Katzeye Optics

[ray*j*gun]

This may be old news to some but I was considering a Nikon Df and wanted to switch to a Katzeye screen which works great on my D7000 but discovered they are gone....sad

http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/item--Nikon-D80-D90-Focusing-Screen--prod_D80.html

 

[zuikologist]

That is sad, perhaps a sign of a reduced slr market (or not).

Does the Df have the same viewfinder as older Nikon dslrs? Perhaps a used Katseye screen might be available this way?

 

[BillBingham2]

Very sad.

My guess is that the market for folks manually focusing is very small and grows small all the time.

B2 (;-<

 

[michaelwj]

I used one of their screens in my old Nikon D60. Made manually focusing the Voigtlander 1.4/58 very easy.
Sad to hear their out of business.

 

[kxl]

Katzeye had a great product - I used one on my D200 and it worked perfectly.

Focusingscreen.com seems to provide an alternative - here's the link to the Nikon bodies they support.

https://www.focusingscreen.com/index.php?cPath=22&osCsid=e689f525ef964ba5f7a80bbd3bdf1113

I don't have any experience with their product, so make sure you conduct due diligence. Here's a review from someone:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/33193359

 

[kshapero]

Katzeye was an awesome product but beware not everyone is up to the task of installing one. I really goofed mine up. Luckily Ms Katz reinstalled it for me for free.

 

[williaty]

IIRC, Katzeye's owner wanted to retire and couldn't find a buyer.

I ended up using one from Focusingscreens.com. It works fine except my camera happens to be off exactly half way between no shim and the smallest shim they supply. I would need to get one of the metal shims from Nikon but, of course, they won't sell one to an end user.

The 2nd camera I installed the same screen in was a perfect alignment with the shims Nikon had used at the factory.

 

[ray*j*gun]

I had a Katzeye (self installed) in my old D90 and it worked so well I got one for my D7000. Both worked with no extra shim work. Thanks for the tips on alternative vendors but I will have to be convinced that they are as good as the Katzeye product before I would buy a Df.

 

[stu_jenkins]

I had a Katzeye in my Samsung GX-10 (Pentax K10D equivalent) and it was very useful. It did back focus quite a lot, but I sorted that by shimming it using thin strips of Scotch tape on the edges. After trial and error (easy with digital) I found that 4 thicknesses of tape was just right.

Now I've upgraded my camera to a Pentax K3ii, the one for the GX-10 doesn't fit. I'm going to make my own by cutting down a full-size 35mm SLR screen. I've got several different spare screens, but I fancy using one from a Pentax P30T because the split is at 45 degrees.

 

[Pioneer]

I installed some in my various Pentax dslrs and they were terrific. When installed properly they made the use of the many Pentax K and M42 mount MF lenses very easy to focus.

I wish now I had picked up one for my Canon 5D but it didn't seem important until they had gone out of business. Sometimes you really don't know the value of what you have until it is gone.