Viewfinder Magnifiers

Being new to DSLRs (I've used manual bodies a lot for film) I'm having real trouble achieving good focus with wide angled lenses (50mm onwards no problem). The centre AF point covers a lot of area on a wide angle and I find it difficult to confirm my focus. I've seen a few viewfinder magnifiers on e-bay but before buying I'd like to find out if any of the members have used them. Additionally, are the right angled magnifying eyepieces any good?
Thanks in advance
Krishna

You can pick up a 'M' series viewfinder magnifier for not much money, they work well, metal bodied not plastic like the latest incarnation. The magnifier 'M' will fit any Pentax DSLR AFAIK. The refconverters (right angle finders) fetch far more money and are harder to come by but also excellent. Have you considered a magnifying eyepiece?

John

I always use a Pentax magnifying eyecup on my K7. I prefer it to the basic viewfinder and the magnified image is undoubtedly better for seeing focus details, although I imagine a split screen viewfinder may be better still. Plenty of folk here use one of those and can no doubt advise.

The right angled finders, I think, invert the image which you see, so provided you can deal with that I am sure they would be useful depending on your particular style. I have often thought about getting one for low-down macro work, but as yet have not taken the plunge...

Regards

Do you find the 1.2x magnification of O-ME53 much help? Just want to be sure before I take the plunge.
Any experiences with the 3rd party magnifiers at all?

That's the Olympus one which can be picked up for about £25. The Pentax Refconverter shows a switchable 1x 2x view the correct way round and is by far the best way to manually focus the camera.

The KPS 1.3x is the best of the small fixed magnifiers.

If anybody wants to sell the rubber eyepiece off one of these please send me a PM mine's gone missing

Personally I find the O-ME53 helpful, although the impact is not radical. That said, my eyesight is not brilliant so maybe it just gives me sufficient for my needs. There is a trade off though as having the eyecup fitted does make it trickier to see into the corners of the viewfinder, at least it does for me as I wear glasses - which can make framing a shot a little more ponderous at times. If possible I would advise trying to go somewhere like SRS microsystems and try the various accessories out.

I bought a k7 used and the previous owner had a O-ME53. Well, I agree: it is helpful for the eyes and for the nose (or, better, for the nose on lcd... )

O-ME53 is intended to be left on the camera all the time. Personally I use Magnifier FB link for critical manual focussing. You can pick them up on eBay for a lot less. It flips out of the way over the hotshoe when not in use.

As does the magnifier 'M' I got mine for £10 on Ebay. The Pentax refconverters do show a vertically and horizontally correct image, not inverted.

John

Can't seem to find it on eBay, care to provide a link? Thanks in advance! My eyesight isn't as good as it used to be.

I had the same trouble as you when I went digital. Don't know if it helps but I've tried various solutions including split screen focusing screen, external monitor, Pentax magnifier flip up thing and homemade focus widget. This magnifier nearly poked my eye out a few times and only shows the centre of the view, the external monitor is too much of a faff to always connect and the split screen isn't great with pre -a lenses above about f/8 or so (bottom goes dark). The focus widget is a ring round the focus barrel with 2 arials sticking out on opposite sides for 50cm. It's the best thing I have for highly accurate incremental focus adjustments (ie getting stars as focused as possible in startrails using a zoom that extends beyond infinity). Nowadays I'm doing stuff in which the focus is the hardest I've ever tried (ultra macro) and I've found the totally clear screen to be the biggest help. And quite a lot of maximum magnification chimping .

They come up every now and then s/h, or you could try your local camera shop if there are any left

John

Just picked up a Refconverter A. Excellent for focussing and for not getting neck strain doing macros.
bb2

That was a lucky find, they're quite hard to come by and can be expensive but worth it IMHO.

John

The 2x image of the Refconverter is much better than the one off
the 2x M magnifier. The Oly one seems OK and is cheaper, but
reversed..... nicely made though