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Hoodman Loupe advise needed (1 Viewer)

Brian Du Bretagne

Brian McCombe.
Hello.
I've just strated digiscoping and right away i have a problem in bright light with my Kowa TSN 883/Nikon P 6000
I need to achieve two goals.
1.I need to magnify my LCD screen as i wear glasses to help me focus on the bird.At the moment my images are simply not sharp enough.
2.On a sunny day,its impossible to see my LCD.
Something like the Hoodman Loupe 3.0 seems to fit the bill (although i think it is vastly overpriced for what it is).
Is this Loupe available in Europe ?
Or does anybody have any another suggestions ?.
Finally.It would be ideal if the Loupe could be attached to the Nikon at all times.
I've also seen the Hoodman Cinema Kit,which is attached to the camera by straps but i don't think this "kit" magnifies the LCD.Any comments on this method ?
Help needed urgently
Thanks in advance.
Brian.:-C
 
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Hello Brian,
the Hoodman Loupe will fall at the first hurdle as it doesn't magnify the LCD screen, however I believe it has diopter adjustment +/-.

You could also try a shade from Delkin
http://www.delkin.com/products/popupshades/mini/

you can pick them up on ebay for about £10 but light still gets in at times.
There is also this
http://www.eagleeyeuk.com/erol2eu/erol.html

this magnifies the image but for my eyes it magnifies it too much. I'm not sure if they make this one for a 3" screen.
However this chap in the USA is very helpfull, and I have dealt with him personally is bringing out a 3" version
http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendaview/pro3.0/index.html

Hope this helps
All the best
Gary
 
Hi Brian..........I used my new Panasonic GF1 outside recently and it was useless due to the bright sun obscuring the otherwise good LCD screen. I used the same camera today with a Hoodman and I can use it with reasonable results ......not publishable yet as I'm new to digiiscoping; I use the GF1 with a Kowa 883.
The Hoodman seems to exclude all extraneous light and the diopter adjustment works well.
My Hoodman was on sale at Henry's in Ontario.....$90.00........I think though it is money well spent if your camera is otherwise unusable outside.
Regs
Robin
 
Hi Brian,

I was shown the Hoodman on a camera and bought the "kit" for my Nikon P6000. I think it is great and it helps me a lot. The kit is in three parts:

The "loupe" part is a hand help plastic moulding that fits over the LCD screen and which has a viewfinder eyepiece with adjustable diopter. Although it may not magnify the screen, it excludes light very well when positioned correctly and allows me to get the right focus on the screen which is only 10cm away from the LCD screen, so it appears bigger. As someone else on this forum points out, it shows how poor the LCD resolution is on the P6000, so there must be some element of magnification there! You need this bit as the minimum.

The second part is "cinema straps" or "cinema kit" which is elasticised rubber "string" that fits around the eyepiece part of the loupe. This cinema kit transforms the hand help loupe into a semi-fixed loupe. Well worth getting. The string can be adjusted to fit snugly around the camera body so that the loupe part can be held in place. It can only ever be a snug fit and it does move in transit, but it is normally just a matter of adjusting it before use.

The third piece is the eyecup which helps exclude even more light when looking through the loupe. I bought it for the sake of compeleteness.

The total kit isn't cheap, but i must admit that when Paul Hackett showed me it, I thought it was great, ordered one by phone and have used it regularly since. It hasn't overcome all my problems (!!) but it is a very useful bit of kit. I can use itb on sunny days and see very clearly the image on the LCD screen.

I had the Delkin shade, but it has been put in a drawer since I got the Hoodman - which is a different league entirely.

Hope this helps. I would offer to meet up and let you play with it, but we are in different countries, but if you want any more info, just post it here or PM me.

Michael.
 
Thank you

Hello Michael.
Thank you very much indeed for you opinions re: Hoodman Loupe.Very useful information.
I've already got the Cinema Kit on Standby with Amazon UK.
So i'll be going ahead.
Thanks again.
Best Wishes.
Brian.:t:
 
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Thanks

Hi Brian..........I used my new Panasonic GF1 outside recently and it was useless due to the bright sun obscuring the otherwise good LCD screen. I used the same camera today with a Hoodman and I can use it with reasonable results ......not publishable yet as I'm new to digiiscoping; I use the GF1 with a Kowa 883.
The Hoodman seems to exclude all extraneous light and the diopter adjustment works well.
My Hoodman was on sale at Henry's in Ontario.....$90.00........I think though it is money well spent if your camera is otherwise unusable outside.
Regs
Robin

Thanks for your help Robin.
Will be going ahead with Hoodman.
Best wishes.
Brian.:t:pS also using Kowa 883.WHAT A SCOPE.Incredible.
 
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