LCD protection and shading

[russ.will]

Just wondering what people use for LCD protection or shading as there isn\'t much E specific gear out there yet. I know shades aren\'t too popular with SLR users, but the heavy left hand offset on an E-300 makes it possible. Is anybody bothering to use one?

Russell

[laingjd]

I bought a Hoodman DSLR2 and it is a beautiful fit, Clear.
Somebody over at DPR un-politely told me it was too expensive at 25.00 and I don\'t understand why, when you are holding 5-1500 dollars in your hand, you grovel and whine about that level of protection.

[First Light]

I don\'t use anything with my E-1 except the standard Olympus clear LCD protector that came with the camera. But I heard about an E-1 owner who purchased a second Olympus E-1 protector so that he could permanently attach a Hoodman protector to it. That way he can install/remove the Hoodman device quickly whenever he wants.

I apologize if that idea upsets the penny pinchers. :)

The reason I don\'t worry about using a hood is the picture quality on the camera\'s LCD monitor is not that good to begin with. You can\'t use it to reliably judge blown highlights or shadow detail. I shoot raw and as I understand it, the display uses a jpeg preview for raw files. That means we don\'t see any more than 8-bits/channel and I doubt that the LCD even has a color depth that can handle that.

I find that the best way to check exposure is a combination of the histogram and the highlights displays. I can usually see them well enough in bright light without a hood to know if I have a major problem. (Minor problems can be handled when I \"develop\" the raw files.)

One thing I would really like to know from Olympus: At what point do they consider the hightlights \"blown\" in their highlights display? And I wish that Olympus would provide the option of viewing separate histograms and hightlight displays for each color channel.

I\'m intrigued by the new OLED displays. Wouldn\'t that be a need technology to see on the back of the next pro E-series body?

[admin_old]

The little flashing highlights I do not like in the LCD display, personally, All I see is everything white is flashing. I usually keep it on the histogram display. It seems to do better for me, then I know how much is displayed \"blown out\" Its usually not much.
T

[russ.will]

The original question was really about protecting the LCD as my E-300 does not have the clip on protector.

That aside, you\'re right, as a tool for judging exposure beyond using the histogram it is useless, but you miss one important use - checking of composition. I recently shot a wedding and the ability to quickly review a shot to check for stupid or unfortunate expressions is highly valuable. As the wedding was shot in bright midday southern european sun, a shade would have helped.

As for the new E-?, i\'ve heard interesting rumours (but then haven\'t we all) about live preview via the LCD. The rumour goes that it will forsake a glass pentaprism in favour of a mirror box a la E-300 with one of the mirrors semi silvered to allow an additional low res CCD to provide the live preview.

It sounds a bit far fetched to me but then the E-10 & 20 were SLR\'s and they had a live preview. They used a pair of siamesed prisms in place of the mirror which made them very quiet but threw up other problems regarding light from the eye piece hazing the image if you forgot to use the eye piece shutter.

To my knowledge they are the only DSLR\'s so far to have tried to add this undoubtably useful feature to the DSLR arsenal, but it shows that Olympus do have provenance in trying to tackle this feature. As long as they don\'t even think about an LCD viewfinder (whatever the technology) it should be interesting to see what turns up.

On that note, I\'m off to start a \'rumour mill\' topic.

Russell

[First Light]

My apologies, Russell. I didn\'t mean to hijack your thread—I guess my mind focused on your query about \"shading\" the LCD in your original post.

There\'s no doubt that being able to review a shot on the LCD monitor is essential in many circumstances in order to check the composition and/or pose.

I haven\'t shopped for a Hoodman but I\'ve seen numerous ads for them on eBay for the E-1. But I haven\'t seen any ads for the E-300. Here is their website in case you want to do dig deeper: http://www.hoodmanusa.com/.

Being an E-1 owner, I didn\'t realize that the E-300 did not include an LCD protector. I\'m surprised.

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/09/04 18:31

[First Light]

Oops! For some reason my message posted twice. Sorry. :(

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/09/04 18:34

[admin_old]

I don\'t see any examples of a LCD hood, If you know of any, I would like to see the links.
T

[First Light]

tspore wrote:
I don\'t see any examples of a LCD hood, If you know of any, I would like to see the links.
Many of the camera LCD hoods that I\'ve seen lately are the bellows type. Here is an example that is advertised for both the E-1 and E-300 in a 47st.photo ad on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/LCD-Hood-2x-Magnifier-Cap-for-Olympus-Evolt-E-300-E-1_W0QQitemZ7543972432QQcategoryZ50508QQssPageNameZ WDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem.

