Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
>Snip.
My opinion is genuine parts while expensive never fail to delivery.
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Amen to that! I recently purchased an OEM Canon Angle Finder C.
I’ve looked at these Right Angle Viewfinder (RAVs) for a couple of years now, but the OEM Canon model, at some A$320-340 locally, has been just too expensive an investment to justify for the maybe half a dozen or so times a year I would use it. I still have my old Pentax RAV (from my 35mm film days) which fits nicely on the Canon 40D but the eyepiece frame on the 7D is larger, so the Pentax device won’t fit.
I had a look at a 3rd party brand in a local shop and also browsed eBay, where they seemed to vary in price from $40-$150. The views through shop copy were not very impressive, with a hint of chromatic aberration at the edges, as well as appearing a little soft. They certainly lacked the crispness/clarity compared of my Pentax RAV on the 40D. In comparison to the plastic & metal construction of the Pentax unit, the unit I handled in the shop felt more like a plastic toy.
Anyhow, fast forward and a couple of weeks later, I was ordering some stuff from B&H in the USA and noted that the Canon unit was priced at US $179. With the Aussie $ being above parity at the time, I thought that I’d purchase the Canon unit at the same time, with a negligible effect on the overall postage and packaging costs. Well, the Canon RAV arrived and it was a beauty to behold when compared to the 3rd party unit. It was of plastic/metal construction and the views through it were quite stunning; really crisp and sharp right to the edges. In retrospective comparison, the 3rd party unit seemed to produce a vignetting effect, akin to looking down a tunnel.
In terms of handling, when I fitted the Canon unit it kind of disappeared when in use, whereas I struggled a little with fitting and using the 3rd party unit – it just didn’t seem to “feel” right or integrate seamlessly with the camera body.
However, if you only want to use it to compose the photo a few times each year, save your neck from cramping and are not too fussed with the overall user experience, the 3rd party units do seem adequate for the purpose and certainly fit the bill, not to mention the budget. In the final analysis, it is unlikely that I would have forked out the full $320-340 for the Canon OEM unit, but $179 brought it within reach in terms of my personal values.
Cheers
Dennis