Afew words about Katzeye

**sinus007** · 02-28-2009, 01:13 PM

Hi,
A few eeks ago I've got Katzeye focusing screen for my Pentax k200d. Everything looked good. I didn't do any testing. After about a week or so, I did a few shots in MF @ F1.4 and noticed that the pictures were out of focus (compared to identical shots in AF). I e-mailed to Katzeye Optics for help. The response came back in less than 2 hours and it was from a live person on the phone who was commited to resolving the issue!
From then on the owner of the company, Rachel Katz, took care of the problem.
She offered a couple of solutions, suggested to run additional tests. To make a long story short, the problem was solved by changing a shim that sits behind the focusing screen to a thinner one.
The point of this post is to express my gratitude and admiration of the customer support that Katzeye Optics provides to its customers.

BTW, that katzeye focusing screen is a great help for manual focus- highly recommended!
Thank you very much,

AndrewShirley · 02-28-2009, 01:46 PM

Sounds great! My KatzEye is currently sitting in a UPS depot since it acquired some COD on the way to my house (customs brokerage) and went back to the depot since we were out at the time of delivery. Looking forward to Monday.

Anyway, where do you get the shims from?

- Andrew

Gooneybird · 02-28-2009, 02:22 PM

I'm unable to answer your question, but I have a little information that might help you avoid making an unwanted mistake.

First of all, different models of cameras (as well as brands) have different shim situations. My Pentax K10D does not use shims at all, and all I had to do when swapping out the glass screens was to be sure the new Katz Eye was properly oriented and in the metal frame correctly. On the other hand, a friend of mine who ordered a Katz Eye (after I did) for his Nikon D300 ran into a shim problem. If I recall correctly, he failed to observe that it already had a shim in place and let it fall out when removing the original glass. It was later that he discovered this mistake, and put the missing shim back in its proper place - then things worked as they should.

Now, I cannot help you with acquiring shims, but since you did not indicate what camera you are planning to replace, I felt it worthwhile to point out that you might not need any such. Perhaps you should contact the lady at Katz Eye with your question, and I'm sure she can give you the answer for your particular camera.

Olin

roentarre · 02-28-2009, 04:10 PM

Moved to camera accessories section

**eccs19** · 02-28-2009, 04:37 PM

Originally posted by AndrewShirley

Sounds great! My KatzEye is currently sitting in a UPS depot since it acquired some COD on the way to my house (customs brokerage) and went back to the depot since we were out at the time of delivery. Looking forward to Monday.

Anyway, where do you get the shims from?

- Andrew

It's a shame you had them ship it UPS to Barrie. I hate to see how much in fees they are going to charge you. When I order mine a couple of months ago, I had them ship it USPS, and came to my door with no extra charges. One thing that I've learned is when it come to getting stuff from the USA, if at all possible, avoid UPS, if you need to use a service other than Postal, it may be a bit cheaper to ship by Fedex, or another courier. UPS is the worst for screwing over us Canadians. I'd be interested to know how much they charge you when you pick it up, if you don't mind sharing that info.

**sinus007** · 02-28-2009, 04:57 PM

Hi Andrew,
I bought them from pentax $0.66 each.

AndrewShirley · 03-01-2009, 04:38 AM

Thanks guys for the info. I'll be installing on a K10D. Lesson learned about UPS, BTW: the brokerage fee is $23.35 CDN. I have to admit that I was absolutely shocked at how fast this thing arrived at my door with UPS. It left the states on Wednesday and was there Friday. But, the COD charge really messed things up

Eccs19, I see you live in Lisle, just the other side of the base. Its a very beautiful area that I like to travel through whenever possible.

- Andrew

stevebrot · 03-01-2009, 09:52 AM

Originally posted by eccs19

It's a shame you had them ship it UPS to Barrie. I hate to see how much in fees they are going to charge you. When I order mine a couple of months ago, I had them ship it USPS, and came to my door with no extra charges. One thing that I've learned is when it come to getting stuff from the USA, if at all possible, avoid UPS, if you need to use a service other than Postal, it may be a bit cheaper to ship by Fedex, or another courier. UPS is the worst for screwing over us Canadians. I'd be interested to know how much they charge you when you pick it up, if you don't mind sharing that info.

