Thursday, October 29, 2009

Zacuto Z-FINDER KILLER!!! at half the price!

I custom made this viewfinder after using the hoodman loupe on my 5d Mark II. I found that it was very uncomfortable and hard to keep in focus. Then I tried the z-finder from zacuto at abelcine. it does have a great feeling and the optics are great. problem is it is out of stock all over town, not to mention price point. what was great about it was the eyecup and the 3x magnification. since i'm a do it yourself type of person, i decided to go out and try to make one on my own. i went to calumet and found this amazing 3x loupe. to my surprise it was exactly the same image as the zacuto. actually i thought that optics were better! and at $160 more than half the price. since i had already placed velcro around my LCD from the hoodman all i had to do was place the fuzzy side around the edges of this unit. it fit perfectly. the glass is german engineered rodenstock. but the design of this loupe was even more interesting.


as you can see when you pull off the top half what's left on the camera becomes a sunshade! it clicks on tightly when its on and easily comes off when you dont need it. brilliant. so all i did was go and buy i used eyecup from an old JVC camera ($15) that fit perfectly on the unit. total cost $175. the square unit is too big for the camera so i might actually create a connection piece for it that will retrofit the part that connects to the camera.

highly recommended if you want to great option from the zacuto!

8 comments:

  1. Great...I am also using a 6x6cm camera chimney viewer/loupe. The optical quality, both sharpness and contrast, exceeds the LCD viewers. The designers specs were for people taking 6x6 images (vs 3.6x2.4 on a FF 35mm or 2.4x1.8 on an APS-C. As a result you get optics designed for sharp focusing. They are outstanding!

    Great contribution. Kudos!

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  2. thanx a lot for sharing this! i'm gonna look all over sthlm now for a loupe like that.

    plz complete this project and keep posting!

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  3. it's a rodenstock 6x6 loupe .... very very good value

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  4. This is a great find, if you find a workable, polished way to attach it. Problem with the Zfinder is it's half the price of an external monitor! At that price point I'd rather go all the way and get a monitor, or limp along with my screen. This is definitely something to consider until I can justify an external screen!

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  5. The cheapest I can find the Rodenstock 6x6 for is 276 at b+h. Where can I find it for 160? Calumet no longer carries it.

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  6. great post!!! you saved me some good money. Can you let me know where you got the eyepiece or what I should look for to know that it will fit. Thanks again, one of the best diy self posts that I have found.

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  7. Hey Diane,
    What do you use to hold it the loupe to the back of the camera?
    Thanks,
    Pete

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