Heh! Heh! It's all the Canon owners.

Sony are probably thinking, "Wow - so many people are having problems with their eye-cups all of a sudden"

OR....... WOW!!!! We are getting more customers buying SONY.

Just ordered my eyecup! 45 and some change! After filming out in African sun for a month, I wish someone would find a sony parts supplier that also sold time machines - so I could go back and use this eyecup for all that daytime shooting!

Does the Sony cup help the Smeary look ofd the VF? Like, if your eye moves too far to the side, the image (or whites) smear a bit....

group buy
 

too bad we cant get a group buy together and get a better deal on this eye cup.

It's just a matter of time before some enterprising dude buys a few hundred of them wholesale from China or wherever and sells them for 20 bucks each.

The attitude on the price of the eye piece is amazing. The Sony authorized parts dealer cost is $29.15. Assume that you are prepared to grant the dealer some cost in order taking, unpackaging from Sony, order fulfillment, delivery packaging, credit card processing costs, and post sale customer service plus a normal profit; just how much effort should any legitamate dealer spend on something like this that has a list price that can be bought directly from sony in the $38 range. Do you really think that some dealer is going to have his parts department take away from service and repair orpportunities to make virtually nothing to deal with a bunch of internet buyers that he will probably never see again? Get real. Good luck in finding a "group purchase" even if you had 200 orders.

I think it's more that $38 dollars (regardless how much Sony charges an authorized dealer for it) is quite a lot for a shaped piece of rubber. We're all obviously willing to pay the price as a somewhat necessary evil, but sure, it would have been nice hypothetically to have all gone in and gotten, say, $5 off the price. Not really going to happen, but nice to dream about.

I just noticed that my GL2 eye cup fits into the current XH-A1 Eye cup and when looking through it, it does not block anything, I am looking for a good way to attach it without adhesive but this might be a nice solution. My GL2 came with a small eye cup similar to what the A1 has as well as a larger one similar to the sony... Hmmm...

I agree the Sony eyecup is expensive and it probably cost less than $1 to make and Sony is charging a lot of money for it. It cost me over $50 with tax and shipping.

I agree that the Sony eye piece is expensive. But why take your frustrations out on the independent Sony parts repair dealer who is making nominal if any money on the eye piece just to accomodate a bunch of angry Canon customers. Sony is the company that is overcharging for the part, contact Sony directly and complain. There is nothing the parts counter at an indepependent Sony dealer can do about the huge markup from the factory to them. They just process orders at their normal markup. Perhaps the "group purchase" should be coordinated directly with Sony to get the suggested $5 discount!

Does anyone (UK based) know where to get chamois eye-cup covers for this Z1 large eye cup?

Ones I used on the XL cameras don't fit and some samples of others that I have been sent are even smaller.

Gareth

B&H has the chamois eyecup covers.

Thanks! Do they ship to UK then?

G

I think that any Sony dealer should carry them.

You could try Production Gear who are one of the site sponsors. If they don't carry them, I got mine from www.proav.co.uk.

Thanks Alex,

It was production Gear who sent me the samples. Too small. Enquired with Proav. They say they do not do the chamois covers for Large Z1 eye-cup!
Who did you deal with there Alex? How much for some of yours?

Gareth

Doh! Sorry I only half read the message. Chamois... no. Mine is the regular sony eyecup...

Sorry to cause confusion.

No confusion. Mine is same as your photograph. Isn't that the eye-cup everyone is talking about. That's the one I have got.

I bought the eyecup from the Sony parts site, took a while to get here, paid $50 shipped... probably the best accessory I've bought for the A1 so far.

I just feel bad telling everyone I paid $50 for a piece of rubber, but I think it's $50 well spent. Maybe the next cam from Canon will include one, because the factory Canon eyecup is crap.

I highly recommend this to anyone with an A1/G1, works wonderful outdoors

I managed to get an FX1 eyecup for S$51 (around US$33) from Sony Singapore. A friend who is a local dealer advised me to get the FX1 eyecup rather than the Z1, because the Z1 part is "professional" and would cost more. I didn't manage to confirm this, but it is worth checking to see if the FX1 part is cheaper in your area.

