Pentax LX...anyone tried BEATTIE replacement screens?

Hi,
Does anyone have experience of the Beattie Intenscreens, which are supposed to give 2 f-stops more light transmission?
I just want opinions of users, both good and bad...do they work well?

Thanks Steve.

Hi,
I haven't used the Beattie screen but I have used the "bright" Pentax screens. These are much better and worthwhile. They are about £35 as opposed to 3 times that for the Beattie ones. I suspect there is not alot of difference between the Beattie ones and the "bright" Pentax ones.

Kim

I've used a Beattie in my Rolleiflex TLR and it's a significant improvement.

Of course the benefit with a waist level finder may well be greater than a closed in pentaprism.

Whether they represent a good move given their quite high price is another matter. I would have though that unless you really need a brighter viewfinder (long slow lenses for example), it wouldn't justify the expense.

The LX should be OK with its OTF metering, but presumably cameras like the MX where we are measuring the brightness of the ground glass screen would need to have this taken into account. If you had a three stop increase in brightness this would presumably mean a 3 stop adjustment to the reading.

I have also heard that although the Beattie screens are bright, their focusing acutance is not as good as the standard screens. This would mean you would have a bright image that did not have the same definite focus point.

I would imagine this brightness becomes a help when using ultra-wide lenses with red filters or long, slow telephotos! In the former case, if the light is dull as well then you might as well compose the picture with eyes shut!