Every once-in-awhile, a product comes along that you just have to have. Sometimes you don’t even realize it until you have it in your hands! And when you DO get it in your hands, you figure out there are some other reasons it may work for you! The great folks at Zacuto USA gave me one of their new Z-Finder attachments to try out.
The Z-Finder is Zacuto’s DSLR Optical Viewfinder that allows DSLR cameras to have the correct form factor for video. It offers a 3x focusable magnification, a 40mm diameter lens, an eyecup preventing extraneous light leakage, and a field of view perfectly matched to LCD screens. The DSLR viewfinder is critical for precision focus on the shallow depth-of-field cameras. It consist of four parts; the mounting frame, the skirt with optics, the focusing knob and the eye cup. The mounting frame attaches to your camera LCD screen with a double sided adhesive. Once the frame is on the camera LCD screen, the Z-finder then snaps on the frame. The Z-finder can quickly be snapped on and snapped off, if you want to get your eye in the actual viewfinder.
Zacuto also added a lanyard hook option on the outside of the z-finder so you can attach a Zacuto lanyard to your Z-Finder. The lanyards allows you to quickly take the Z-Finder off but have it nearby to quickly put back on when needed. Also, don’t worry left eye people, the eye cup can rotate!
Well, it arrived as advertised and getting it onto the back of my 5D Mark II was a breeze. There is a square piece of plastic (the mounting frame) that has a double-sided adhesive strip around the edge. You pull the paper cover off that strip, center the plastic mounting frame to fit perfectly around your viewfinder on the back of the camera, and then press down on it. Zacuto recommends that you put the camera on a flat surface (lens down) and then place a book or some weight on top of the mounting frame for 24 hours so that the adhesive adheres properly. No problem, but you ALWAYS want to just run out and test something as soon as you get it! Good idea to wait though if you want it to work properly. Besides, it WILL come off if you decide to remove it later on.
Once the 24hours has passed, the Z-Finder will just snap on and off the mounting frame when you need to use it. Now, one of the questions I ask folks in my regular podcast, is what do they have in their camera bag? I have an interesting item, that most photographers DON’T keep in there. It’s a Rodenstock 4X Loupe, which is REALLY helpful in bright light situations to place on the back viewing screen and check focus. I know, you can just blow it up on the viewfinder with the plus and minus buttons, but this seems to be a much better way to see that critical sharpness.
Well, the Rodenstock is a little round thing, it does hang around the neck, but it was never meant to be used on the viewfinder on the back of my 5D. I used it (under a viewing hood) to check the focus on my 4×5 view camera, and just stuck it in the camera bag with my Canon equipment when I started using it exclusively all the time.
Before the Z-Finder had arrived, I’d been out shooting some video with the Mark II, only to find out that I couldn’t really see what was going on on a very sunny day. I was having a LOT of trouble seeing what I was filming and the Rodenstock loupe was not much help for live viewing! The Z-Finder arrived and was just a thousand times better for viewing what was being captured on the back. There is no light leakage from the sides because it covers the entire screen area, and the eye cup fits your eye pretty tightly. People wearing glasses will have just a bit of trouble, but I was able to rotate the rubber cup to where it fit pretty snugly. An additional issue that you may deal with, is getting the focusing ring to adjust enough to where the focus is tack sharp when wearing glasses. Zacuto is going to have a deeper mount available in a couple of weeks for those people who have a problem with this.
One other thing I started using it for, was viewing still images on the back of the screen. When I first got it, I thought that the only use would be for video. But, once you have it hanging around your neck, it becomes a MUST have item for checking your still images. You just grab it, snap it on the back of the camera on the mounting ring, and then cycle through your images to check how they really look. In a low light situation, this is probably something you don’t need to do. But, if you are an outdoor shooter, this is just something that I think you will use time and again. Doesn’t matter if you shoot macro, landscapes, or weddings, it’s just easier to see the images on the back of the screen with the Z-Finder.
The company has put a great video together which gives all the details about the product. It’s a bit long, but worth watching.
The Plus Side:
In my mind, I thought this was something only video shooters would need. What I found out was, that since I’m a landscape photographer, this became almost a necessary piece of gear to keep hanging around my neck. Besides, when you attach it to the camera, you just look cool 
So, I would recommend this to anyone shooting video, or doing a lot of bright light shooting. It works great on the 5D Mark II AND they say it fits fine on the new Canon 7D. The mounting piece also helps keep your face just a little further off the viewfinder so that there isn’t as much skin oil getting on it.
The Down Side:
I had two things I felt were downsides of the product. One was cost. The device is EXTREMELY well-made. It does not feel cheap at all, but at $395.00 it ‘feels’ about $100 over what I would want to pay. Maybe that’s just me – I want it, but want to pay less for it. The second thing is dust and dirt. With the mounting frame on the back of your viewfinder, you end up creating a wonderful place for dust and dirt to hide. I didn’t put it through very heavy use, but I found that I ended up with quite a bit of dust and dirt in and around the edges of the viewfinder up close to where the mounting frame was attached. A blower brush helps, but is not the perfect solution. It may mean taking the mounting bracket off from time-to-time to do a real cleaning, but then you’ll have to order some extra adhesive strips from Zacuto.
Final Thought
One other thing, that is not a downside of the device, but one of being a still photographer starting to shoot video with these cameras, is this: You see this great video on TV, and then you believe that you can do the same thing once you get your HD equipped still camera. Well, reality is – devices like the Zacuto Z-Finder are just the tip of the iceberg of what you will need to get that fantastic video. Think you can hand-hold every shot? Well, not really – next you’ll find you need something to steady the camera. If you’re not moving, your tripod works fine. But what if you have to move? Well, get ready to spend a lot more cash! Stocks that hold the camera against your body become another of those ‘must have’ Zacuto products that go with the Z-Finder. Just a heads up, but the Z-Finder is just the beginning when you get into shooting video!