Just wanting to add more weight to the above message. The best way to ship photographic stuff between the U.S. and Canada is via regular post using a customs envelope. Paying for customs brokerage is a waste, particularly because camera stuff moves duty free between the two countries.

Steve

virgilr · 03-01-2009, 08:52 PM

AK-

A few Quick questions.

I have a screen coming for my K100D Super that I ordered last Tuesday. How long, after you placed the order, did it take before they shipped your screen?

When you installed the screen, was there a shim allready in place in the camera body when you removed the factory screen? If so, did you have to add another shim or simply change the original with another of a different thickness?

Did you have to order the shim from Pentax and have it delivered, or was there someplace near you where you were able to go to actually pick up the new shim?

To all RE shipping: been doing business on Ebay cross-border for 9 years, and I've always used USPS- UPS is absolutely giving the proverbial shaft to all canadians with their customs brokerage fees! steve is absolutely right: there should be no fees on photographic equipment, as per NAFTA!

Hoping I don't have to deal with this sort of issue.. yuck! Hate waiting to order parts from OEM's (like Pentax).

**sinus007** · 03-02-2009, 11:06 AM

Originally posted by virgilr

AK-

A few Quick questions.

I have a screen coming for my K100D Super that I ordered last Tuesday. How long, after you placed the order, did it take before they shipped your screen?

When you installed the screen, was there a shim allready in place in the camera body when you removed the factory screen? If so, did you have to add another shim or simply change the original with another of a different thickness?

Did you have to order the shim from Pentax and have it delivered, or was there someplace near you where you were able to go to actually pick up the new shim?

To all RE shipping: been doing business on Ebay cross-border for 9 years, and I've always used USPS- UPS is absolutely giving the proverbial shaft to all canadians with their customs brokerage fees! steve is absolutely right: there should be no fees on photographic equipment, as per NAFTA!

Hoping I don't have to deal with this sort of issue.. yuck! Hate waiting to order parts from OEM's (like Pentax).

Hi Virgil,
I think it was about 4-5 days before they shipped my screen.
I don't know the construction of k100d super. In k200d there's a shim that goes between the body of the cam and focusing screen.
The problem was that the original shim was 0.40mm thick which created FF when using the Katzeye screen in MF (AF was working fine). As Rachael explained to me Pentax usually puts there 0.15mm shims in k200d. I put 2x0.15=0.30mm instead of 0.40mm.
I purchased the shims (2 of 0.15mm) directly from Pentax (Boulder, CO). They stock only these shims - other thickness shims have to be ordered from Japan.
I hope I answered all your question.

**Lowell Goudge** · 03-02-2009, 11:18 AM

It's interesting, I have seen comments before about shims, but I don't recall seeing any in either my *istD or K10D when I swapped screens between them

is this only a penta mirror thing?

AndrewShirley · 03-02-2009, 12:32 PM

I just picked up mine and installed it (k10D). I had a chance to try it a little and so far so good. My initial thoughts are that I'm really impressed with how accurate you can focus with this screen. I was clearly able to see focus coming and going as I was manually focusing, very similar to my Pentax SV. For manual focus its definately a major improvement over the stock screen.

- Andrew

virgilr · 03-02-2009, 01:37 PM

Thanks for the information AK!

Just got my shipment confirmation email from Rachel! Whoo hoo!

My K100DS does have the shim- I had removed the factory screen to clean it a while back. I'm hoping it's stock, not some odd duck they put in to deal with a screen that wasn't focusing properly, which sounds like your specific case, AK.

If so, there are pentax repair centers in the greater Montreal area, so hoping if I need to, I'll be able to go to one and just buy the shim I need..

Can't wait! Andrew- that's exactly what I'm hoping to see: I love my MF lenses, hate the stock focus screen!

virgilr · 03-07-2009, 12:01 AM

Right-0!

