Viewer

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beagleman
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Viewer

Post by beagleman »

Hi, with using the D70 its a bit hard to see the detail through the viewer screen so was thinking of a right angled viewer for it to give more magnification, can anyone recommend any good right angled viewers, thanks.

sonyalpha
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Re: Viewer

Post by sonyalpha »

beagleman wrote:Hi, with using the D70 its a bit hard to see the detail through the viewer screen so was thinking of a right angled viewer for it to give more magnification, can anyone recommend any good right angled viewers, thanks.
Hi Beagleman,

I posted this the other day.............it could be what you are looking for?
Click on the link within the post for full details and a review:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... php?t=9631

I purchased mine via Ebay:

sonyalpha
Retired but not old in spirit:

Fairly new to photography........keen to learn:

g4lab
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Post by g4lab »

I don't know whether you work in the kitchen/studio or out of doors.
If you work indoors get a video screen and use the cameras Live View to frame and focus right off the chip.

I haven't actually done this myself yet. So to those who have I posit the following question:

The camera I am working with is a mere CoolPix 4500 and its live view is NTSC or PAL (switch selectable). I had two Sharp NTSC flat screens come my way for free and I thought "hot dog, perfect!" and I am pretty sure it will do the job well with my Coolpix.

An internet friend of mine is doing the same kind of thing with his hotrod microscope outfit with a hotrod maybe top o' the line Nikon (about $8K worth)
He spent a pretty fair amount of $$$ on a small HDMI compatible monitor.

So my question is this: In an indeterminate future I decided to buy a dSLR and have a screen for it like that do I have to buy the fancy Hi Def or
A) do cameras with hotrod video outs also have NTSC (Never Twice the Same Color :lol:) outputs too. and B) if they do or if you ran the HDMI signal through some inexpensive down sampler (which I would expect to be available on ebay for $3.95 but have not checked that yet) would the set up be adequate for framing and focusing and lighting.

This could end up being the proverbial moot point because by the time a do get around to a dSLR such screens are likely to be available for very little money.

If this is a thread hijack feel free to move it.

Gene

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

beagleman,
Is it just a matter of additional magnification, or is the right-angle aspect an needed as well? If only magnification, you might want to consider a "flip-up" eyepiece magnifier.

Gene,
My Canon has both an HDMI connection and a "Video Out" analog connection. The "Video" connection has far lower resolution, but is fine for composition and checking histograms. Not the best for focusing. At least not once you have seen an HD screen hooked up! That is fantastic. I bought a 16" HD screen at an electronics place for about $140. The only "down-side" to the HD connection is that there is a lag time of a second or two when the camera establishes the connection. The plain video connection is very fast, just like viewing on the camera back.

enricosavazzi
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Post by enricosavazzi »

Charles Krebs wrote: The only "down-side" to the HD connection is that there is a lag time of a second or two when the camera establishes the connection. The plain video connection is very fast, just like viewing on the camera back.
Hi Charles,

is the delay you are talking about a constant lag of the HD signal, or only a temporary delay at the moment you connect the monitor/switch on the live view function?
--ES

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Enrico,

Once it's on, it's "real time", no lag. The delay occurs (in HD) whenever the display goes from "blank" to displaying either menus or images. So when I switch on live view, there is one or two second delay until it actually appears on the screen.. but once "communication" is achieved between the camera and screen there is no discernible lag. If I hit the "menu" button it will again take a couple seconds before the HD screen comes to life with the menu selections. With "Video Out" there is no lag, it is just like the LCD screen on the camera back.... very fast. But the HD image is so superior I'm willing to put up with the regular delays. The screen I use has analog inputs as well. So if I'm working with a situation where I really want to see the histogram or image taken as fast as possible I just switch to that connection.

g4lab
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Post by g4lab »

Yeah It is SO easy to get behind today.

So I was at one of my local surplus electronics haunts today and looked at a couple of rectangular aspect ratio computer monitors that were both newer than what I have on hand. (I am typing this on a nice Sony Flat ScreenCRT monitor, one that has RGB inputs on the back.)

Both monitors had HDMI and NTSC inputs in addition to the computer 15 pin D shell or DVI input.

The one my friend has , is aimed at this job and is a bit high priced. It is a small screen. But I suppose you could find something at the warehouse store new in the box that would fit on or over your camera stand. As you say for $150.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Compared to Charles' report, "it is the same but worse" with my Canon T1i and Westinghouse PT-16H610S monitor. The delay for establishing an image is 5 seconds. This delay also applies between each exposure when shooting in LiveView. When I first got the camera, I thought it would be handy to use LiveView to monitor progress while shooting a stack. But over HDMI, this is so slow that I don't do it that way. Instead I just use the monitor to plan the shoot ("start at 093 on the dial, end at 075"), then do the actual shooting blind.

I had not realized until Charles mentioned it that the video connection does not have this delay. Over video, there is noticeable loss of sync, but only for 1/2 second or so.

As Charles says, the HDMI image is far superior. On NTSC video connection, not only is the image noisy and lower resolution, but it also seems posterized to 6 bits or so. Smooth gradients develop stairsteps.

--Rik

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Rik,

I'll have to "time" it. I am probably over optimistic when I say a couple seconds. It does not seem specific to the display used... I've experienced it with others as well.

AndrewC
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Post by AndrewC »

So I thought I was doing really well when I tracked down a small HDMI monitor and tried to hook it up to a DMC-GF1. Works great for Image Review but doesn't actually show the liveview screen. Rats :(

Panasonic do have their own electronic viewfinder so I might see if I can somehow hack that but it is probably more trouble than it is worth.

Andrew

PaulFurman
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Post by PaulFurman »

Wow, 1920x1080 live view? The delay does sound annoying but that's still amazing; especially if you can zoom in for focusing... if that's the case.

I've shot tethered to a laptop before which was not live view at all, just that the image is saved to the computer hard drive and the full image available in a couple seconds and I found that very useful for carefully evaluating the resulting images. It's also quite handy to be able to control all the camera settings from the computer. This was using Nikon's (not free) software, and I'm not aware of any reasonable alternatives.

I never bothered setting up a live view feed because that's just porting what would be on the camera's LCD to a computer (very low resolution). That said, I do find live view extremely useful for table top macro shooting. Essential really, it's hard to do without once you've tried it. The OP, beagleman has a D70 with no live view... that's the model I used tethered shooting with so I'm sure that would be useful but for what he's asking for, hoodman makes all sorts of accessories. I thought some of them are digital -not sure, where it basically uses a webcam to project to an EVF (or computer?).

Craig Gerard
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Post by Craig Gerard »

The Hoodman loupe (HoodLoupe) is one approach videographers are using with the video-enabled DSLRs.

The camera LCD becomes your viewfinder (some examples below).

http://www.tapelessmadeeasy.com/wp-cont ... o_7846.jpg

http://theeoscars.com/5dblog/wp-content ... peters.jpg

http://www.microfilmmaker.com/pix/Iss42 ... nMark2.jpg

Another approach uses an small, external HDMI monitor, such as those sold by smallHD, Marshalls, Ican, etc.

http://smallhd.com/dp1/index.php


Craig
To use a classic quote from 'Antz' - "I almost know exactly what I'm doing!"

The BAT
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Post by The BAT »

Hi Guys,
Off on a tangent again are we. . . :?

Origional poster is using a D70 that doesn't have live view capabilities. . . . :roll:

Bruce

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