Wish I'd bought a Schneider now…

For those of you who are DIYing with the Schneider Loupe, it would be interesting to hear how many hours it took you to formulate your idea for mounting and how many hours it took to research, hunt down the components/material needed and what the cost was in merchandise and labor. I think it is totally do-able but I am reading about people who are buying the Schneider Loupe, then custom fabricating the front piece from scratch using CAD, molding, fiberglass, extrusion and all sorts of other manufacturing process.

The DIY side of me is saying, "Cool that you can do that, wish I could do that. Wish I had the skills, knowledge and multi-hundreds of thousand dollars facility to do CAD/CAM, fiberglass fabrication, etc."

The practical side of me is saying, "wow, your time must be really cheap for you to be able to devote that many hours to making a DIY 5D MIII viewer"

I guess it makes sense if the people doing that are going to sell their creation but for a one off? There are some crazy people out there.

Dan

Dan,

As you know I agree with you about time costs of making a finder. I just wish Zacuto were a bit more forthcoming in letting someone like you test the z-finder for the rest of us, and answering my questions about the quality of the velcro fastening in a rough environment. I guess this may be a little academic as after NAB their waiting list for the z-finder may be so long that I have to make one anyway :)

Dan

Me? They should have you test it, you are a working video journalist out on the streets of the world every day, shooting in gritty, real life environments. What am I doing? Sitting in an antiseptic conference room tomorrow, shooting boring interviews with salespeople for this corporate video for a new product line. My shoots are so easy on gear compared to what you do.

When I am running around France in June, shooting all over the country, on the street, that will be a lot more like what you do. I am looking forward to it, all of this office boring stuff is getting me restless.

You should ask Steve Weiss to send you one so you can write a review. I am still waiting for my 5D MKII to be delivered, I did freebie "slow boat delivery" ;-)

Dan

Just received my Hoodloupe with the elastic velcro attachment and it fits quite nicely over the monitor of my Sony HVR-Z7. There's only a small rim of about 3 mm of the image missing. The fixing is sturdy, but the optical quality could indeed be better: in the corners the image is blurry. Anyway, with an investment of 144,- euro's I've made a shoulder camera from my Z7. Too bad Belgian customs kept the Express mail (!) package for three f... days, just to calculate their tax of 10,- euro's. Disgusting.

Yeah, Mine got caught by customs too. AND THEN the Parcel Force people took that as an opportunity to slap on their own exorbitant charge as a 'handling fee'. Ridiculous.

Getting the hang of it now though. With practice you can keep your eye in the centre. Looking for an eyecup to put on the end now.

Anything cheaper than Dan's suggestion anyone?

The new Z-Finder is on its way to me, hopefully it will arrive by the end of next week.

Dan

Dan, are you sure that yours will arrive next week? I had thought that because of short supply that these weren't available for purchase except with the full Zacuto rigs. Actually I just checked their web site & they are only available for pre-order with no stock before the 20th May.

Hi Nigel:

I have a connection there who told me that my Z-Finder is shipping today. They received a very small amount, I was on a pre-order list from way before NAB. They are not anticipating regular amounts of them to replenish until May 20th.

Will definitely do a review when it arrives and I have had a chance to use it.

Dan

The big eyecup that comes with the Z7 fits over the Hoodloupe perfectly.

Dan, Do you have the hoodman, or played with it so you can compare the two...

No:

I have read too many posts complaining about the substandard optics on the Hoodman and to me, after years of shooting HD, the main challenge is focus. Always focus. I can see trying to shoot and focus with just a bare 3.0" screen, my eyes are not that sharp anymore.

Dan

Does anyone know what the Z7 eyecup part number is and where can one order it from...

For those looking for a way to mount the Hoodman view finder onto the 5DMKII body...

Here is another option... for $13.50

On Ebay item # 260383728507

This is the LCD Pop-Up Screen Hood Shade Cover for CANON 5D Mark II

All you have to do is take the three flip up/out panels off of the unit and mount
the Hoodman view finder on the frame of the cover... you can use glue or gaff
tape..

you can do this in about 5 minutes.. and you wont have to use rubber bands or any thing else to hold it on the camera...

And the whole setup is very easy to remove... no modification to the camera is required

So can anyone compare the Schneider and the Hoodman quality? Has anyone used both?
I'd be interested to know since I;m thinking of selling the hoodman and buying a schneider if there's much difference the DIYing the thing to the cam myself.

I used the Hoodman all day yesterday at a wedding and it works better the more you use it but when hunting for perfect focus especially at longer lengths, the occasional 'jaggies' that you sometimes see on diagonals can throw off your confidence that you've nailed it.

Reviewing footage this morning I find I was pretty spot on most of the day, but it didn't feel like it at the time.

Anyway, if any one has had a chance to play with both together let me know your thoughts would you?
Ta

Avey