DIY LCD Viewfinder

[swintimo]

Hi, I needed a viewfinder for my LCD screen, but I can't afford a Zacuto or even an LCDVF at the moment, so, I decided to make my own. It's basically a magnifying glass in a cardboard box, covered in tape with a rubber eye cup. It attaches to the camera via the camera's detachable eye cup. I got the idea from some of the posts on this forum which made me realise how simple a basic LCD viewer actually is.

I measured the optimum focusing distance from the magnifying glass to the LCD screen, then the distance my eye needed to be from the glass, and made the container from double layered mounting board.I then covered the whole thing in gaffer tape to waterproof it.

It works perfectly, giving me a 3x magnified view of the LCD screen that has very little distortion or vignetting. The photo through the viewfinder does not represent at all what it's like to look through it. It's also surprisingly strong and durable. You would have to really try to break it.

The whole thing cost about £10.00, and it really does work very well. It doesn't look very nice, but it works.

 

[KevinACrider]

This is a nice DIY and could really be improved upon with some basic household items. I really would have liked to see some step by step pictures, mainly on the internal configuration, but that's probably because this is one of my next DIY attempts.

 

[swintimo]

Hi kevin, thanks very much. Yes, you could make it look nicer, and you could construct it out of existing containers and things, rather than cardboard. It really does work very well though, and it's durable and waterproof.

Here's some more information on the construction, and some quick diagrams, hope it's useful.

Thee magnifying glass came in a square frame, so I glued small pieces of balsa wood onto the inside of the mounting board container and then glued the frame of the magnifying glass to the balsa wood.

I doubled the mounting board up by making two of each piece of the container, and then stuck them together with spray mount to make double thick pieces. The rubber eye cup is glued to a piece of mounting board that is glued to the top of the container, it doesn't touch the magnifying glass.

The magnifying glass is very secure, you would have to stamp on the box to dislodge it. I used a 2 part glue that was like a gel when applied and dries to a very strong sort of resin. Much stronger than super glue.

The weakest point is where it attaches to the 7D eye piece, although it's still very strong. You could only break it off if you tried to do so, a bump or a drop wouldn't do anything to it.

The only tiny problem with it is that it doesn't quite connect with the LCD screen in places, there's a 4 millimetre or so gap in places. However, this isn't enough to let any light in, and when I use it to shoot (hopefully soon), I'l lightly tape the edges to the camera for additional security.

Overall, it's very strong for what it is, it's waterproof, and it works. It will stand up to knocks and bumps, but I try to avoid those anyway.