As I mentioned in my last article (New Found Love of Video) I was awaiting for the LCD hood Loupe to be delivered for my DSLR camera. Without repeating too much of what I previously wrote – the LCD hood loupe is a device that mounts onto the camera that shields the rear LCD display on the camera from glare, but also adds an eyepiece with optics to allow the user to see a magnified view of the LCD
Installing the Kit
After receiving the kit, I immediately set about attaching it to my camera. The hoop loupe kit is actually two pieces – the mounting plate that stays attached to the camera, and the actual hood and optics assembly that easily mounts to the plate with a simple twist of a knob to secure it firmly in place. The mounting plate is attached to the bottom of the camera via the 1/4″ threaded receptacle that is normally used for mounting the camera to tripods or monopods. The plate also provides not one, but two additional 1/4″ threaded receptacles so you can still use a tripod or monopod without having to the remove the plate – a very nice touch!
Using the Hood Loupe
It took a few minutes to dial in the diopter adjustment on the eyepiece – it didn’t occur to me at first that the easiest way to make sure it was adjusted properly, is to simply pop up any one of the menus on the LCD screen, and adjust the diopter to bring the menu into focus.
With that out of the way, it was time to try it out. I soon discovered that achieving exact focus using this is still not going to be fool proof for a couple of reasons. First, the optics in the eyepiece are not perfect – there’s a slight but noticeable distortion around the edges while the center is sharp. This isn’t the main issue though. The biggest problem is the camera LCD screen itself, because it doesn’t really have the resolution to indicate the difference between tack sharp focus, and “almost focused” – especially with subjects that are somewhat distant. It’s much easier to see on close objects, or objects that are “zoomed in.”
But, I also noticed with a little practice that I was getting better at using it. So before I pass final judgement on it, I’ll keep messing around with it to see how it goes.