Cool Gear: The Hoodman Loupe Rocks!
That wonderful LCD screen on the back of your camera is just about useless if you’re shooting outdoors in daylight. Last week during my first location shoot in Santa Fe, I would take a shot, look at the LCD and just laugh because it was so washed out with sunlight you really couldn’t see if there was a photo there or not.
On Friday’s shoot (at Pecos National Historical Park), I remembered that I had been traveling (for the past month or so), with a Hoodman Loupe in my bag, but I had never tried it (since I hadn’t tried it, I kept forgetting I had it). It works like a regular loupe (it hangs from a cord around your neck), but out in the field (in the daylight), you put it over your LCD, and it covers the entire screen; blocking out the light so you can see your screen perfectly. It worked WAY better than than I expected and everybody in my class who tried it out fell in love with it, so I thought I’d pass on my experience with it. (By the way, the Loupe itself is about the same size as a normal loupe and it’s very lightweight–you forget you’re even wearing it).
So, now that I’m sold on it, I have a new philosophy; either I take this Hoodman Loupe with me outdoors, or I turn off my LCD altogether and save the battery life. Here’s the link to their site for more info. Kudos to the people at Hoodman for coming up with such a clever gadget.
OMG – another must have gadget, what a great idea – thanks for the tip! I’m gonna look like such a camera nerd on holidays between this, the Expo Disk and the camera around my neck.
I use this gadget everyday. Permanent part of my camera bag.Best way for looking at the LCD in daylight. I travel alot so everything I carry has to have a reason because of space and weight. Also if you do a lot of Macro take a look atthe right angle arm for the rear eyepeice.
AND the loupe has magnification on it. (Just turn the eyepiece to adjust.) My Hoodman rep suggests carrying an extra one to let your client use it–very cool.
Scott, normally I would agree that the Hoodman would be worth it, but I find that even when I am not in harsh sunlight, the picture on the LCD is so inaccurate with regard to color, I simply check sharpness by zooming all the way into the parts that I care about being sharp, and ensure the histogram is okay and move on. I can see where the Hoodman would help with the sharpness viewing, but I am not sure it would be worth carrying around one more thing. Thoughts?
Hi Pat:
Although my LCD is far from “dead on” for color, it’s not off so far off that I can’t at least make reasonable decisions based on what I see (remember; most people don’t calibrate their monitors, so it’s at least as close as that).
Besides, I’m not using it primarily to look at color; I’m looking at my LCD for tone, contrast, exposure, composition (highlight warnings), and just making sure I ‘got the shot” and for that I love my LCD, and the Hoodman Loupe lets me use this tool I love more often.
Also, as for Vinnie’s post above; I’ve seen all the stuff Vinny carries, and if he has made room for it, believe me—it’s worth carrying. Give it a try; I think you’ll be surprised at how much you like it.
I see no disparaging comments, so I will add mine. Any loupe I ever owned magnifies. This one doesn’t. I have a 20D with a little tiny screen, and the Hoodman gives me a darker little tiny screen.
Just as a note back to Al, Janine Smith above indicates that the Loupe does magnify. Who is right? I may get one if the Loupe magnifies.
Perhaps I didn’t play with it enough to find the magnifier part.
Twisting it is a +/-3 Diopter adjustment I believe (for your vision).
Re: Magnification: If the Hoodman loupe actually magnified much, you’d get pixillation. My 30D’s display has only 230K pixels. As the images are 8 MP, one pixel on the LCD corresponds to more than 32 on the image. (It’s more because the image doesn’t use all of the LCD.) Magnify that and you just get a larger fuzzy image.
In a sense, the Hoodman loupe does “magnify” the image, as it gets your eye a lot closer to the image. Halving the distance is the same as magnifying by two. Most photographers I’ve watched view the screen from 18″ or so. Using the loupe puts you about 3-4″ away, “magnifying” by 4-6 times.
The wedding Photographer at my best friend’s wedding had one of these and I knew I had to get one for myself. I forgot to ask him what it was called, figuring I’d be able to find it on google/amazon, etc.
Well, after much searching, I finally found it, but nobody has one in staock, not even the manufacturer. It seems that this gret device has been discontinued. What a bummer.
Just purchased the NEW Hoodman Loupe 3 inch, which seems to have had a few other design tweaks other than just the overall screen coverage.
I’m here in the UK and I don’t have endless amounts of money so £73 including delivery is a serious outlay for me. I’m using a Canon G10 (my first proper digital camera) and the first thing that I notice over the weekend when I took it out on a clear winters day was that the screen, even thought beautifully bright and clear indoors was washed out (I think it’s also a lot of ambient light passing into your eyes makes things difficult, it’s not just the screens fault). Anyway, I love using the 3inch screen on the G10 with it’s true colour and pin sharp image, so for me this is a big part of what digital photography is all about.
Well, after looking through Scott Kelby’s books I remembered the Hoodman Loupe and thought I’d do a full research job on the internet when I got back home, being able to use my screen every time I take a photo is very important to me, I like to see what I’m getting. Well, the NEW version of the Hoodman Loupe 3 inch was the one I ended up purchasing, to be honest paying £73 for it knocked me sick at first, that was until I actually received it.
Even though I am still to use this device in the proper wilds, after testing it in situations that usually have me squinting I can say that this is £73 pounds very well spent, it’s opened up digital the way I like it, on a nice screen. This NEW 3inch version is quality (maybe not £73 worth but close), nice carbon looking case, nice new type of soft neck cord (more like a ribbon really) that allows you to press a pinch-clip to release the Loupe while keeping the neck cord on, and the Loupe itself is solid build, but soft to the touch, with a nice glass lens and turning eyepiece.
In short if you like digital photography this really does need to go with you everywhere and because it’s contact area with the camera is non-slip you can easily use it while taking photographs not just reviewing photographs.
Brill product, don’t think to much about the price if you can help it, save up and make your life much, much easier, possible worth it’s weight on gold.
While I purchased and use the Hoodman Loupe 3.0, for the money it should have included a way to quickly mount and remove it from the LCD. For quick checking of an image it works great, but to use as a viewfinder while in video mode (5D MK II) the rubber band option, which Hoodman charges a ridiculous $20 for, still allows the Loupe to slide around too much. Another issue when using it as a viewfinder is that it consistently fogs up if I keep my eye against it.