housing for our needs and use, and then to make the camera fit. The controls and buttons mustn't be in the same place as on the camera. Better should be to place the buttons so as they can be maneuvered by one hand. The housing communicates with the camera via i-link, as Sony videos do. I'm now far gone from the original theme, but the issue of the viewfinder can't be seen seperately. By the way, a very good LCD viewfinder followed a German videohouse.
My Hasselblad housing has a 45Ëš finder. And I was using it last week. For still life and macro it is fine. And it is also fine when panning with a subject moving in 1 dimension. But I find it less intuative than a straight through finder for a subject (such as a fish) that moves in three dimensions.
But I do accept that there is a lot of personal preference in when it comes to viewfinders.
Alex
FWIW, I just ordered an S45 viewfinder for my Seacam housing. I had a tough time deciding which one to get, but I decided it would be better for macro shooting not to have to lay in the coral to get the shot.
Cheers
James
Nostalgia rules - oh how I miss the DA2 action finder from the old F3.
When I bought my F100 housing it came with a S45 viewfinder. I would not have ordered it, and I was a little annoyed initially, but I couldn't be without it now! I'm shooting a lot of high magnification images, and the viewfinder allows me to lay the camera in the sand and get a perspective that would be impossible any other way! I don't think it works for all types of shooting, but it is a great tool for certain styles!
In fact, I bought an S180, and I've only used it twice for macro. The S45 ROCKS for little critters!
In fact, it so happens that I wrote Ike last week and inquired of his plans on this front. I am happy that he replied that although not yet available, this is a priority item!
That's an interesting development, Marjo. Thanks for letting us know.
I totally agree.
Anyone interested in starting a petition to Ike to get some sort of decent viewfinder magnifier as an optional accessory for all DSLR housings?
Anyone interested in starting a petition to Ike to get some sort of decent viewfinder magnifier as an optional accessory for all DSLR housings?
From my experience with Ikelite we don't really need petition to convince them.
Its seems that they 'listen' to the market needs better then anyone else in this industry (see the eTTL & iTTL solutions they have)
Maybe I could just email Ike a link to this thread?
My Hasselblad housing has a 45Ëš finder. And I was using it last week.Alex
Oh do tell about this one please...shooting film Alex? For shame!
Mmmm, medium format...tasty!
Have a Hasselblad at my disposal here but no film for it and def no processing....so never mind
As for the Ikelite, my old Ike housing for the N/F90 had an screw on eyepiece for inside the housing that magnified the viewfinder. Unfortunately those nimrods at Nikon no longer have the threaded mount on the finder like they had for the 90 so who knows....#$#%$*&^#%@ Nikon! And Canon too! (just to cover my bases...)
Why is it that building a magnifying viewfinder is so hard ? It must be hard as the prices are so high or is it just that rarity value allows the margins to be enormous.
Strikes me that it is just the same as a lens but in reverse ?
Am I missing something ?
Mark
Why is it that building a magnifying viewfinder is so hard ? It must be hard as the prices are so high or is it just that rarity value allows the margins to be enormous.
Strikes me that it is just the same as a lens but in reverse ?
Am I missing something ?
Mark
That was my question also but after I realized that few simple pieces of metal that together hold my strobe can cost more the 200$ I don't wonder any more...
As far as i know it has to do with the extreme cost of engineering optics in such small size. THis of course would have to been done seperately for each camera i would think, though i could be wrong about that...
I know what you are saying about anything camera related underwater having a hefty price tag.
I would have thought that the optics could be bought off the shelf. It doesn't need to be camera lens quality after all. Isn't it really about spacing and building the housing for the bought in lenses ?
That doesn't seem too hard.
Why is it that building a magnifying viewfinder is so hard ? I don't know, but my thoughts are these..
When looking at the viewfinder of my ike housing I notice that viewfinder actually does not magnify the view, on the contrary it makes it smaller. The only reason i can think of is that the camera's "native" viewfinder is so small that any magnification on the part of the housing would make it impossible to see all of the area of the camera's viewfinder. Then there is the issue of space between the housing and the viewfinder, which makes the distance and angle of view even a longer tunnel.
So, I guess the challenge is first finding someone who could design and build some pretty complex optics, (which might even have to be different for each camera model). And no doubt, that will come at a price, which might or might not be justifiable in the market that is being catered to by the less expensive housings, as it is more price sensitive.
Anyway, I hope there are others like me out there... Don't want to pay for the fancy titanium knob that launces a space shuttle, but would be willing to fork out quite a bit for a very practical feature that I felt would significantly improve my ability to see, and therefore improve image quality.
Terms of Use Privacy Policy Guidelines We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.
A worldwide community for underwater imaging.
