20D viewfinder is too small

[ymages]

is there any product to get the EOS 20D viewfinder bigger ?.. to

compose a landscape + manual focusing is very difficult

[antonrussell]

Zigview? It's only been around for a couple of weeks. The first page of google revealed one review: http://www.kickstartnews.com/reviews/hardware/zigview_digital_angle_viewfinder.html

[ymages]

thank you that's really new

but what about Canon ANGLE-FINDER-C ? for landscape or Macro ?

did you try it

[matt_sallis]

I found changing the focussing screen for one of

<a href="http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/">these</a> with the brightness enhancement helped considerably with manual focussing.

[ymages]

thank you for the link

[jbq]

The angle finder will definitely get you quite some extra magnification.

[ymages]

i feel sometimes so tired :-)

is there anything normally working .. just fine .. that you can normally see what you are shooting .. with a normal shot ?

[PuppyDigs]

The Pentax istD has an amazingly large viewfinder for a cropped DSLR. I wonder why

Canon makes their viewfinders so small?

[ymages]

i cannot imagine really shooting a landscape like Veronese or Canaletto in Canon viewer

 

but if The angle finder add extra magnification then i don't know what to do

[gary_ferguson1]

"I wonder why Canon makes their viewfinders so small?"

 

A bigger image requires a bigger prism, lots of weight and lots of cost. Hasselblad uses mirrors instead of a prism on the H1, big image, very bright, compact and reasonably light...but you need to align your eye extremely carefully or else the viewfinder image distorts badly, and it's still a touch fuzzy for spectacle wearers out in the corners.

 

The moral of the story I'm afraid is that there's no free lunch where viewfinders are concerned.

[ymages]

and you think that angle finder is not a good solution ?

[PuppyDigs]

"A bigger image requires a bigger prism, lots of weight and lots of cost. "

 

I don't doubt things need to be bigger, but not that much bigger nor expensive. In fact the

Pentax ist digital is much smaller than the 20D, about the same size as the 350D, and its

viewfinder whips the 20D good. When I looked through my friend's Pentax istD I felt like

I'm looking through a normal film SLR. He paid about $600 less than a 20D. Sure it's only

6MP but that viewfinnder is gorgeous.

[ymages]

ok .. I like the 20D that's not the question but with additional cost i can imagine a viewer with 0% lost quality and 2 or 3 time a bigger viewer for macro manual focus and landscape framing

.. I thought the Angle viewer was ideal .... I (or canon) was wrong

[robin_sibson1]

The Angle Finder C is a very specialist accessory. I use it (and used its predecessors back to Pellix/FL days) for botanical close-up work, where it is often the only way to get shots. You might possibly use it for landscape work on a tripod, but it is no sort of general-purpose solution to the rather disappointing 20D viewfinder - although curiously, it actually works better with the 20D than with the 1v, where it is very hard to see the metering scale through the AF-C.

[ymages]

but how can you do a confortable framing for landscape

and an effective manual focus for macro ?

 

that's mysterious for me

[peter_phan]

You might consider getting a split-prism viewfinder screen for your 20D, which will make manually focusing much easier. They are available

 

<a href="http://www.keoptics.com/Canon_20D.htm">HERE</a> and

 

<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/screen4DSLR/">HERE</a>.

[ryanjoseph]

There really is no way to make the viewfinder bigger on the 20D in an effective manner. If light levels are good enough I would suggest you simply use the autofocus system in the camera. Alternatively, as others have pointed out, people are now making split screen viewfinders.

 

I must admit it is a tad tricky focusing DSLR viewfinders on landscapes. I have a 300D and find macro focusing a snap. Remember these cameras have focus confirmation capacity that is very accurate, and I would trust it more than my eyes anyday.

[ymages]

thank you Peter I think I'll try one !

 

Ryan Using AF for landscape yes of course, but for Macro ?

[ymages]

do you know this model >> http://www.camerachina.com/products_list.php?mid=2&cat=48

 

4 or 5 time cheaper than the one from Canon

[dogbert]

For a decent landscape you should be stopping down to a minimum of f8 and probably more likely f11 or f16. At such apertures I can not understand why you would bother with manual focus. If it were me I would probably just set to the hyperfocal length and not even bother checking in the viewfinder.