Hoodman is an accessory company that came on the scene a few years back with pop up shades for LCD’s and other screen protectors. They have branched out into a whole line up of everything from loupes to memory cards all aimed at the DSLR market.
In this video you are seeing me test out the Hoodman Cinema Kit Pro which consists of a Hood Loupe 3.0 and CInema Crane. Let’s talk about the loupe first, for those of you who used to use a loupe and a light box to look at negatives or slides this is the same concept. The only difference is this is designed to be held up to the back of your 3 inch LCD. It is made of rubber so it will not scratch your screen. The magnifying end rotates which makes the image larger and clearer as you look through it. The loupe is perfect for checking focus on the back of your screen even in bright sun light as well as checking the focus of your videos.
That brings us up to the crane aspect of this system. The Hood Loupe fits into this crane that attaches to the hot shoe of your camera. A genius design still allows for an open hot shoe for other accessories like external microphones or wireless packs. The crane is designed to hold the loupe in place or flip out of the way when not needed. The crane is made out of plastics and at times does feel a little flimsily. This accessory is meant to be used when filming video on your DSLR to help you keep the focus. Focusing while shooting video is never easy especially in bright light. The loupe comes with a rubber eye cup which allows you to block all outside light allowing you to better focus on the camera.
This combination of Loupe and Crane is a very nice option for anyone who is looking for a better way to see their LCD while trying to focus video of your DSLR/HDSLR.
The loupe only option is great for photographers who shoot a lot of landscapes out in the field and don’t have a lap top to check the focus of their images. While in the filed this loupe will allow you to make sure you captured the image you wanted as well as got the focus tack sharp. I would still recommend the crane option for shooting video, just make sure not to bend or break the plastic. I see no reason why with every day use that the crane would not hold up just fine.
The Loupe gets 4.5 Hair Picks out of 5 and the Crane gets 3.5 Hair Picks out of 5.
You can pick up any Hoodman product at Allen’s Camera 215.547.2841 or Right Here on AMAZON
Click Here for Hoodman on B and H
They are Great!
I have the LCDVF one and used it for a recent wedding I covered.
I used it on my D90 for video, and not only is it great for pulling focus but it also stabilizes the video. I will never cover any event or wedding or portrait session ever again without it.
that sounds reeeaaalllly expensive for a gadget tht looks tht flimsy, i doubt it will withstand any unintended abuse. Whats the quality of the loop like and can you adjust the focus on it?
@gunnther1 Yea it sounds expensive to, i am going to be checking out other gadgets up at the show next week in nyc. the Loupe itself seems to be pretty cool and I was happy with that and yes it does focus.
Yes. I was expecting maybe $99. I would have paid that. It’s way overpriced.
This seems like a really good idea – something that makes sense given the fact camera back LCD’s are now higher resolution than your naked eye can perceive at a reasonable distance, and given the fact that DSLR autofocus doesn’t exist/looks extremely amateurish (examples I’ve seen of D3100 video auto focus is not cinema-like at all).
An alternative, however, would be the ability for the video portrayed on the LCD itself to be zoomable – so you could concentrate on the part of the shot you want to keep in focus, just as you can do with a still after you take it by switching to playback and zooming in on the subject.
Maybe if it was $29.99…
LCDVF Is Cheaper and better IHMO; also there’s a Spot-On Clone of it That sells for $70!
It doesn’t seem too bad. If you look at other products, it’s priced around the same. The Zacuto Z-Finder is much more expensive.
The loupe itself and eye cup are under $120 it seems. $15 for the elastic band if you don’t need the crane system.
Too expensive for something like that. Maybe if it was half the price.
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