Got the Katz Eye today.

No need to play with shim problems! That was my first concern, and with both my manual lenses, focus is spot-on. SHEW!!

As well, my Tammy AF is quite good, it seems! I little off at the long end, but from the short end up to ~150mm, focus is very accurate!

Very impressed with the screen. Nope, not as bright as the stock screen. But we all know that pentax over-compensated for FS brightness in it's design due to the penta-mirror, not penta-prism. Very glad I ponied up for opti-brite, or the thing would have been quite a dissapointment!

Microprisms help a TON in low light focusing. The only thing I must say, that the split-prism engravings are not perfectly lined up (in how they are engraved, not in how they function) on the left side. I thought for over 200.00 CAD (after taxes, exchange, shipping, other fees) that this kind of detail would be exact. BUT- it works fabulously! No blackout with my tammy at the long end (where it's in f/5.6 when focusing). split-prism is nice and bright!

I feel an investment completely justified- and now I'm going to shoot with tons more manual glass! Gives a whole new "depth" to my little K100DS.

SteveM · 03-07-2009, 12:14 AM

The Katz eye has made digital workable for me.....re UPS ...after getting screwed for big $$$ for "brokerage fees" (private taxes) and realizing the best way to piss off customers for no fault of my own was to use them.....I have a BOLD and STRICT "NO UPS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC!!! on my ebay listings.... Ever wonder why you don't have customers coming back again and again....well now you do.

02-28-2009, 01:13 PM	#1
sinus007 Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Cleveland, OH, USA Photos: Gallery Posts: 292	Afew words about Katzeye Hi, A few eeks ago I've got Katzeye focusing screen for my Pentax k200d. Everything looked good. I didn't do any testing. After about a week or so, I did a few shots in MF @ F1.4 and noticed that the pictures were out of focus (compared to identical shots in AF). I e-mailed to Katzeye Optics for help. The response came back in less than 2 hours and it was from a live person on the phone who was commited to resolving the issue! From then on the owner of the company, Rachel Katz, took care of the problem. She offered a couple of solutions, suggested to run additional tests. To make a long story short, the problem was solved by changing a shim that sits behind the focusing screen to a thinner one. The point of this post is to express my gratitude and admiration of the customer support that Katzeye Optics provides to its customers. BTW, that katzeye focusing screen is a great help for manual focus- highly recommended! Thank you very much,

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Words of Wisdom?	Rupert	General Talk	74	01-28-2010 02:07 PM
Words, still working on them...	pingflood	Post Your Photos!	1	03-31-2009 09:04 AM
Afew photos from Colorado high country	RoxnDox	Post Your Photos!	3	10-07-2008 02:56 PM
More good words	JCSullivan	Photographic Technique	4	05-13-2008 07:07 PM
Five-Letter Words	bb.hyena	General Talk	12	02-15-2008 04:37 AM

02-28-2009, 01:46 PM	#2
AndrewShirley Inactive Account Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada Posts: 421	Sounds great! My KatzEye is currently sitting in a UPS depot since it acquired some COD on the way to my house (customs brokerage) and went back to the depot since we were out at the time of delivery. Looking forward to Monday. Anyway, where do you get the shims from? - Andrew

02-28-2009, 02:22 PM	#3
Gooneybird Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Florence, SC Photos: Gallery Posts: 75	I'm unable to answer your question, but I have a little information that might help you avoid making an unwanted mistake. First of all, different models of cameras (as well as brands) have different shim situations. My Pentax K10D does not use shims at all, and all I had to do when swapping out the glass screens was to be sure the new Katz Eye was properly oriented and in the metal frame correctly. On the other hand, a friend of mine who ordered a Katz Eye (after I did) for his Nikon D300 ran into a shim problem. If I recall correctly, he failed to observe that it already had a shim in place and let it fall out when removing the original glass. It was later that he discovered this mistake, and put the missing shim back in its proper place - then things worked as they should. Now, I cannot help you with acquiring shims, but since you did not indicate what camera you are planning to replace, I felt it worthwhile to point out that you might not need any such. Perhaps you should contact the lady at Katz Eye with your question, and I'm sure she can give you the answer for your particular camera. Olin

