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Camera sight (1 Viewer)

dandsblair

dandsblair

David and Sarah
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I saw some Japanese Birder / photographers with devices attached to the view finders of 1DX and 5DIII cameras that seemed to get them quickly on a bird even with a long lens and focusing through lots of branches.
A quick google didn't find anything - any info and thoughts on usefulness of such devices appreciated. I have to admit that finding an Antpitta or Tapaculo through some vegetation I found really tricky early on in a holiday although after a few days I did tend to get my eye in.
 
dandsblair said:
I saw some Japanese Birder / photographers with devices attached to the view finders of 1DX and 5DIII cameras that seemed to get them quickly on a bird even with a long lens and focusing through lots of branches.
A quick google didn't find anything - any info and thoughts on usefulness of such devices appreciated. I have to admit that finding an Antpitta or Tapaculo through some vegetation I found really tricky early on in a holiday although after a few days I did tend to get my eye in.
Click to expand...

Think they are using the Olympus EE-1 red dot sight.
Here at B&H Photo:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1116753-REG/olympus_ee_1_dot_sight_for.html#!

There has been some positive comment here on BF from other users.
 
Not an expert on this, but I have tried them - their primary purpose is to have a wider field of view than the long lens you are using and (when calibrated correctly) to assist you to get the camera's to autofocus on your target rather than you looking through the TTL viewfinder.

There are alternatives to the Olympus which are much cheaper (£20-£30) + flash shoe adapter but you pays your money and take your chances.

The red-dots are primarily used on rifles etc. as gun sights and can be useful in tracking fast moving birds or birds in dense foliage when the view through the viewfinder is difficult BUT you are not looking through the viewfinder but through a separate sight as they are mounted above the TTL viewfinder on the flash shoe. Many people use them and if you calibrate them correctly they can be very accurate in stable conditions but they can suffer from parallax errors if you move from a close bird to a distant bird without recalibration. More expensive red dots have parallax correction in built.

I am not sure why they would help autofocus through branches etc. as they don't replace the camera's autofocus process - they just help to get camera's existing autofocus mechanism on the bird using the red dot viewfinder and generally have a much wider field of view than the lens you are using (which is why you can get on the bird more quickly).

Michael.
 
I am fairly sure that I saw the same article, if so then Mikenott has hit the nail on the head. In the article that I saw the Japanese photographers were using rifle/pistol reflex sights. Whilst these would get you lined up on a static/perched subject very quickly they may not be ideal for moving subjects. There is no optical or electronic link between the sight and the camera so you don't know if you are actually focusing on the subject or not.

For perched birds I always place the thumb screw that secures the lens hood at the top center of my lens. This allows me to sight over the hotshoe and thumb screw giving me fairly accurate windage, I then just aim a little high and the subject is in the viewfinder. Quite handy to get on to a bird before it flies off and it's free too!
 
johnf3f said:
For perched birds I always place the thumb screw that secures the lens hood at the top center of my lens. This allows me to sight over the hotshoe and thumb screw giving me fairly accurate windage, I then just aim a little high and the subject is in the viewfinder. Quite handy to get on to a bird before it flies off and it's free too!
Click to expand...

This sounds very much like the cable tie sight that is popular with spotting scopes (extremly helpful, I use that all the time). Perhaps that is also helpful to find birds with long lenses?
 
I use the pattern of objects near or around the subject. For example I was at local twitch of Bearded Tit in a reedbed. Someone next to me was trying to photograph it but could not find it in the viewfinder. Amazingly, he let me have a go with his 5ds and I could not see the bird either but focussed on the pattern of reeds and took a shot, handed the camera back for him to review and upon zooming there was the bird albeit a 'record' shot such was the distance. With a bit of practice it is possible to remember the pattern after a very quick look and then go to the viewfinder.
 
Here's a picture of a sighting/finding device that I made for my G7 M4/3 camera with 600mm 35mm-equivalent lens, to address exactly this problem. It works in the same way as johnf3 describes above. You peep over the top of the camera, get the target in the ring of the sight, and then move your eye down to the viewfinder to compose and take the shot. It works a treat and it's a lot easier to use than a red-dot sight like the Olympus one mentioned above.

I also made one for my Canon SX50 bridge camera which has a 1200 mm 35mm-equivalent lens, which makes it pretty much impossible to find anything without zooming in and out all the time. I attach a picture of a linnet which I took using this device; the bird was about 15m away and kept moving about - I'd have had no chance whatsoever without the sight.

I won't claim credit for inventing this. It's basically a posh version of the cable-tie sight for scopes which you can find at

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=189743&highlight=cable+tie+sight[/url]

Using this type of sight has transformed my ability to take photographs. However, if you use something like this, be prepared for sneering remarks along the lines of "if you knew how to take photos properly you wouldn't need that"!
 

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I must admit that I hadn't really thought about using a red dot/sight for stationary birds. I have used a plastic tie-wrap on a scope but the first time I saw a red dot being used was for birds in flight. The wider angle of view compared to through a long (500+) lens allowed easier tracking of a moving bird but you are entirely reliant on the red dot to guide the camera auto focus to stay on the bird. Obviously, in this case, you ONLY look through the red dot sight and do not use the camera TTL viewfinder. It can work to good effect but preferably for birds at the same distance away - birds flying towards you and at different distances can amplify any parallax issues.

M.
 
Its not a laser, but a low powered light bounced off a semi-silvered reflector on the camera, through a lens to focus it like a optical framing device on external viewfinders. I havn't used the Olympus one, but similar sorts of devices from the 1960s were focussed at infinity so that you could follow a target at a distance more accurately, basically lock onto the ejection seat symbol and accurately track a fast jet, needed using relatively slow film and manual focus! Worry not, with this type the bird will be safe.
 
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Cool. I was concerned the wild animals could be hurt. It sounded like those red lasers you see in the "shoot them up" movies that I avoid. Glad this is totallt different.
 
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