Katz eye focusing screen.

I got my Katz eye focusing screen in the mail yesterday and installed it
today. Installation instructions (slow loading PDF):
http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/D200.PDF

The split prism center aid does indeed help with manual focusing, in
particular I had a heck of a time without it focusing the old 28mm f/2
at medium distances and even where I thought it was easy like closeups,
the focusing aid gives me a little better confirmation.

I'm not sure what purpose the microprism collar serves. Hmm, OK:
http://www.brightscreen.com/styles.html
"shows a pattern of dots (microprisms) that are highly visible when the
camera is not in focus, and gradually disappear when the subject is
calibrated into correct focus. This aid is particularly beneficial for
moving subjects."
Perhaps it will prove useful... it does make the whole viewfinder rather
complex though. The blur of a sharp edge is actually larger on the
background ground glass than within the collar but with a little
testing, I see that the collar is useful.

I did not get the OptiBrite treatment as it can throw off the meter and
supposedly actually makes it harder to focus on areas in the background
(I'm not sure if this last part is correct). I did get the 8x10 cropping
lines... I'll have to train myself to use them but it's really anoying
when someone requests an 8x10 print and it doesn't look right cropped.
There is an additional larger circle in the frame also. I don't know why
it's there and I'd rather not have it but not a big deal. I set the grid
lines to show for help with keeping horizons straight and now the 8x10
crop lines and two circles and split prism and collar: it's pretty
cluttered frankly :-)

With teleconverters (and slower lenses) the focusing aids do not work as
well and half the circle and half the microprisms go black depending on
eye position. They have improved this over older designs but it's still
a factor.

The out of focus rendering is odd. When OOF, the background looks more
hazy, like ground glass, not clear... and OOF circles take on a donut
shape. As I recall, the factory focusing screen had a sort of granular
texture in OOF areas which was not very representative of the final
image either so this may even be an improvement, I'm not sure. It would
be interesting to compare side by side; I'm working on memory now.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

On Sep 22, 5:47 pm, Paul Furman wrote:
I got my Katz eye focusing screen in the mail yesterday and installed it
today. Installation instructions (slow loading PDF):http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/D200.PDF

The split prism center aid does indeed help with manual focusing, in
particular I had a heck of a time without it focusing the old 28mm f/2
at medium distances and even where I thought it was easy like closeups,
the focusing aid gives me a little better confirmation.

I'm not sure what purpose the microprism collar serves. Hmm, OK:http://www.brightscreen.com/styles.html
"shows a pattern of dots (microprisms) that are highly visible when the
camera is not in focus, and gradually disappear when the subject is
calibrated into correct focus. This aid is particularly beneficial for
moving subjects."

You didn't know what a microprism collar was? How long has it been
since we owned SLRs?

On Sep 22, 5:47 pm, Paul Furman wrote:
I got my Katz eye focusing screen in the mail yesterday and installed it
today. Installation instructions (slow loading PDF):http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/D200.PDF

The split prism center aid does indeed help with manual focusing, in
particular I had a heck of a time without it focusing the old 28mm f/2
at medium distances and even where I thought it was easy like closeups,
the focusing aid gives me a little better confirmation.

I'm not sure what purpose the microprism collar serves. Hmm, OK:http://www.brightscreen.com/styles.html
"shows a pattern of dots (microprisms) that are highly visible when the
camera is not in focus, and gradually disappear when the subject is
calibrated into correct focus. This aid is particularly beneficial for
moving subjects."
Perhaps it will prove useful... it does make the whole viewfinder rather
complex though. The blur of a sharp edge is actually larger on the
background ground glass than within the collar but with a little
testing, I see that the collar is useful.

I did not get the OptiBrite treatment as it can throw off the meter and
supposedly actually makes it harder to focus on areas in the background
(I'm not sure if this last part is correct). I did get the 8x10 cropping
lines... I'll have to train myself to use them but it's really anoying
when someone requests an 8x10 print and it doesn't look right cropped.
There is an additional larger circle in the frame also. I don't know why
it's there and I'd rather not have it but not a big deal. I set the grid
lines to show for help with keeping horizons straight and now the 8x10
crop lines and two circles and split prism and collar: it's pretty
cluttered frankly :-)

With teleconverters (and slower lenses) the focusing aids do not work as
well and half the circle and half the microprisms go black depending on
eye position. They have improved this over older designs but it's still
a factor.

The out of focus rendering is odd. When OOF, the background looks more
hazy, like ground glass, not clear... and OOF circles take on a donut
shape. As I recall, the factory focusing screen had a sort of granular
texture in OOF areas which was not very representative of the final
image either so this may even be an improvement, I'm not sure. It would
be interesting to compare side by side; I'm working on memory now.


It's my understanding the "donut" should either be in focus, or out of
focus, unlike a regular screen (outside the donut) where you get the
"gradations" of focus. The big circle around that likely designates
the center weighted focusing area, though I can't say for sure.

--

Rita Ä Berkowitz wrote:

Paul Furman wrote:

I got my Katz eye focusing screen in the mail yesterday and installed
it today. Installation instructions (slow loading PDF):
http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/D200.PDF

One word! "Mk III"

Those come with a focusing aid? Or just that full frame is easier to
focus with?

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

RichA wrote:

On Sep 22, 5:47 pm, Paul Furman wrote:

I got my Katz eye focusing screen in the mail yesterday and installed it
today. Installation instructions (slow loading PDF):http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/D200.PDF

The split prism center aid does indeed help with manual focusing, in
particular I had a heck of a time without it focusing the old 28mm f/2
at medium distances and even where I thought it was easy like closeups,
the focusing aid gives me a little better confirmation.