02-28-2009, 04:10 PM	#4
roentarre Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 11,783	Moved to camera accessories section

02-28-2009, 04:37 PM	#5
eccs19 Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Lisle, Ontario Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,510	Originally posted by AndrewShirley Sounds great! My KatzEye is currently sitting in a UPS depot since it acquired some COD on the way to my house (customs brokerage) and went back to the depot since we were out at the time of delivery. Looking forward to Monday. Anyway, where do you get the shims from? - Andrew It's a shame you had them ship it UPS to Barrie. I hate to see how much in fees they are going to charge you. When I order mine a couple of months ago, I had them ship it USPS, and came to my door with no extra charges. One thing that I've learned is when it come to getting stuff from the USA, if at all possible, avoid UPS, if you need to use a service other than Postal, it may be a bit cheaper to ship by Fedex, or another courier. UPS is the worst for screwing over us Canadians. I'd be interested to know how much they charge you when you pick it up, if you don't mind sharing that info.

02-28-2009, 04:57 PM	#6
sinus007 Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Cleveland, OH, USA Photos: Gallery Posts: 292 Original Poster	Hi Andrew, I bought them from pentax $0.66 each.

03-01-2009, 04:38 AM	#7
AndrewShirley Inactive Account Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada Posts: 421	Thanks guys for the info. I'll be installing on a K10D. Lesson learned about UPS, BTW: the brokerage fee is $23.35 CDN. I have to admit that I was absolutely shocked at how fast this thing arrived at my door with UPS. It left the states on Wednesday and was there Friday. But, the COD charge really messed things up Eccs19, I see you live in Lisle, just the other side of the base. Its a very beautiful area that I like to travel through whenever possible. - Andrew

03-01-2009, 09:52 AM	#8
stevebrot Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 42,007	Originally posted by eccs19 It's a shame you had them ship it UPS to Barrie. I hate to see how much in fees they are going to charge you. When I order mine a couple of months ago, I had them ship it USPS, and came to my door with no extra charges. One thing that I've learned is when it come to getting stuff from the USA, if at all possible, avoid UPS, if you need to use a service other than Postal, it may be a bit cheaper to ship by Fedex, or another courier. UPS is the worst for screwing over us Canadians. I'd be interested to know how much they charge you when you pick it up, if you don't mind sharing that info. Just wanting to add more weight to the above message. The best way to ship photographic stuff between the U.S. and Canada is via regular post using a customs envelope. Paying for customs brokerage is a waste, particularly because camera stuff moves duty free between the two countries. Steve

03-01-2009, 08:52 PM	#9
virgilr Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Lachine, Quebec, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 453	AK- A few Quick questions. I have a screen coming for my K100D Super that I ordered last Tuesday. How long, after you placed the order, did it take before they shipped your screen? When you installed the screen, was there a shim allready in place in the camera body when you removed the factory screen? If so, did you have to add another shim or simply change the original with another of a different thickness? Did you have to order the shim from Pentax and have it delivered, or was there someplace near you where you were able to go to actually pick up the new shim? To all RE shipping: been doing business on Ebay cross-border for 9 years, and I've always used USPS- UPS is absolutely giving the proverbial shaft to all canadians with their customs brokerage fees! steve is absolutely right: there should be no fees on photographic equipment, as per NAFTA! Hoping I don't have to deal with this sort of issue.. yuck! Hate waiting to order parts from OEM's (like Pentax).

