Dollar Shop Journals, Part 1: DIY LCD Hood

[CemAygun]

Foreword

I have always been a DIY enthusiast, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes just for fun. Since I bought my Samsung NX2000, my first "big-sensor" camera, I have been experimenting with a lot of easily accessible and affordable stuff to cover different photographic needs. Recently I decided that I have enough to share, so I started writing little articles, with the hope that they might help others.

I named the series of articles "Dollar Shop Journals", as they focus on cheap alternative products as well as DIY projects you can build with everyday, household items. I know a lot of people would rather just pay for it when they need something, but we Samsung owners generally lack the luxury of variety and availability when it comes to accessories. On top of that there are a lot of mis-advertised, expensive products in the market, which actually fail to deliver (as you would soon see in the "flash diffuser" article). I'll also try to compare the DIY equivalents to those.

This article is the first one from the initial batch.

As usual there is always room for improvement, so I am open to all kinds of input, be it a suggestion or criticism...

DIY LCD Hood (for NX2000)

For my personal use, the biggest problem with the NX2000 is the lack of a viewfinder, because I live in the tropics and mainly shoot outdoors. Picture on the LCD is practically invisible under the sun. I have researched plenty of options. For other cameras that come with sufficient buttons apart from the screen, a "LCD Loupe" (which turns the LCD screen into a giant viewfinder) seems to be the best way to go. But it is out of question for NX2000 as you always need to use the touch screen. So I leaned towards a hood instead. I realized you can find all types of hoods for different cameras on eBay, but nothing for a 3.7" screen, and they generally involve some sort of sticky attachment method which I am not very comfortable with. The only reasonable solution was to build one myself.

I worked on quite a number of designs; and after many real life trials, I settled down with this one:



If you are interested in crafting one yourself, here is a step by step guide:
(Although the template is for NX2000, you can scale the measurements to fit practically any camera)

Required Items:

1) A printer or access to a print shop: For printing the template of course. The template easily fits on a regular paper (I used an A4 size). Just make sure all the scaling options are off when printing ("fit to page" etc.) as it has to be printed to scale. You should verify the output size with a ruler after printing.

2) Black synthetic rubber sheet: Time to visit your local upholstery shop. These come in different colors, elasticity and thickness. They are a dime a dozen (I paid $0.75 for a 0.25cm thick, 50cm X 100cm sheet). You only need a 13cm X 16cm piece, so you might even buy leftover cuts. Try to get a semi-soft one, with 0.5cm thickness. At that thickness they are still light, yet robust enough to hold their shape. I couldn't find a 0.5cm sheet, so I glued two 0.25cm pieces together.
They look like this:



3) Rubber cement: Cheap as chips and easy to work with. Use it in a well ventilated room though, and don't sniff it You might use a popsicle stick to apply if the bottle you buy does not come with an applicator. Using fingers, even with gloves is not such a good idea. Although it is not as hard to remove as superglue, it still is messy.

4) Velcro: You'll need a stip of 13cm's long and 1cm wide from the "soft (loops) side" and a square of 1cm X 1cm from the "hard (hooks) side" . Even if you don't have some lying around, it should cost you nothing at the upholstery shop. You might not be able to find the right width though, so buy the closest size and trim it down to 1cm.

5) Knife, scissors and ruler: You'll need a sharp knife (e.g. a craft knife) and a good pair of sharp, small scissors. As usual, ruler is your best friend.

6) Sand paper (optional): A 180 grit or so sandpaper will help you clean out the cutting errors and bevel the edges after you build the hood for a better look. Be careful sanding the synthetic rubber though, it is not homogeneous in nature. Some parts will grind off (too) fast, and some won't. So take your time, go slow and easy.

7) Spray paint (optional): I used a matte black spray paint finish to give a deeper, darker look, and also to cover the glue marks and seams to a certain extent. This is totally optional. Rubber seems to absorb the paint, so I am not sure if you'd be able to color the outside of the hood (for instance if you have a white camera and want a matching white hood) unless you use specialized paint. You might rather go for the white rubber sheet and spray paint the interior black if you are really worried about the looks...

The Process:

1) Print the template: Obviously... Click the icon to download the full size pdf, and print at 300dpi. Don't forget to check if the output is to scale.

LCD_Hood_Template.pdf

2) Secure the template on rubber: DO NOT use the rubber cement. The residue is impossible to clean. You can use thumb tacks on the white portions of the paper (outside the parts) or some thin double sided tape (not the spongy one). Just use something that will hold the template on secure enough while cutting but can be removed easily afterwards. I used double sided tape.



3) Cut out the pieces: Use the ruler and the knife for straight parts and the scissors for the curves.



4) Smooth out the cuts (optional): Use sand paper to smooth out any cutting errors. Try to make especially the contact points (where they'll be glued) flat

5) Join the pieces: Do it one by one. Rubber cement cures with air contact (solvent evaporation), and it cures slowly. Apply glue on one joint at a time,on both sides, let it breathe and then hold the pieces together as long as you can. This part of the process is the most time consuming one...

As a side note "TOP" and "BOTTOM" pieces go in between the "LEFT" and "RIGHT", bringing your total width to 9cm's.



6) Attach the velcro: Glue the strip fluffy side down, to the marked spot on the top piece. The hard (hooks) piece is to be glued to the indicated area on the bottom piece. As an alternative you can also glue a hard side velcro on the top so that you can change the strip whenever you want to. The strip will be fully detachable and (but) easy to loose.

Also, instead of using the rubber cement, you can use self adhesive velcro hard sides as they can be removed easily if you need to. I didn't choose to do so because they don't attach to rubber very well.