I'm not sure what purpose the microprism collar serves. Hmm, OK:http://www.brightscreen.com/styles.html
"shows a pattern of dots (microprisms) that are highly visible when the
camera is not in focus, and gradually disappear when the subject is
calibrated into correct focus. This aid is particularly beneficial for
moving subjects."


You didn't know what a microprism collar was? How long has it been
since we owned SLRs?

Probably 10 years since I used my old Canon AE1. I never really used the
microprism collar on it through all those years either, I just used the
split prism.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

Matt Clara wrote:

Paul Furman wrote:

I got my Katz eye focusing screen...

There is an additional larger circle in the frame also. I don't know why
it's there and I'd rather not have it but not a big deal. I set the grid
lines to show for help with keeping horizons straight and now the 8x10
crop lines and two circles and split prism and collar: it's pretty
cluttered frankly :-)

The big circle around that likely designates
the center weighted focusing area, though I can't say for sure.

There is already a dashed circle on the viewfinder among the AF points.
This one is outside that... maybe a guide for framing portraits?

It looks like this:
http://edgehill.net/Misc/photography/viewfinder

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

"Paul Furman" wrote:
Rita Ä Berkowitz wrote:

Paul Furman wrote:

I got my Katz eye focusing screen in the mail yesterday and installed
it today. Installation instructions (slow loading PDF):
http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/D200.PDF

One word! "Mk III"

Those come with a focusing aid? Or just that full frame is easier to focus
with?

Neither. The 1DIII is a 1.3x crop camera. I'd guess you could get third
party screens for it.

But I do find the Canon 1-series (and Nikon pro camera) viewfinders a lot
better than the 5D, which is in turn better than anything APS-C. But this is
general thing, not a focusing aid thing.

Personally, I'm not much of a fan of the split image + microprism donut
arrangement. The microprism donut is almost always too small to be really
useful, and the split image requires a sharp, high-contrast perpendicular
line in the scene.

The easiest to manually focus camera here is my 1950s Rolleiflex TLR, but
that's because it has a Maxwell replacement screen. There's no focusing aid
in the screen, but there is a flip-down magnifier which on the bright,
snappy Maxwell screen is plenty.

Which brings me to a suggestion: there are magnifiers that mount on the
eyepiece. The Canon angle finder C switches between 1.1x and 2.0x (or
something like that). For macro work, you might find something like that
helpful. On the TLR, the magnifier makes a big difference.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

Paul Furman wrote:

I got my Katz eye focusing screen in the mail yesterday and installed it
today. Installation instructions (slow loading PDF):
http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/files/D200.PDF

The split prism center aid does indeed help with manual focusing, in
particular I had a heck of a time without it focusing the old 28mm f/2
at medium distances and even where I thought it was easy like closeups,
the focusing aid gives me a little better confirmation.

I'm not sure what purpose the microprism collar serves. Hmm, OK:
http://www.brightscreen.com/styles.html
"shows a pattern of dots (microprisms) that are highly visible when the
camera is not in focus, and gradually disappear when the subject is
calibrated into correct focus. This aid is particularly beneficial for
moving subjects."


Funny, I always found the microprism collar to be *least* suitable for
focusing on moving subjects. But it's a matter of personal taste, so
your mileage may vary.

On Sep 23, 7:43 am, Rita Ä Berkowitz ritaberk2O04 @aol.com wrote:
David J. Littleboy wrote:
One word! "Mk III"

Those come with a focusing aid? Or just that full frame is easier to
focus with?

Neither. The 1DIII is a 1.3x crop camera. I'd guess you could get
third party screens for it.

No need since the improved viewfinder in the old Mk III is that good. One
look using manual focus and you'll never go back to a Katz-Eye

But I do find the Canon 1-series (and Nikon pro camera) viewfinders a
lot better than the 5D, which is in turn better than anything APS-C.
But this is general thing, not a focusing aid thing.

The Mk III's viewfinder is worlds better than the 5D's and Canon claims that
it is better than that which is found on the Mk II.

Personally, I'm not much of a fan of the split image + microprism
donut arrangement. The microprism donut is almost always too small to
be really useful, and the split image requires a sharp, high-contrast
perpendicular line in the scene.

Agreed! It's a total pain in the ass for macro.

Rita

Maybe that's because split prisms don't work in the macro range? One
side blacks out.

On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 04:15:10 GMT, Paul Furman wrote:
: Matt Clara wrote:
:
: Paul Furman wrote:
:
: I got my Katz eye focusing screen...
:
: There is an additional larger circle in the frame also. I don't know why
: it's there and I'd rather not have it but not a big deal. I set the grid
: lines to show for help with keeping horizons straight and now the 8x10
: crop lines and two circles and split prism and collar: it's pretty
: cluttered frankly :-)
:
: The big circle around that likely designates
: the center weighted focusing area, though I can't say for sure.
:
: There is already a dashed circle on the viewfinder among the AF points.
: This one is outside that... maybe a guide for framing portraits?
:
: It looks like this:
: http://edgehill.net/Misc/photography/viewfinder

I'm surprised it displays the AF points. I could swear that the last time I
looked, the Katz site said that the focus points don't get shown. Is this a
recent improvement? What kind of camera did you install it on? (I forget
whether you belong to the Hatfields or the McCoys.)

I had a screen just like yours on my Nikon F-2 and thought it was great. I'd
love to have one on my XTi, but not if I have to give up the focus points.

Bob

(I guess I should explain that allusion for non-US readers. The Hatfields and
the McCoys were two large extended families in the eastern US (Kentucky or
West Virginia, I believe) that engaged for several years in a savage, bloody
fued - sort of like the Nikon and Canon partisans of today!) ;^)