autofocus vs manual focus

[reaction]

Ok so if it makes it a bit dimmer, then in dark indoors it won’t be helpful right?

[arthurking83]

..... it is impossible to do on the modern DSLR ones (IMHO).

Sir!.. surely you jest?
(Canon I 'spose? )

(with Nikon DSLRs) its the easiest 5 mins spent tampering with stuff.. well, if you like tampering with stuff that is.

Most focusing screens should be an easy change.
With Nikon's you unclip the retaining spring and .... Doh! .. See here, its easier than to repeat it all over again.

I just got my Katzeye yesterday took some pics of it before fitting it. The tool they send you to release the retaining clip is worth the price alone!(should have thought of that myself!)

vf is massively dark now when I fit the 500 mirror(which is an f/8 lens) and only just workable in semi decent light. The Split prism blackout is indeed as they advertise. Even though this lens is f/8 there is slight darkening of the split prism, but it's nothing as extreme as the dreaded blackspot seen even at f/5.6 in every split prism I've ever used(oh! make that only 3 others )
There is zero blackspotting with my one and only f/5.6 lens.

Well worth the money I think(so far).
I'm a bit disappointed that it's darker than I thought it was going to be with the mirror lens.. but there are many and multiple warnings when using a faster focusing screen with slow lenses. Lens is still usable and in a way it gives you a better idea on just how hard this lens is to actually use... because it's such a slow lens
But modern screens are made the way they are so that it's easier to use these slow lenses, which are by far the most common lens type sold in every market around the world... kit lenses, and generally f/5.6 at the long end.

All I need to do now is to undo the manual focus adjustment I made to the camera, so that the split prism is more accurate when manually focusing.
but I have a feeling that the manual focusing system may have been thrown out anyhow as this screen seems to me to be just a tad thicker(material) as the clip was more tightly tensioned when fitting it to the camera.

If you're thinking of getting a (thirdparty)focusing screen then seriously consider the expensive option of the KatzEye, with the OptiBright option.
I'm assuming that without the optibright enhancement a f/5.6 lens would closely resemble my f/8 lens.. which by the way is dark!
With Optibright the f/5.6 lens looks to be close to the standard screen in terms of brightness. I don't have any info on how dark the non optibright screens will look with slow lenses.
They definitely work nice with super fast lenses tho. and there is definitely a difference between the two screens when fitting a super fast f/1.2-f/1.4 lens.
The standard srceen is brighter(not that this actually matters!) but the KatzEye is nicer to focus with(all over the screen, not just the split prism). The image comes into focus much nicer.