Michael Carter
Veteran
A while back I posted my review of the Swivi Viewfinder, about $140. In short, it's pretty killer and a steal for the price - no sticky magnets, works great on a DSLR and works passably well with a battery grip (not my favorite thing for video personally, those grips, but the Swivi aligns with 'em). It's a fantastic deal for a VF.
The main issue I had with the unit dealt with the baseplate - an awesome thing since it removes the need for sticky magnets. It screws into the tripod hole on the body, and the bottom of it has a choice of three holes for your tripod plate. However, since the mounting screw takes up the center area, your tripod plate will be 15mm off-center left or right, making aligning with a matte box impossible. Sure, there are adjustable baseplates (about $100 for a good one) but I already have too many baseplates.
So I got a block of 1/2" thick aluminum. All I have for this sort of thing is a drill press so it's not gorgeous, but does the job. $5 worth of metal.
It has a captive screw to mount it to one of the offset holes of the swivi plate. The two screw holes on the right of the swivi are problematic - if you choose those to mount your tripod plate, your QR or plate screw will push against the dovetail that allows you to quickly remove the viewfinder, freezing it in place. So I used those two holes for nylon locating pins, so the plate won't be able to rotate at all.
Works great, think I'll send it to Swivi who say "the VF is not compatible with matte boxes". Screw that!!
The main issue I had with the unit dealt with the baseplate - an awesome thing since it removes the need for sticky magnets. It screws into the tripod hole on the body, and the bottom of it has a choice of three holes for your tripod plate. However, since the mounting screw takes up the center area, your tripod plate will be 15mm off-center left or right, making aligning with a matte box impossible. Sure, there are adjustable baseplates (about $100 for a good one) but I already have too many baseplates.
So I got a block of 1/2" thick aluminum. All I have for this sort of thing is a drill press so it's not gorgeous, but does the job. $5 worth of metal.
It has a captive screw to mount it to one of the offset holes of the swivi plate. The two screw holes on the right of the swivi are problematic - if you choose those to mount your tripod plate, your QR or plate screw will push against the dovetail that allows you to quickly remove the viewfinder, freezing it in place. So I used those two holes for nylon locating pins, so the plate won't be able to rotate at all.
Works great, think I'll send it to Swivi who say "the VF is not compatible with matte boxes". Screw that!!