I recently got a few new items of gear and will slowly begin to post reviews of them. One I was excited about was the Zacuto Z-Finder that I picked up at B & H Photo for about $380. There are some cheaper alternatives like the Hoodman ($80), but the only option to keep that on the camera are some bands that look difficult to take on and off, plus the construction of the Z-Finder seemed more substantial and had a mount that glues to the LCD screen so you can clip the z-finder on and off easily.
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I feel like I have a Transformers toy when I put this thing on my camera

I bought this DSLR viewfinder for several reasons:

• added stabilization while shooting video
• aid in focusing
• eliminate outdoor glare issue on LCD screen

It also just looks cool, I mean why do anything if you’re not going to look cool anyways, right? The Z-Finder basically accomplished those three reasons why I bought it, but there are some caveats. I always think of caviar when I say that.

I swear my hands aren't as small as they look - really!

STABILIZATION | It does help with stabilization, but not as much as I would have liked. This isn’t really a deficiency with the product, but with my lack of experience and realistic expectations with gear. That’s partly why I bought it, “let’s see what this thing can do.” Standing still and moving the camera around my face is fine, but walking with it takes a little practice, and is only slightly more stable than walking without it attached, I think. The Zacuto shoulder mount setups would really help that, but are really expensive so I may just make a home-made one at some point.

FOCUSING | Of those three bullet points, this is the one it helps with the least I think because I still have to use the little zoom button and digitally zoom in on the image 5x or 10x to focus, just like I was doing before anyways. But it does make it a bit nicer to do.

GLARE | Booya! It nails this obviously, I have no issues with glare now and don’t have to guess and hope I’m doing everything right when I’m outside, just slap this baby on and you’re good to go. You kind of feel like a referee in the NFL on a review play, it’s your own private theatre in this thing.

After saying all that, I’m not really sure what advantage the Z-Finder has over the less expensive Hoodman besides the Z-Finder having that sweet little mount on the camera that lets you clip it on and off easily. I’ve read the Z-Finder is a bit brighter too?

Down the rabbit hole

OVERALL IMPRESSION | When I first got it, I was like “wow that thing is freaking huge!” it barely fits in my hand, but then what was I expecting? I was also surprised that it’s basically hollow, I didn’t really research how these things are constructed before I bought it, so I guess I was expecting something a tad more complicated.

Anyways, overall I really like it. The eye-cup is great, very soft rubber, I can even keep my glasses on my face and use it. I was surprised that they don’t have a protective cap on the eye cup end though, I’m worried the magnifying lens will get scratched up in my camera bag. I think the lanyard is pretty crucial since I take the Z-Finder on and off so much. You can’t see all the corners of the LCD screen though, so be prepared to move your face around the eye cup to see the corners, like the guy from Porky’s in the shower scene. It’s only the very last bit of the corner, it’s not a deal breaker at all.

If you have $380 laying around, have issues with stable hand held shots with a DSLR and can’t see your screen during they day, get this.

Philip Bloom has also done a nice review here.

All photos were taken with my iPhone.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of the Z-Finder, less than I thought.

Here’s Zacuto’s promo piece on it: