5D focusing screen question

I just bought an Ee-S focusing screen for my 5D for manual focusing with my fast glass. But...I am confused.

a) How do you tell the difference between the two screens? I saw an 'S' on the little tab on the new screen, so I assumed that stood for Ee-S, but when I took out the old screen, it ALSO had an S on the little tab!

b) I see NO difference in the viewfinder. It doesn't look darker. Manual focusing is easy, but it's always been very easy. I don't notice a massive improvement like I expected.

Did my 5D already come with the Ee-S focusing screen in place or something? I'm really confused. Wtf did I just buy?

I, too have been curious about the notorious Ee-s focusing screen. Some people swear by it. It seems you're swearing AT it...heh, lame joke, i know.
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I just don't even know if I HAD an Ee-S in the first place! If so, then I have two and have never even tried an Ee-A before!

Heh, true that. Did you buy it used? It's possible it came with an ee-s from the previous owner.
From a quick google search, it doesn't appear there is a difference in view from the two screens, but the Ee-s is supposedly significantly darker. If you don't see the difference between the two as far as darkness, you may have two ee-s screens...doh!

I did buy it used, a long time ago - but I emailed the guy I bought it off just to ask.

I see NO difference between the two in terms of brightness, but I did always notice that my 5D was quite dark with slower glass, maybe I did have two all along.

I just want to hear from somebody with both as to whether or not the Ee-A is supposed to have an A on the tab or something, some definitive way of distinguishing them.

I don't know how accurate their product photos are, but at B&H, there appears to be no difference. Plus, there's like, a "U" on the tab...
LINK

edit: I would pull mine out and check for you, but I don't know how, it's late, and i'm sure my room is infested with flying dust i can't see...

You just push the little tab above the mirror upwards, and the screen holder just falls down naturally, with the screen in it.

My stock screen has no "s" on the tab--just a faint circle. The Ee-S tab has an "s" on it. Looks like you already had an Ee-S in yours and didn't know it.

That's what I suspected. Thanks. Weird.

To confirm what Yohan said, I just replaced my Ee-A with the Ee-D Grid screen and the A has only a circle on it.

So does that mean you have an Ee-S for sale some time?

Just askin, I already have one...

Hmmmm....that's weird Perry. My 5D came with the Ee-D and I keep thinking about trying out the Ee-S. How easy do you find it to MF with the Ee-S? How accurate are you compared with the AF?

tangcla wrote in post #6894818
So does that mean you have an Ee-S for sale some time?

Just askin, I already have one...

Yeah I'm actually putting my spare up for trade on a local toronto photography forum. I'd like to trade it for an Ee-A just to SEE what the difference is lol.

versedmb wrote in post #6894825
Hmmmm....that's weird Perry. My 5D came with the Ee-D and I keep thinking about trying out the Ee-S. How easy do you find it to MF with the Ee-S? How accurate are you compared with the AF?

Well I've always found it REALLY easy to MF on the 5D, so I really wanted to see how the new focusing screen could possible make it any easier, so much for that.

As far as accuracy goes, I'm more accurate than AF for the most part, but sometimes I can't tell when I'm MF-ing on subjects that are far away, so AF is better for that. For close, static subjects, my eye is definitely more accurate than AF, especially when DOF is ridiculously thin. My 85L never seems to miss though, but it's good to be able to see the plane of focus since any slight movement will shift it. My hit rate, focus wise, is abnormally high because I can see my plane of focus so well.

And here I was thinking that the stock focusing screen with the 5D was so much better than other Canon bodies . Little did I know...

The light will blind you when you look through an Ee-A next (j/k I've shot with a camera with the S installed, and it's darker, but not by a whole lot)

This is ridiculous. I can't believe I have no idea what the 5D viewfinder is supposed to look like by default. All this time I've had it on 'pimped for fast glass mode' without realizing it o_O.

That REALLY explains why I found the viewfinder so dark whenever the 17-40L was attached!!