[DogLover]

In the general interests of objectivity someone who owns both should probably categorically quantify why one is better than the other.

OK, well, if he can discern dof at 1.2 then perhaps the Canon wouldn't help him much. I could never do that with my Katzeye and haven't heard of anyone else being able to do that, either. That is the major difference. The Canon is generally much better at discerning extremely shallow dof's. Also, focus "snap" is much improved and it's nice not to have to deal with that split screen in the middle of your field-of-view, or relying on finding something with lines that you need to try to line up. The other nice thing is that the Katzeye will cause metering errors, the Canon, not so much.

[BETLOG]

Oh my bad, I thought we were comparing katzeye vs focusingscreen.com *split hemisphere* screens.
I have been curious if the katz 'brightening' treatment actually makes a quantifiable difference on the split-hemii type screens.

[kkx]

I have the canon 550D, up graded to K-5 for brighter and bigger OVF (and in body SR) so that I can use my manual focus lenses better.

I am having a lot of difficulties focusing my 50mm 1.4 on my 550D. I am surprise to read that you think the 400D is better than the stock K-5. My stock 550D is not better than my stock K-5. I don't expect the stock screen in 550D is much different compared to the 400D. Anyone else have any experience or info on this?

But replacing the stock K-5 with the canon s-type is a HUGE improvement. I can now focus my 50mm 1.4 with relative ease (holding back mainly by my poor eyesight).

[beholder3]

[deleted]
I feel this is especially true for people photography / portraits where you don't have clear lines to check using the split screen.

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Last edited by beholder3; 08-12-2013 at 01:43 AM. Reason: [deleted]

[lammie200]

I have attached two pictures here.
One is the look through the viewfinder of a K-5 using the EE-S with an A 50mm F1.2 (taken with a P&S) and the other one is the actual picture taken.

I think you can say that the viewfinder now gives you an accurate impression of DOF.

These pictures should give everyone some idea of how it looks. I now find it relatively easy to use manual focus. I tried it on A50/1.2, A28/2 and A*200/2.8. I personally find them all easier to use wide open than with the microprism/split screen ones I used the years before.

I feel this is especially true for people photography / portraits where you don't have clear lines to check using the split screen.

Great job showing the effect. I put a Canon S-type from focussingscreen.com on my K-r and it is much improved. It fits the K-r without any shims since it is thicker than the stock screen. I also have one for my K-5 but I haven't installed it yet. From what I know, the generally accepted method on the K-5 is to replace the metal shim with the same shape plastic one that is thinner. Is that what you did?

[beholder3]

[[deleted]

[lammie200]

No. It fits perfectly without any replacement of shims required. Maybe I can't see the error, but as far as I can tell, it works nicely.

So you left the stock metal shim in place?

[beholder3]

[deleted]

[riff]

I have attached two pictures here.
One is the look through the viewfinder of a K-5 using the EE-S with an A 50mm F1.2 (taken with a P&S) and the other one is the actual picture taken.

Excellent, great job. That screen looks very good to my eye.

[beholder3]

[deleted]

[jeffshaddix]

Actually I forgot to mention two other items of relevance:

1. as Canon writes themselves (Canon Direct Store- Focusing Screen Ee-S) you do have to expect a quite dark viewfinder with slow glasses, because the whole physical reason why it's so good for showing dof is that it is not "bright"

2. One very big advantage for fast glass and portrait shooting is that there is no need to pan/swivel the camera when composing an off center subject as you do need with a split prism screen (leading to a risk of misaligning the focus plane).
You can check sharpness and dof perfectly even at the edges of the viewfinder frame. To me that alone is worth it.

Your second point is exactly why I switched from the Ec-A. It's faster to not have to recompose and it also aids composition to not have an odd blob in the middle.

[Nuff]

Yes, I did not take anything out.

On the other hand I had to take my metal shim out and you the included plastic one. All K5s are different and the OEM screen isn't calibrated perfectly out of factory (not many people manual focus this day and age). So install it and see if it's off, then adjust as necessary. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

[twitch]

I've still got this screen sitting in my drawer because I'm too much of a scaredy cat to install it. Yet I felt all brave when I ordered it ... as I sipped my red wine

[Nuff]

Time to sip the wine again. The only thing to worry about is to be in dust free environment, otherwise it's pretty hard to screw things up.

[twitch]

Yeah I know I should, also could update the firmware at the same time as it supposedly affects AF, hmmmmm, might need more than just 1 glass