Battle of the DSLR Viewfinder
I recently stumbled across the Letus Hawk VF and was taken back a little bit when the first sentence of it’s description is “100% custom designed”. It looks astoundingly close to the Zacuto Z-Finder Pro and the specs are pretty close as well.
Zacuto Z-Finder Pro Series:
Magnification: 2.5x and 3x
Diopter range of -2.75 and up (unlimited with extender frames)
Anti-Fog
(I think hard Plastic)
Price: BH:$375 Zacuto:$395
Letus Hawk VF:
Magnification: 2.75x
Adjustable from +1.5 to -2.5
Anti-Fog
Made of Carbon Fiber
Price: $385
I personally own the Z-Finder Pro 3x and use it with my Canon T2i using the sticky frame instead of the Gorilla Plate. The Hawk is a 2.75x magnify and I do agree to with the following quote from my experience:
“At larger zooms, the image gets so big that you are forced to move your eye around to see the whole image.” – Letus DSLR
But I could have bought the lower magnification if i choose to and I have gotten used to the 3x now.
The Hawk’s upgrades look pretty tasty though, I like the Talon Upgrade kits that add rails to your rig easily, but Zacuto has a nice line of supports that can attach to the included Gorilla Plate.
From what I can gather Zacuto has already gobbled up the DSLR Viewfinder market and has an army of professionals to back there products. The only thing that could have maybe saved them sales wise was a cheaper product, but with only a $10 difference on their viewfinder I don’t believe the masses will be shifting gears anytime soon. But I’m not exactly the best authority to judge any companies sales status. I hope they are doing well though. As a consumer/producer I love options and Letus and Zacuto definitely open up some options.
Maybe someday I’ll be able to get my hands on one of these things and give it a proper review.
Zacuto Z-Finder: http://store.zacuto.com/Z-Finder.html
Letus Hawk VF: http://letusdslr.com/hawk-vf/
[...] to say that other manufactures are making lesser products. Like in my previous post comparing the Z-Finder to the Hawk, Letus has really put there best foot forward in there variation of a Viewfinder. But we seem to [...]
This is complete non-info, wtf is the point of putting a bunch of spec’s on a page and call it a battle?
The most detailed piece of info you have to share is that its $10 difference.. wtf??
[Reply]
Phil Reply:
June 28th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate your contribution. This post was put up to compare how close the two viewfinders are. The battle part comes in at the selling point and which viewfinder will become more profitable, not performance. It is in my opinion that the performance of these are identical and what Zacuto has going for them is popularity. Now yes Letus has been around for a long time and is very reputable, but the Z-Finder has captured the amateur and professional community which will make it an up hill battle for Letus in the viewfinder business. I applaud Letus’s entire to the DSLR field and can’t wait to get my hands on a Talon Kit.
Again Thank you and sorry for the misunderstanding.
[Reply]