What aids for focusing a 7D?

[dogcatcher]

I use a 7D almost exclusively for photographing butterflies and moths, usually with a 180 macro lens. I find that I can't focus in the field. The viewer is too small and the screen isn't clear enough in daylight. My aged eyes and varifocal glasses don't help. I appear to have three choices: 1. Some sort of magnifying loupe. 2. Fit a focusing "split screen" like cameras had in film days. or 3. Buy another Canon camera which either already has the focusing element in it or has an AF mode which works for macro subjects, but which one?
I can't be the only person to have a hundred shots of every insect and only one which is vaguely in focus. I have no problem focusing when using a 60mm macro and controlling the camera from my computer or tablet but I can't do this when out in the wild.

[psion2007]

If I am using a tripod or monopod and want to really get focused I use the live view and the 5 times or even 10 times function for live view. You may need to get or fashion a hood for intensely sunny conditions.

[Larry Weinman]

I bought a Hoodman eyecup for people who wear glasses that keeps extraneous light from entering the viewfinder and seems to help me with manual focusing

[gratchie]

or a lcdvf if you want to use the live view screen

http://www.kinotehnik.com/

[dogcatcher]

Originally Posted by gratchie

or a lcdvf if you want to use the live view screen
http://www.kinotehnik.com/

It's an idea, I didn't know about this model, I had thought about the Far Eastern ones but they seemed flimsy from the descriptions. Has anyone tried the Katz Eyes split viewer because by habit I tend to use the viewfinder rather than live view?

[Idlefrog]

I also wear varifocals and had trouble with the view finder. When I tried taking my glasses off I found there wasn't enough adjustment on the diopter for my prescription. I did some searching and Canon make view finder lenses to enable people with stronger prescriptions use the view finder without glasses. I bought one and now I just life my glasses up to take a photo and can see the view finder clearly.

You need the Canon EB rubber eye cup: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ls_o02_s01_i00

And you need the correct lens for your eyesight. I got this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ls_o02_s00_i00

[DQE]

Does one need to decipher one's eyeglass prescription and then try to approximately match the prescribed adjustment to one of the available Canon Dioptric viewfinder attachment lenses?

Hopefully, the diopter adjustment built into the viewfinder would be able to compensate for any gaps between one's eyeglass prescription and the available Canon viewfinder lenses.

I personally believe that the apparent size of the viewfinder image is just too small to work ideally for finely focused macro work. For static subjects, the Liveview-based method works well for me, using the 5x and 10x zoomed images. With my 5DII camera, and I assume others, one can easily move the field of view around to the part of the subject that is to become the critically focused target.

Also, I've wondered if something like a Hoodman LCD screen viewing loupe would work better than the viewfinder for macro work.

One caveat about using Liveview heavily - it causes the image sensor to heat up fairly rapidly, adding to the hot pixel and noisy background problem that all digital sensors have. While this might not hurt for a few minutes of Liveview use, if one uses the feature heavily, you'll soon notice the camera heating up and noise buildup in dark areas of your photos. I believe there is a thermal overload camera shutdown that eventually occurs, as can happen when using DSLRs intensively to make movies.

[Lester Wareham]

Originally Posted by dogcatcher

I use a 7D almost exclusively for photographing butterflies and moths, usually with a 180 macro lens. I find that I can't focus in the field. The viewer is too small and the screen isn't clear enough in daylight. My aged eyes and varifocal glasses don't help. I appear to have three choices: 1. Some sort of magnifying loupe. 2. Fit a focusing "split screen" like cameras had in film days. or 3. Buy another Canon camera which either already has the focusing element in it or has an AF mode which works for macro subjects, but which one?
I can't be the only person to have a hundred shots of every insect and only one which is vaguely in focus. I have no problem focusing when using a 60mm macro and controlling the camera from my computer or tablet but I can't do this when out in the wild.

I am no spring chicken and I have very strong varifocal glasses, just under 10 diopter.

I just use the viewfinder, I don't have a problem with any of my macro lenses including the 180L.

Tip 1: Make sure sure the diopter setting on the camera is set to zero. I tried my father in laws 60D and couldn't understand why I could not tell when things were in focus - this was the reason.

Tip 2: On a tripod I mostly use live view or the angle find C but normally for neck bending issues..

Fact 1: Split screen aids are not a lot of help with macro as they just black out.

Fact 2: The 7D focus screen is not interchangeable.

[Lester Wareham]

Originally Posted by DQE

Does one need to decipher one's eyeglass prescription and then try to approximately match the prescribed adjustment to one of the available Canon Dioptric viewfinder attachment lenses?

I tied to get a set made up, but my eyes are to bad and the canon attchment frame is for a lens flat on one side I I remember correctly.

In my FD film days I did have two diopter attachments back to back but my eyes were not so bad then, even so it was far from ideal.

I decided in the end if I have to take my glasses off to use the camera it would be too inconvenient, I couldn't look up to find the subject if it moves; infinity for my eyes is about 3 inches.