03-02-2009, 11:06 AM	#10
sinus007 Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Cleveland, OH, USA Photos: Gallery Posts: 292 Original Poster	Originally posted by virgilr AK- A few Quick questions. I have a screen coming for my K100D Super that I ordered last Tuesday. How long, after you placed the order, did it take before they shipped your screen? When you installed the screen, was there a shim allready in place in the camera body when you removed the factory screen? If so, did you have to add another shim or simply change the original with another of a different thickness? Did you have to order the shim from Pentax and have it delivered, or was there someplace near you where you were able to go to actually pick up the new shim? To all RE shipping: been doing business on Ebay cross-border for 9 years, and I've always used USPS- UPS is absolutely giving the proverbial shaft to all canadians with their customs brokerage fees! steve is absolutely right: there should be no fees on photographic equipment, as per NAFTA! Hoping I don't have to deal with this sort of issue.. yuck! Hate waiting to order parts from OEM's (like Pentax). Hi Virgil, I think it was about 4-5 days before they shipped my screen. I don't know the construction of k100d super. In k200d there's a shim that goes between the body of the cam and focusing screen. The problem was that the original shim was 0.40mm thick which created FF when using the Katzeye screen in MF (AF was working fine). As Rachael explained to me Pentax usually puts there 0.15mm shims in k200d. I put 2x0.15=0.30mm instead of 0.40mm. I purchased the shims (2 of 0.15mm) directly from Pentax (Boulder, CO). They stock only these shims - other thickness shims have to be ordered from Japan. I hope I answered all your question.

03-02-2009, 11:18 AM	#11
Lowell Goudge Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 17,888	It's interesting, I have seen comments before about shims, but I don't recall seeing any in either my *istD or K10D when I swapped screens between them is this only a penta mirror thing?

03-02-2009, 12:32 PM	#12
AndrewShirley Inactive Account Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada Posts: 421	I just picked up mine and installed it (k10D). I had a chance to try it a little and so far so good. My initial thoughts are that I'm really impressed with how accurate you can focus with this screen. I was clearly able to see focus coming and going as I was manually focusing, very similar to my Pentax SV. For manual focus its definately a major improvement over the stock screen. - Andrew

03-02-2009, 01:37 PM	#13
virgilr Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Lachine, Quebec, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 453	Thanks for the information AK! Just got my shipment confirmation email from Rachel! Whoo hoo! My K100DS does have the shim- I had removed the factory screen to clean it a while back. I'm hoping it's stock, not some odd duck they put in to deal with a screen that wasn't focusing properly, which sounds like your specific case, AK. If so, there are pentax repair centers in the greater Montreal area, so hoping if I need to, I'll be able to go to one and just buy the shim I need.. Can't wait! Andrew- that's exactly what I'm hoping to see: I love my MF lenses, hate the stock focus screen!

03-07-2009, 12:01 AM	#14
virgilr Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Lachine, Quebec, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 453	Right-0! Got the Katz Eye today. No need to play with shim problems! That was my first concern, and with both my manual lenses, focus is spot-on. SHEW!! As well, my Tammy AF is quite good, it seems! I little off at the long end, but from the short end up to ~150mm, focus is very accurate! Very impressed with the screen. Nope, not as bright as the stock screen. But we all know that pentax over-compensated for FS brightness in it's design due to the penta-mirror, not penta-prism. Very glad I ponied up for opti-brite, or the thing would have been quite a dissapointment! Microprisms help a TON in low light focusing. The only thing I must say, that the split-prism engravings are not perfectly lined up (in how they are engraved, not in how they function) on the left side. I thought for over 200.00 CAD (after taxes, exchange, shipping, other fees) that this kind of detail would be exact. BUT- it works fabulously! No blackout with my tammy at the long end (where it's in f/5.6 when focusing). split-prism is nice and bright! I feel an investment completely justified- and now I'm going to shoot with tons more manual glass! Gives a whole new "depth" to my little K100DS.

03-07-2009, 12:14 AM	#15
SteveM Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,294	The Katz eye has made digital workable for me.....re UPS ...after getting screwed for big $$$ for "brokerage fees" (private taxes) and realizing the best way to piss off customers for no fault of my own was to use them.....I have a BOLD and STRICT "NO UPS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOREIGN OR DOMESTIC!!! on my ebay listings.... Ever wonder why you don't have customers coming back again and again....well now you do.