And thanks to Alex Leith who I think tipped us off originally that the Sony eyecup fits the A1. It's really tough shooting without one on a sunny day in Singapore, you can hardly see anything on the LCD or EVF.

Richard

Mine says " Eye cup (large) HDR-FX1" on the box, and it was $38 plus shipping and tax, which made it about $50. Part number was 2-179-414-01

Anyone found a good price on this in the UK?

Approved Sony dealers appear to be the only ones who stock this and all are asking the same price: £50 +VAT +P&P, IIRC. It would be cheaper to import from B&H in NYC!

Mark,

Try Visual Impact. I got mine from there £43.80 inclusive of VAT & delivery. £8.58 of that was next day delivery which I didn't know about until I got the invoice so would recommend asking them to send normal post which would make it even cheaper. I think if you dont ask they automatically send next day. Live & learn!

Gareth

It's overpriced because it's a Sony part. However, it's worth it. I couldn't shoot exteriors without it.

Thanks Mark and Gareth. As usual we get stung almost double what the folks accross the pond pay. However i think i can just about live with 43 quid for next day delivery. This thing better be good!

How do you get the old one off
 

OK...so I got my new A1 and everyone is right....the eyecup leaves a little to be desired. How do you get the thing off to put a new one on. Does the Sony one just go over the top of this one?

Hi Philip. The Sony eyecup just fits over the top of the Canon one. No need to remove anything.

Richard

Thanks,
 

Thanks....that 'splains alot....like why the existing one doesn't come off. :-)

I'm sure it will if you pull hard enough. Wouldn't recommend it though. :)

Richard

Nope, no need to take the old one off. It provides a nice base for the Sony one and makes it fit perfectly.

I am curious about the above as well. After using this camera outdoors on two occasions, there are two major problems with this eye cup:

1. It is too small and lets the sunlight in on the sides as already mentioned throughout this thread.

2. And perhaps most irritating is the ‘smeary’ look quoted above. If you move your eye even slightly off center (when looking through the eye cup), the edges smear or look out of focus. Not good.

This second problem is very problematic as I see it. I’m surprised nobody here has mentioned it (except for the person above).

Does the Sony eye cup help this problem? I can’t see how it would as it is only fitting over the existing one…

For me, I think Sony eye cup makes it a bit worse if anything. The eye is a tad further away, which makes the off center smearing worse.

The VF alone is just simply a poor design for a camera of this quality. Haven't a clue what Canon was thinking :-\

Bill

Thanks Bill – that’s what I was afraid of. When outdoors, this is a very big problem – particularly since the LCD is only marginally reliable at best (for critical focus/aperture). I don’t know about others, but when in question, I go to the eyepiece for accurate focus, aperture, etc..

I agree with Bill – I can’t figure out what Canon was thinking for a camera of this quality. Frustrating.

Has Anyone used the i-cuff?
 

I am unhappy with the viewfinder on my new XH-A1 in bright light. There are lots of posts on the Sony Large Eye Cup, (Part Number 217941401) and one mention of the i-cuff product (http://www.i-cuff.com) but no real information on it. Does anyone have any experience with the i-cuff? Which of their 3 models would fit the XH-A1 best? How would it compare to the Sony unit?

Thanks for your thoughts!

I have the Sony eyecup and it's fine. It fits right over the Canon eyecup perfectly. A few years ago I got an iCuff for a TRV900, and I wasn't all that thrilled with it. I'd assume the newer ones would fit better.

I pulled one off an old JVC viewfinder I had laying around and with a bit of stretching got it on. Much improved. Cost zip! :)

Hi All,

For those of you living in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, you can purchase the Sony Eye cup (Large) 2-179-414-01, from "Speedy Spares" for $40 Aus including delivery..I ordered mine on wednesday got it on friday..fits spot on.

http://speedyspares.com/

Just want to leave a breadcrumb in this thread for those who come later because they know to use search. I bought the **i-Cuff** and gave it a good try shooting run and gun for 3-weeks straight. I don't recommend it. Basically, you can't adjust it to the exact position it must be in without the A1 eye piece blocking your view. I loved the i-cuff on the XL1s but not the A1. Waste of time and money.

Sorry. Have to disagree. I think the Sony eyecup works great on the A1.