Yet another 9 dollar Loupe Idea

[MagicCat]

80 Cents for a 2 inch PVC coupler
60 cents for a plastic Electrical Box
4 bucks for a "3rd Hand" rig with Good Glass
1 buck for a roll of Window Seal Foam
and 3 bucks for a tube of tube of Epoxy Putty (substitute with Bondo??)

If anyone has interest, I will take some time with a DIY instruction set.

Basically, I took the glass out of the 3rd hand Kit, had to sand out one end of the inside of the PVC Coupler so the glass would press fit. (took off about 32nd of an inch ID)

I cut the bottom off of the Electrical box, the size was almost perfect for the Viewfinder on My T2i. (there are several electrical boxes out there, this one was the smallest in size, I can offer a Lowes SKU if someone wants it) and then removed the Nailing wings.

I cut slots off the top and bottom of the electrical box where the PVC ring would fit. The PVC is just a pinch larger in (OD) diameter than the electrical box.

Assembled it, used Epoxy Putty to glue it all together, and then a little hunk of aluminum on the underside to connect the rig to the Camera Shoe mount. I also drilled and tapped a new 1/4 20 threaded Camera Shoe mount into the Aluminum connecting plate. (connecting plate not pictured)

Filled in holes, sanded the epoxy and painted flat black. Although it is a fixed focal length, this works as good as my friends 400 dollar Zacuto. Im not saying that because Im Biased over my DIY job, I'm not that shallow,... an ego will not pay my clients back for wasted-out-of-focus- videos. In fact, I had 400 bucks stashed away to get a Zacuto assuming I would not be able to come anywhere close with any DIY Job. I was very wrong. These are as easy to make as one would think. Zacuto is nice, but, if you dont care about a brand name, a DIY loupe can turn into a lens with the money you save. There are allot of good DIY plans out there, many of them work just as good if not better.

The trick was finding a good magnifier lens that would not turn my LCD Screen into a Drive Inn Theater. (too much real estate to look at)

P.S. I tried a 62 or 72 to 52 mm Step Down ring, and a stack of 2-4x 52mm close-up lens's that you can find on Ebay for 10 bucks. The step down ring fit almost perfectly inside the PVC. I just did not want to waste my Macro Screw On lens's for this. The Glass Magnifier works great.

It took 2 hrs to do, due to research and screw-ups. I can probably make it in under 45 mins now.

If there is any interest, I will try to elaborate on the process.

Of course, in the pictures, the Loupe is up against a FILM camera for reference because I dont have TWO T2i's.

I hope someone finds this helpful, or elaborates on it. It would not be hard to make the Focal length adjustable either if someone wanted to make one like that.

 

[MagicCat]

PS. I have been using this for about 4 days now, I removed the EyeCup. It isn't really super helpful. I found I can view the screen with Both Eyes if I just leave the end of the PVC open, or one eye very comfortably with a little build up of Window Seal Foam around the edge. The trick to this whole thing is to find your optimum focal distance between the Glass-in-PVC ring, to your LCD Screen. Once you do, it is easy to just glue it in place, into the slots cut into the top and bottom (bottom slot not pictured) Electrical box. If you are smart, you will cut into the Electrical box to the proper depth, so the PVC ring fits snugly against all three sides of the cutouts. You can always use a little Sticky backed Foam Rubber window seal to take up the slack between the box and screen, if you make it fit too close. What you cannot fix after it is assembled, is having too far of a distance between the Lens and Screen. You will have to take a little more off the end of the box that fits against the screen. The foam actually also helps from scratching up the camera body, as well as a light seal.

I wear glasses, so this does not work for me when I have them on. I tried to make the fixed Focal length Multi-User Friendly. It seems to work for just about everyone that has tried it so far. I have another Magnifying lens I snap on the end of the PVC, when I dont want to be bothered with taking my glasses on and off.

The maing thing here, is finding a hunk of glass you can live with. It will make or break your Loupe's usability. I found the Helping Hand thing at Marcs, they seem to carry them all the time. I don't have a sku or model number. Made In China is about all there was.