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Author
Interpreter Member of the Wild Empire
Registered: October 2006 Posts: 314
Review Date: Wed 18, July, 2007
Would you recommend it? No |
Total Spent: £34.00| Rating: 1
Strengths:
Easily available
Weaknesses:
Poor manufacturing tollerences allow it foul camera controls and fall to pieces during use.
The idea is a very good one. A clear sheet covers the LCD panel and a three piece pop-up shade allows viewing of the image in strong sunlight. I have two of them; one for my Canon 350D. The other for my 5D. Unfortunately they have proved unusable on my cameras.
To use the unit, the camera eye piece is removed and the Delkin unit slips on in it's place. The unit covers the eye piece and the LCD panel. It extends over the camera controls which are situated alond side the LCD panel. For the 350D this includes the controls on both sides of the panel. For the 5D just the controls on the left. Buttons on the units have extension rods which engage the buttons on the cameras. The units have their own eye pieces which clip into place onto the unit. The fittings are different to those of the cameras and the camera eye piece cannot be used on the Delkin unit.
The 350D. The shade replaces the camera eye piece and covers the camera controls and LCD panel. This unit fouled the camera controls. Every time I took a photograph the self timer operated. On examination it was found that the controls on the pop-up shade pressed in the camera controls. This was due to poor manufacture.
The unit was sent back to the manufacturer, who replaced it with another model. This one was worse than the original. The eye piece was a very poor fit and came off during use. The pop-up part, which can be removed by pushing it upwards, fell off whilst the camera was being carried and was lost. Some of the controls fouled the camera controls.
The 5D. Again some of the unit controls fouled the camera controls. With the 5D what you see is what you get. The view finder gives 96% coverage, so Delkin have fitted a smaller eye piece which covers less of the field of view. The eye piece is a better fit than that of the 350D model and the pop-up shade is removed in a different way, by pushing it to the right. This one is still intact.
The basic models, which do not cover the camera controls, may be a better option than the Pro series. I would think that it may be necessary to use a spot of super glue to stick both the eye piece and shade to the chassis of the unit to prevent loss.
The manufacturer said that they had never had any reports of the units fouling the camera controls. Both of my units had this fault. The ends of the extension rods were not cut cleanly and instead of being flat ended, to engage the camera controls, were cut at an angle. No doubt a little work with a fine file would have cured the problem.
A good idea which in my opinion was spoilt by poor manufacture.
------------------------------ Don't bother me with facts. My mind is already made up.
glsammy Moderator
Registered: October 2005 Location: Nottingham Posts: 15271
Review Date: Sat 15, March, 2008
Would you recommend it? No |
Total Spent: £34.99| Rating: 2
Strengths:
A good idea.
Weaknesses:
Needs re-desiging. Parts fall off easily.
I've got the pro version for my 20D.
I'd lost the eye cover piece within days of fitting it. The supplier were very good in sending me two free replacements.
The whole design of the unit is poorly thought out. The screen cover can slide off with the slightest of pressure, simply fitting the camera in my bag made it come off every time!
The eye piece was exactly the same. Another problem with the eye piece is the fitting quality of the rubber. This was constantly coming away from the body, very annoying.
In the end I solved all these problems by glueing them all on! I glued the rubber onto the eye piece, the slide to the frame and the eye piece to the frame.
I can't understand why they didn't do this in the first place, as ever since I did this it has worked flawlessly. I can still remove it easily from the camera.
The rubber eye piece is now showing signs of wear, its started to split at the top. This may be a reaction to the glue I used, or perhaps the quality of the rubber used? (I'm assuming it's rubber?)
I've not had the problems mention in the review above, on my version all the button covers worked well enough.
I've given it a 2 for quality, as in it's current condition it at least does work. I think it's over priced for the quality and the design of it, so again a 2. Performance now I've fixed it is OK, it does improve the quality of the image on the 20D so taking everything into consideration I've given it a 3.
I wont be buying one for my 40D, so that gives you some idea of my overall opinion.
