I've got a Seagull

[richard64]

I bought a used Seagull angle finder off eBay. The price was about the same as the cost of buying it from China (just a bit less), but the postage was much less because the seller was in the same country as me. So the total cost was something like 50% what I would have spent if I had bought it from China.

I bought it for two reasons: first with some of the macro shots I take I would love to put the camera on the ground, or on the tripod, and not to have to crane over it; second, I wanted the 2x to try and get more accurate focus with MF lenses.

These are my thoughts.

Optically:

It's fine, but then you would not expect stunning optics. If you squint on 2x you can see the LED display at the bottom of the viewfinder. There is a dioptre adjustment on the Seagull. So without the Seagull I set the dioptre adjustment on the camera until the LED display is in focus, then with the Seagull I set the Seagull dioptre adjustment to make the LED in focus. That's fine. However, one irritating thing is that when you switch between 1x and 2x you have to adjust the Seagull dioptre adjustment again.

Build:

Again, it's nothing special. The case is mostly plastic with rubber coverings. The device has a "universal fitting" which means that on the Seagull is a metal coupling and then there are plastic attachments for various cameras. The plastic attachments are a bit flimsy, and I am not sure how long it will last. However, I have recently bought a Seagull rubber eyepiece (I was going to adapt it to make a Asahi magnifier I have to fit my K100D) and that has the same attachment, so it does mean I have a spare (the eyepiece cost five quid including postage from China, so don't dispair if you lose the attachment off your Seagull).

Because of the "universal fitting" there are some gaps where the Seagull attaches to the camera. With my initial tests I don't see any flare from this, but I may decide to wrap some tape or something around the fitting to exclude all light.

Interestingly, I find that the dioptre adjustment is quite wide, so a combination of the dioptre adjustment on the camera, and on the Seagull at 2x, I can use the camera without my glasses. Since I have 9.8 dioptre glasses (very near sighted) that is a huge adjustment!

Using the Seagull with manual lenses can be a bit of a fiddle with the camera handheld, but on a tripod it is much easier and I think it does improve my focusing. It's raining now, and my son has gone off somewhere with my tripod, so I haven't tried any macro yet. I am looking forward to a sunny day in the next few days (some hope!).

I've seen Seagull magnifiers on eBay, so perhaps after I have used the angle finder for a bit I might invest in one of those. (If anyone has used one, I would be interested to hear of your experience with it.)

Richard

[k100d]

thanks for detailing your experience and being thorough with the quality and fit. i didn't even know what it was till i looked, there's a picture here
Amazon.com: Seagull 1x-2x Right Angle Finder for Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta, Fuji, Olympus and Leica SLR cameras: Electronics

[Confused]

Re your declaration:

I've got a Seagull

Well for your information there are literally thousands more of them perching on roof-tops all around the English coastline as we speak and the copious amounts of guano they inadvertently deposit on cars tends to ruin people's paintwork something rotten, so I wouldn't be especially boastful about this if I were you.......LOL !!!!

Best regards
Richard