Originally posted by hnikesch The small design would be great at concerts and ball games where the hood is too obtrusive. I have often thought of something like the folding hood on my old Rolleiflex twin lens would be neat, this is close. I think the downside for me is would have to remove my glasses I can leave them on with my hood.
Hans
My "custom" made clearviewers arrived yesterday. As I was opening the box, I received a call offering my tickets to a concert in 3 hours. Of course I decided to take the Q, the tripod mounted clearviewer and the 06 lens to the concert.
I was very pleased.
The clearviewer allowed a very good posture. It was easy to hold the Q steady and operate the Q. The close distance between the clearviewer allowed a near classic viewing... I no longer was holding the Q away from my and viewing the screen with the "dirty diaper hold". It was like using a classic camera again. I use glasses and the clearviewer allowed me to hold the camera near my eye instead of at 15" away.
The fact that the clearviewer folded reminded me of using a TLR in the sixties with it's fold away lens in the folding viewer. In fact, clearviewer has a modified shoe mount version designed to be attached to a folding LCD screen. It was developed for the NEX, but there is no reasion it should not work with any folding screen. The Kaiser digishield would be perfect since it is attached via the tripod socket.
I liked the folding clearviewer so much that I have both the tripod mount and the shoe mount. The shoe mount is more secure, but does not fold for transport. I think it will work better with the K mount adapter with the camera on a tripod. The folding clearviewer was very convenient. I used it for all pictures.
It is so useful, that for the first time I can consider using a camera without an EVF. It is all about how the camera is held and how easy it is to compose and confirm proper focus. In the dark arena, I found that I frequently needed to use the manual focus ring to get close to proper focus and when I pressed the shutter, the autofocus was near instant.
Here are some images:
1) Shoe mount clearviewer with lens folded away.
2) Shoe mount clearviewer with lens extended for viewing the screen.
3) Folding clearviewer folded against the screen for storage.
4) Folding clearviewer extended for viewing screen
5) Concert Image
Outside, the closer distance to the screen helps. I can see the screen with a baseball hat on or by using my hand to shield. A hoodman style may be better in very bright light. The clearviewer is a great solution in the absence of version of the Q with an EVF. This conclusion also applies to the Pentax MX-1 and the Sony RX-100.