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Katzeye ceasing production :(

Jonathan-Mac
Posted 15/03/2015 - 08:02 Link
http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/

It seems Katzeye Optics have ceased making focussing screens. This is a great loss to the Pentax community in particular, with all those great old lenses around, which I and many others love to use.

I have a Katzeye in my K200D and I wouldn't have been able to use all those beautiful old manual lenses over the last 5 years had it not been for the screen. I probably would have bought one for my new K3 in the summer as I plan to be in the states.

I suspect that this is less as a result of competition from the far east and more as a result of the decline of the DSLR and the rise of good live-view with focus peaking. The K3 has a much better viewfinder than the K200D but with the Katzeye installed and shimmed to perfection I can reliably focus much better with the K200D. I'd have loved to get one for the K3 so I could enjoy the same experience.

A sad day
Pentax hybrid user - Digital K3, film 645 and 35mm SLR and Pentax (&other) lenses adapted to Fuji X and Panasonic L digital
Fan of DA limited and old manual lenses
richandfleur
Posted 15/03/2015 - 08:36 Link
Yes I feel this is a significant part missing from modern viewfinders, as well as the sheer size and brightness of the older full frame/film cameras.

Despite pentax having some of the best aps-c viewfinders around in their class, I've still never been that successful with manual focus lenses through them. And evf with focus peaking and digital zoom in it really appeals to me.
johnriley
Posted 15/03/2015 - 09:02 Link
Quote:
I suspect that this is less as a result of competition from the far east and more as a result of the decline of the DSLR and the rise of good live-view with focus peaking.

Thinking of numbers, we know that DSLR sales outnumber sales of EVF cameras by many, many times. So I think this reason is unlikely. There are probably just very few photographers who now want to use old manual focus lenses and of those even fewer who think of changing the focusing screen. These numbers will probably get less and less as time goes by, and maybe the number has already fallen below a figure that makes the business sustainable.
Best regards, John
Edited by johnriley: 15/03/2015 - 09:02
giofi
Posted 15/03/2015 - 21:49 Link
You can still get quality focusing screens from focusingscreen.com.
Edited by giofi: 15/03/2015 - 21:51
andrewk
Posted 16/03/2015 - 13:32 Link
Yes, I bought one for my K200D and it worked well - but all it really did was let me achieve focus confirmation a bit faster than I could without it.

Potential purchasers need to bear in mind that spot metering doesn't work if you install a split image focussing screen - very erratic and often two stops out Nowadays, I use spot metering all the time - so I would not consider buying a replacement screen for my K30.

Andrew
Edited by andrewk: 16/03/2015 - 13:33
richandfleur
Posted 16/03/2015 - 18:35 Link
andrewk wrote:


Potential purchasers need to bear in mind that spot metering doesn't work if you install a split image focussing screen - very erratic and often two stops out Nowadays, I use spot metering all the time - so I would not consider buying a replacement screen for my K30.

Andrew

Thank you very much for this post. That was exactly the scenario I was interested in and you've cleared that up for me.
Jonathan-Mac
Posted 25/03/2015 - 09:39 Link
Excellent news - Katzeye seem to have secured a deal with another company to buy them, so the plan is to stay open and maybe even expand the range of cameras for which they make screens. Hopefully this new company won't interfere negatively with the running or pricing structure.

http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/
Pentax hybrid user - Digital K3, film 645 and 35mm SLR and Pentax (&other) lenses adapted to Fuji X and Panasonic L digital
Fan of DA limited and old manual lenses

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