I think the above is a Hoodman product because they show a nearly identical hood on their website at: http://www.hoodmanusa.com/slr.asp. Plus this is the product linked to the Olympus E-1 on their \"Compatibility List\".

You\'ll notice that this hood includes a magnifier which you can remove when you don\'t want to use it.

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/09/05 00:46

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/09/05 00:48

[admin_old]

Ok so basically, any hood will work on the E-300. I was courious. I have scratched the crap out of mine. In fact when I send a camera in to the shop, they always replace it. (I am very rough on my camera. I abuse the backs and bottoms. (I figure that a body is worth less than a lens. B)
I also send each camera in at least one time a year for a good cleaning.
If the E-300 doesn\'t have even a plastic cover over it LCD. I would definitely buy 1.
I think it would be suicidal to the camera to not have one.

[russ.will]

First Light wrote:
[i]Being an E-1 owner, I didn\'t realize that the E-300 did not include an LCD protector. I\'m surprised.

Well, you buy the cheap camera, you don\'t get all the toys!

No worries about hijacking the thread either - once a few more users from the original site come over there\'ll be plenty of topics for everything.

Russell

Post edited by: russ.will, at: 2005/09/05 04:39

[laingjd]

Arghhhhhhh

Guys! Highjack Schmijack Hood Schmood......

http://www.hoodmanusa.com/slr.asp

Look at the one on the left. DSLR2. That is the one I was answering the post on.

[russ.will]

Mmmm. The one on the left seems to be the same, but with extra RUBBER. Surely a bargain for an extra tenner!!!

Russell

[Ian]

Try this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hakuba-2-0-1-8-Foldaway-LCD-Hood-New_W0QQitemZ7544672008QQcategoryZ50508QQrdZ1QQcmd ZViewItem

Just ordered one and will report back on the quality/fit. I will stick it to the E1 LCD cover.

[mikefellh]

tspore wrote:
Ok so basically, any hood will work on the E-300. I was courious. I have scratched the crap out of mine.

Personally I use an Optex LCD screen protector...basically a sheet of plastic that you trim to the size of the display, and stick on. When it gets worn out, you trim another sheet (in the pack I got is enough for six aplications). My main reason was because these don\'t show off the noseprints (I\'m left-eyed).

When the camera\'s not in use I keep it in an Olympus CS-3SH case (since I don\'t like using a traditional camera bag).

[alekko]

mikefellh wrote:
Personally I use an Optex LCD screen protector...basically a sheet of plastic that you trim to the size of the display, and stick on. When it gets worn out, you trim another sheet (in the pack I got is enough for six aplications).

I second that.

I use iPAQ’s Screen Protector for all my gears (including digital video camera). I scratched them so many times… Protectors always lightly damaged, but not the LCDs. Cheep and effective solution. Highly recommend it.

Cheers,
Alex.

[Kansas Ron]

The folding hood does not look too bad. However, I would use velcro to attach it. Don\'t need it indoors and not always outdoors (really only bright sunlight). Would not want to have to open it to see the LCD when the hood was not needed and would not want it sticking out.

[IBcrashen]

I just got an Invisibleshield from theinvisibleshield.com for my E-500 but havent put it on yet. They dont have the E-500 listed yet so I had to order a custom size one. I have them for my ipod, palm pilot, and gps and they are great. Lifetime replacement on them if you do happen to scratch them. They are put on with the use of water, any chance of that process hurting the camera?

[plg3]

Looks like they just added the E-500 to their supported digital cameras. LCD protector for $9.95 US -

http://www.shieldzone.com/form/index.html?preadd=action&key=OLYE500

They have absolute minimal Olympus support - the E-500 is the only Oly DSLR listed.

[barondla]

I bought the Delkin folding hood for my Pentax DS. It fits perfect, slips over the eyepiece like an eyecup. Unfortunately it is a pain to use. You have to fold it up to look through the camera and then fold it back out to shade the screen. I think this would work much better on my E300 since the viewfinder is off center off the lcd. Delkin lists a shade for the E300. I would have bought one if the store I visited had had it in stock. I may still try ordering one.
thanks
barondla