Thanks for sharing! It is super helpful! I do have a question and hope you may help me understand. When tracking a birds in flight, should I place my eye right in front of the red dot sight? If so, how do I monitor the autofocus in viewfinder/backscreen then? I suppose if my eye is super close to the sight I won't be able to check viewfinder/backscreen at the same time.
You will need to experiment a little, so that you can see the dot clearly but you can also see with both eyes the location and which way the bird could move. I find my face is back from the camera about 5 to 6 inches. The dot sight is designed to be farther away from your eye and not like the camera's eye viewfinder.
I have one. I have had some success. What I don't like about using it, is that it only seems to be accurate for the distance range you set it to. For instance, if I calibarate it to a post 100 feet away. If a bird flies in and around 100 feet, works great! But, the more it gets away from that distance, the more inaccurate the site becomes. Again, there are some situation where I knew exactly where the bird was going to be flying, which worked great for that, maybe I'm hoping for too much. Kind of bitter sweet. Or am I missing something, maybe I'm not using it right
I'm not sure what the issue could be. There can be lots of variables including autofocus speed and accuracy, and still not every shot comes out perfect. If I calibrate at 100ft, mine works well from about 30ft to Infinity. You might set up a test with non-moving objects to see what results you are getting, and maybe calibrate on a closer object. I am assuming a lens of 300 - 600mm at f/8 or so.
The LED screen will only show what the lens sees. So if you have a 400mm lens on your camera, the field of view is magnified but very narrow, making it hard to track the direction of a moving subject. The dot sight allows you to keep both eyes open while using the dot overlay and allows you to use your eyes' 180 degree field of vision to help track movement. The dot sight gives no indication of the field of view of your photo so you do need to check the viewfinder.
I use a 600mm for birds and would be really interested in one of these. One thing I am wondering about is if you always have to use the focus point that the sight is calibrated with? Essentially always set it to center point autofocus, or on a “zone” but there is no switching of the focus area once it is calibrated, does that make sense?
The dot sight is calibrated for 50 -100 yards, but it isn't actually controlling your camera, it is just a visual reference. You can always switch to using the camera's viewfinder at any time and change whatever settings you want.
the dit sight is an interesting piece of kit, but using my 500 f4 lens, I always keep my left eye open - that gives me a better field of view but also allows my right eye to take in the viewfinder info and keeps my head close to the camera where it needs to be for stability when and holding. It takes practice but works. The dot sight is great fro astro photography.
Thanks for the video, didn't even know those dot sights exist.
Thanks for sharing! It is super helpful! I do have a question and hope you may help me understand. When tracking a birds in flight, should I place my eye right in front of the red dot sight? If so, how do I monitor the autofocus in viewfinder/backscreen then? I suppose if my eye is super close to the sight I won't be able to check viewfinder/backscreen at the same time.
You will need to experiment a little, so that you can see the dot clearly but you can also see with both eyes the location and which way the bird could move. I find my face is back from the camera about 5 to 6 inches. The dot sight is designed to be farther away from your eye and not like the camera's eye viewfinder.
On the 0:45 the video says "check the notes for a discount code", but I could not find any. Nice content though!
$20 Off when you spend $50 or more. businesscarddisplays.etsy.com?coupon=20DISC
@@JayPierstorff oh, that's a deal!
I have one. I have had some success. What I don't like about using it, is that it only seems to be accurate for the distance range you set it to. For instance, if I calibarate it to a post 100 feet away. If a bird flies in and around 100 feet, works great! But, the more it gets away from that distance, the more inaccurate the site becomes. Again, there are some situation where I knew exactly where the bird was going to be flying, which worked great for that, maybe I'm hoping for too much. Kind of bitter sweet. Or am I missing something, maybe I'm not using it right
I'm not sure what the issue could be. There can be lots of variables including autofocus speed and accuracy, and still not every shot comes out perfect. If I calibrate at 100ft, mine works well from about 30ft to Infinity. You might set up a test with non-moving objects to see what results you are getting, and maybe calibrate on a closer object. I am assuming a lens of 300 - 600mm at f/8 or so.
What is the difference to use back of the camera LED screen vs Dot Sight nowaday?
The LED screen will only show what the lens sees. So if you have a 400mm lens on your camera, the field of view is magnified but very narrow, making it hard to track the direction of a moving subject. The dot sight allows you to keep both eyes open while using the dot overlay and allows you to use your eyes' 180 degree field of vision to help track movement. The dot sight gives no indication of the field of view of your photo so you do need to check the viewfinder.
@@JayPierstorff Will the Dot Site work with zoom lens or just prime lens?
@@papabear7875 Yes, they work great with a zoom.
I use a 600mm for birds and would be really interested in one of these. One thing I am wondering about is if you always have to use the focus point that the sight is calibrated with? Essentially always set it to center point autofocus, or on a “zone” but there is no switching of the focus area once it is calibrated, does that make sense?
The dot sight is calibrated for 50 -100 yards, but it isn't actually controlling your camera, it is just a visual reference. You can always switch to using the camera's viewfinder at any time and change whatever settings you want.
the dit sight is an interesting piece of kit, but using my 500 f4 lens, I always keep my left eye open - that gives me a better field of view but also allows my right eye to take in the viewfinder info and keeps my head close to the camera where it needs to be for stability when and holding. It takes practice but works. The dot sight is great fro astro photography.