Veteran Member Registered: September, 2013 Posts: 306 | | Review Date: March 15, 2014 | Not Recommended | Price: $13.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | Helps mf, cheap, just slide in installation | | Cons: | Only center is sharp enough | |
Not get this one. I have also pentax original OM-53 or something like that named and its much better than this. Optics are just too cheap and not good here...but its better than nothing.
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Forum Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: Chelsea, Michigan Posts: 53
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 11, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $18.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | low price, nice quality, greatly aids manual focus, minimal vignette | | Cons: | Plastic could be fragile, zoom ring can move when camera slung over shoulder | |
Mine is the DSLRKit from eBay. The Nikon viewfinder adapter that comes with it (along with 2 Canon adapters) fits snug on the Pentax (mine is the k-5). After some initial testing, I must say I am very happy with this product. It seem to be good quality - not stellar - and perfectly satisfactory considering its very reasonable price. Through some rough eyeballing, viewing a color grid, I've determined that the magnification factors are reasonably accurate. Objects appear to be roughly 25% taller and wider - that works to be between 50-60% magnification, or 1.5-1.6X - at its zoomed max. Zoomed to minimum, it does appear slightly larger (10%) than with no magnification. The image quality is great in the center, but looses sharpness around the extreme edges. But when I'm using manual focus, I'm look through the center anyway. I notice no additional color fringing or any other obnoxious artifacts either. There is slight vignetting of the corners - especially when at 1.6X. But I can still see from edge to edge for composition, and with just a slight shift of the eye, can read the display at the base of the viewfinder. I find the vignetting of no serious distraction or interference with my composition. Now, as far as its effects on manual focusing - the reason I bought this in the first place - it does, to me, significantly help my accuracy in nailing the focus. I use the ML-60 AF divided matte screen. I find that, even with the limitations inherent in AF screens, I can achieve very reasonable accuracy of focus even with my SMC M 50/1.4. So I'm very pleased about that. For extra critical focus, I'd still check with Live View.
One con to this design, as convenient as it is, is that when I wear my camera over my shoulder, the action of the camera bumping against my side tends to push the magnifier in from its max zoom position. So when I lift the camera to my eye, I may need to twist the magnifier lens back out to max zoom. The zooming feels well dampened and not loose at all. It holds its position except in the situation I just described. Another inconvenience, if one zooms the eyepiece frequently, is that the diopter needs to be adjusted from one extreme to the other when zooming the eyepiece from min to max. I plan to use this at max magnification most of the time anyway, but I check my diopter focus by making sure the led display looks sharp to my eye.
The magnifier also comes with two choices of eye cups. I prefer the large flange one - I don't wear glasses when shooting. The large flange does obstruct some of the LCD viewfinder. I just move it out of they way if I need to. I haven't found it to be an inconvenience so far.
I think that 1.6X is about as magnified one would want without needing to flip the magnifier out of the way to compose the shot. Its usefulness is certainly subjective. But I am finding this to be a very worthwhile investment that makes my viewfinder experience much more enjoyable with a nice full and large image to my eye (no tunnel effect). I've been using the Pentax O-ME53 (1.18X) magnifier before this. It was definitely an improvement over the stock eyepiece, but this new 1.08-1.58X magnifier will most likely stay on my camera. I'd use the O-ME53 when I plan to use just AF lenses.
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