A Right-Angle Viewfinder for DSLR's

A Right-Angle finder for DSLR's - from the Seagull Co, China.

Most camera makers have made right-angle finders for their SLR cameras at one time or another. These are attachments which can be fitted onto the viewfinder and allow the view to be swung through 90°, and they often incorporate a choice of either 1x or 2x magnification. Some have a fixed viewpoint whilst others can be moved through either a 180° or 360° arc. The main use of such devices is usually at times when the camera is at an angle that prevents you from looking directly through the viewfinder, either when it is close to the ground such as when taking low level shots, or is fitted on a copy stand or tripod and angled downwards, indeed anywhere with the viewfinder at an angle to your eyesight that prevents you looking through it or makes it extremely awkward to do so.

Some time ago we commented on the use of the Zigview CMOS sensored re-chargeable battery versions of traditional SLR right-angled finders which have recently emerged. As we stated at the time, one of the perceived advantages of using a DSLR rather than a digicam is the 'live' optical view you get through the viewfinder, that it seemed pointless to buy a limited life product of this nature that did away with that optical view you had paid so much to obtain, and replaced it with a low resolution LCD one. It's the kind of product that is useful but used only occasionally, and once purchased usually lasts a lifetime. 

However, all products that have dedicated re-chargeable battery packs have to be, and indeed are now classed by us, as limited life products, since the average battery life expectancy is around 3 years, irrespective of usage and how often it is re-charged. So unless you can guarantee that replacement batteries will be easily obtainable any product of this nature must be treated with a measure of caution. Why makers can't use standard battery types such as AA's or even AAA's to enable easy replacement we can't understand. Many digital cameras still use the AA battery type so it's not an uncommon occurrence. And they are obtainable in many different formats, Alkaline, Ni-MH, Lithium. Nor can it be said any longer that these batteries don't produce enough power to run such products since it's obvious from their use that they do.

The problem is that normal optical right-angle finders are either quite expensive to purchase, being in the £149-300 region, or extremely difficult if not impossible to obtain. We have tried to find one for our Pentax system SLR/DSLR's for many years without success. They are available we are told  -  it's just that we have never managed to acquire one, new or secondhand, despite repeated attempts.

Anyway, recently we became aware of a traditional type optical right-angle finder that is not too expensive, is of good quality, and best of all can be used with a wide range of DSLR/SLR's via a number of supplied viewfinder adapters. By a strange coincidence it comes from a place we recently visited earlier this year, and not one you might expect, although the maker has made cameras for many years. It is made by the Seagull Camera Co of Shanghi, China, best known for the budget priced medium format TLR cameras that have often been sold in the West.

The UK importer and seller is  www.kauserinternational.com  and the finder costs just £79.95 plus postage. 

This is what you get in the box.

The Right-Angle Finder. A nice little pouch in which to keep it, which has a fitting on the back so you can thread it onto a belt and carry it around with you. A blower brush. And a selection of viewfinder adapter pieces to suit a wide range of SLR/DSLR viewfinders, two of which are shown out of their re-sealable bags. There is also a double sided instruction page, one side in Chinese, and the other in English. Well a Chinese translated English version anyway. Translating Chinese into another language, and visa versa is not easy because the Chinese language has no past or future tenses. Everything is spoken in the present tense. This presents quite some difficulty with translation, and can result in sometimes comic and hilarious results, as in this case. But as we are unable to speak any other language but English, and just fudge our way around the world, we don't really feel we are in any position to criticize. In any case the device is so easy and simple to use no instructions are really needed.

You take off the viewfinder eyepiece on your DSLR, slip on the eyepiece adapter that fits, and slide the right-angle finder into place on that. And that's it. All that's left is to focus it to suit, rotate it to the angle you desire, and choose between 1x and 2x magnification.

It's made in moulded plastic with rubber grip and eyepiece, and the rotating joint faces are in metal. The optical quality is high. There is no degradation in viewing quality that we can find. And the image produced is the right way round. It's not reversed as with some cheap optical finders in the past.

The viewfinder adapters are in a slightly harder shiny plastic, a bit more nylon in the mix, that is more brittle than that used for the finder itself, so they must be treated with just a modicum of care. We were provided with five different types. Each came in it's own re-sealable bag with a description as to it's size and the cameras that it would fit.

We will repeat them here word for word.

• Leica : (No other information. We presume all Leica's have a standard viewfinder size.)

• Pentax : (Again no other information. It's fits all the Pentax SLR's and DSLR's we have. That's all we can say.)

• Canon 18mm : EOS 300, 88QD, 500N, 300D EOSAD1, EOS1N, EOS60, ARIA, SE.7XL

• Canon 22mm : EOS 350D, D30, D60, EOS 10D, 20D, 50D. EOS 3, 5, 30, 33, 55, 50E

• Nikon 22mm : D100, D70, F80, FE10, FM10, F70D, F65, F60D, F55, F70, F50D, F301, F401, F501, F60, F601.

Some of these refer to quite old film SLR's so beware. This is not a product that is only meant for DSLR use. The 'D' designation on many does not mean digital. In the good old film days it referred to cameras that had 'date' backs. These could imprint the date the image frame was taken onto the film rebate. How times change. Now we have EXIF data embedded into image files that can list a whole range of details.

If you do not see your camera anywhere in these lists or are unsure as to whether it refers to your camera, e-mail or telephone to find out if they provide adapters to fit the one you have because we are not sure how accurate these lists are. For example the adapter that was shown as fitting our Canon 350D, the Canon 22mm didn't, but the other Canon type, the 18mm did. Kauserinternational are very friendly and helpful. If you live outside the UK they may be able either to post abroad or put you in touch with other Seagull agents where you reside.

The Seagull Camera Co website is at  www.camerachina.com  If you go there you will see they make a wide range of products. The site says they were started in 2005. This only refers to the company being re-launched for the digital market in conjunction with Kodak, having taken over the digital camera manufacturing plant previously owned and managed by Kodak. They now make all Kodak's digital cameras.

Here are some views of the right angle finder on one of our DSLR's, the Pentax *ist-D. Using another viewfinder adapter it works equally well on our Canon 350D. To our mind this makes it extremely versatile and very good value.