Hi all,
I take landscape exclusively. I find using dark cloth to focus is a bit slow som etimes. So I am thinking if a Binocular Reflex will help focusing.
My questions are how many of you find it useful? Or how many of you still using dark cloth after trying the Binocular?
Any comments is greatly appreciated. Happy shooting! Chin.
Depends on the camera you use !! And if the cost is not too prohibitive!! You may be able to get one used? I still struggle on with the "horse blanket" but there is something "cosy' about being under it!!
Hi Paul,
I use toyo 45 Aii, the bino is selling USD5xx at B&H.
Chin.
Chin,
I use the Toyo binocular viewer on a Toyo VX125. I love it, but having said that, there are a few things to take into consideration. The viewer is light weight, but it is very bulky. It takes up a lot of room in my pack.
Another thing to consider is that because you look down into the viewer, you have to lower the height of your tripod which changes your perspective - for distant landscapes this probably isn't a big consideration though. The alternative would be to stand on something like a case so that you could position your tripod higher.
The viewer also altered the weight distribution of my camera over the tripod head since it sticks out at the back. This was a little too much for my old tripod head so I upgraded to a sturdier head and this added some more weight to carry.
I've read that a lot of people modify the folding Horseman binocular viewer for Toyos. The fact that it folds up is very appealing, but I couldn't find a lot of information on the Horseman viewer and the pictures I saw of it showed a large spring thing which looked kind of clunky to me and I wasn't sure how that would work on a Toyo.
Steven
Not an answer but a continuing question.... Have any of you used a bag bellows on the back of the camera for focusing? I know that some modular camera systems are designed to allow a second bellows to mount on the back for this purpose. Is it practical? I would think that without the magnifying viewer (like the Sinar Bino) it would not be practical.
Hi Chin,
I use Horseman's binocular reflex with my Ebony SV45U2, and like it very much. It's a 2-piece unit, i.e. the main body of the viewer, plus a piece that I'll call the "face mask" that contains a magnifying lens to view the ground glass. The main piece folds to roughly 6x6x3" (about 15x15x8 cm) for carrying. It does take up a fair amount of room in your bag or pack, but much less than some larger viewers such as Arca-Swiss and it's very lightweight.
I like the viewer very much, and use it most of the time. However, you will still need to carry your dark cloth since you'll need it when the camera is high on the tripod, or if you are pointing the camera toward the ground.
Best regards, Danny www.dannyburk.com
You might consider a compromise. I've taken the liberty of sending you a blurb on the BTZS focusing cloth. I've been using it now for 6 months and really like it. Definitely better than a horse blanket, and much, much, much less expensive (and lighter) than a reflex finder. WHM
I've just begun using the Horseman folding bino reflex viewer. It is foldable as the posts indicate above, and so more packable than other similar units. One concern frequently voiced about reflex viewers in general, and not touched on above, is precision of focus. As I had just started using one, I was curious how realistic this concern might be. I tried with several subjects focusing with the bino viewer, locking down the camera, removing the bino and checking with a 4.5X loupe under a dark cloth. The bino viewer was brand new, and I am an ophthalmologist, and so spend most of my professional life precisely focusing optical images. I think I focused as accurately thru the bino viewer as anyone could have done. The accuracy of focus when checked under the loupe was quite simply POOR. It just wasn't close. Would this matter if you stopped down a lot? No idea. This happened to be a portrait, so I wanted pretty accurate focus so as to shoot at a wider f stop (f11). I will process negs soon shot with the bino focus and loupe focus to see if there is a diff in the final product. But based on what I could quite clearly see in the field, I do not think critical focus on the level of what can be achieved with a loupe is possible with a bino viewer at conventional 1.5 - 2X mag. That's no big suprise: we just see more accurate detail if we magnify 4.5X instead of 1.5X. I was just disappointed with how poor the focus was. I would not be at all sure of being able to use swings and tilts accurately. Whether this level of focus accuracy would matter in your work is obviously a function of what you shoot, what f stop you use and what your tolerance is for fine focus.
Nathan
Hi Steven, your concern is exactly my concern too. I don't have room for this binocular in my back pack, that means I have to spend another couple of hundred dollars to buy a bigger one. And I certainly don't like the perspective of lowering down the camera for this. Moreover, I would point towards the foreground in most of my shots, that is a big problem. I recall all these trouble when I rent a Fuji680 several weeks ago. I should have think of them before asking this question. I do have a heavy duty tripod head, the problem in your 3rd paragraph is not a concern to me. I would be intersted to know the horseman flodable one which can save a lot of space and may be it can rotate when the camera is high or pointing towards the ground.
I did also consider the monocular, that doesn't have all the problem above like the binocular, but I recall when I used the Fuji680 waist level finder) my eye will be very tired when doing those fine tue tilt adjustment.
Dave, the bag bellow looks like having a big mouth so a lot of light still doesn't shade out, am I right? I will use it with a loupe so it doesn't matter to have no magnifier inside.
Danny, do u think the manification of the Horseman binocular reflex is big enough to fine tune the tilt focus?
Wilhelm, the BTZS cloths looks cool, looks like it shade out light better than Horseman Focusing Cloth which I bought 1 year ago. Looks like it is much lighter, less bulky and easier to attached to the camera. If I knew this, I wouldn't have buy the Horseman. But can u tell me how it stick to the camera? is it quick and easy?
Thank you all! Never tired of shooting! Chin.
Nathan,
u are absolutely right, for no movement focus, since we are doing landscape, we will focus the 1/3 the distance from near to far point, so the absolute focus accuracy is not a concern there. But for some tilt or other movement fine tune focus adjustment, I think it's a concern.
Thank you. Chin.
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