7) Sand it down (optional): Smooth out any imperfections and bevel the outer corners for a better look.

8) Spray it up (optional): Spray paint adds some rigidity and a darker tone, but this is totally optional. Protect your velcro strip when spraying though, as the paint will come off it eventually and mess up your camera, case, hands etc...

9) Put it on: Just align the hood with your LCD, run the strip vertically around the body, between the lens and the grip and secure it to the velcro at the bottom. It takes merely a second to put it on or take it off. Because the hood is so light weight, single strap is more than enough to hold it in it's place, even if it is offset.

It still is a "Ghetto" mod, but looks a tad better than average...







The Conclusion:

I believe I've reached my goal of fabricating a LCD hood that does not interfere with the touch screen operations, that does not require sticking anything to the camera and yet can be put on or removed easily. It does not look as "ghetto" as I feared, plus it really does the job. The icing on the cake is, it is virtually free.

You'll have to modify the measurements for other cameras, depending on your screen size, but the design shoud work on anything that resembles a camera...

I have noticed one setback though. Even with the hood, the camera is not fully usable under the mean tropical sun because of the screen glare. It is much, much better, but not perfect...

Installing an anti-glare, matte screen protector is one solution. You can attach it to the screen permanently, or glue it to your hood instead (to be taken off with the hood when not needed), in case you don't want to put up with the diminishing effect of a matte screen protector all the time. Go for a cheap eBay product, which would set you back only a dollar or two. If you cannot find one that exactly matches your screen, buy the protectors that made for the tablets and cut it down to your size. I bought a 7" tablet screen protector from the local "Dollar Shop" (or equivalent of it) for $2.5, which is big enough for two NX2000's...

Thank you for reading so far, assuming you've actually done so

See you in the next article...

PS: I apologize for the quality of the pictures, but I was more focused on fabricating the hood properly than taking pictures of the process...

[Manfred M]

Nicely done Cem. Your hood reminds me of the hoods I've used on higher end video camera monitors and they serve a similar purpose; to allow the camera operator to see what is going on, although those cameras do not use touch screens, so some of the contraints you were working under (i.e. being able to touch the screen) do not come into play there.

As you have pointed out; it is not a 100% solution. The other issue that it does not solve is the need to use a fairly weak shooting stance; an electronic viewfinder solves both problems more elegantly; albeit at a significant cost premium. I personally would tend to stay away from cameras that do not have a proper viewfinder.

I would say that any serious photographer will have some jury-rigged gear he or she uses on a fairly regular basis. I most certainly do have some odd home-made pieces that work for me, especially when it comes to lighting equipment. Your comment on flash diffusers may (or may not) be true. Many photographers do not understand light well enough to use some of the commercial ones properly. I dare say that any homemade design these photographers come up with might be a bit suspect.

Regardless, thank you for sharing your hood design with us.

[Kodiak]

Nicely done Cem. thank you for sharing your hood design with us.

+1

[chauncey]

FYI...I did virtually the same thing for a "light shield" for using on my monitor.

[rpcrowe]

"I have noticed one setback though. Even with the hood, the camera is not fully usable under the mean tropical sun because of the screen glare. It is much, much better, but not perfect..."

I swore that I would never buy a camera that did not have an eye level viewing system. Using the LCD as the main or only viewfinder is to me a big PITA. Unless you don't really care about how you frame your images. This is especially true in bright sun...

That is why I purchased the Fuji XP60 underwater camera. I use it for fishing pictures and needed a camera totally impervious to salt water. Just a "weather proof" camera would not work when I get soaked from a green water wave coming over the gunnels of the fishing boat. I didn't really care about great images. I just wanted to bring home some photo souvenirs of my fishing.

My main objective was to get a very reasonably priced (cheap) camera with fairly decent IQ that was waterproof and fairly impervious to hard knocks. The XP-60 fit that criteria and I purchased one used (about $80 USD) despite the fact that it doesn't incorporate an eye level viewing system. For my uses of this camera this is OK but, I sure as heck wouldn't want that to be my only viewing system!

Guess what? On the first trip that I took my camera, I was skunked and didn't catch a single fish to record...

[CemAygun]

Nicely done Cem. Your hood reminds me of the hoods I've used on higher end video camera monitors and they serve a similar purpose; to allow the camera operator to see what is going on, although those cameras do not use touch screens, so some of the contraints you were working under (i.e. being able to touch the screen) do not come into play there.

As you have pointed out; it is not a 100% solution. The other issue that it does not solve is the need to use a fairly weak shooting stance; an electronic viewfinder solves both problems more elegantly; albeit at a significant cost premium. I personally would tend to stay away from cameras that do not have a proper viewfinder.

I would say that any serious photographer will have some jury-rigged gear he or she uses on a fairly regular basis. I most certainly do have some odd home-made pieces that work for me, especially when it comes to lighting equipment. Your comment on flash diffusers may (or may not) be true. Many photographers do not understand light well enough to use some of the commercial ones properly. I dare say that any homemade design these photographers come up with might be a bit suspect.

Regardless, thank you for sharing your hood design with us.

Thanks a lot I hope I also would never have to buy a camera without a viewfinder again, but the deal on the NX2000 was impossible to refuse at the time .

Hopefully I will be publishing the part two, the one about flash diffusers very soon. I believe I have some pretty solid comparisons there but being nowhere near a professional photographer, I might have made mistakes. I would appreciate all the criticism

[Manfred M]

Cem - it's hard to go wrong with a flash diffuser. Effectively you are trying to get the light to spread out so it bounces off something (mostly walls of ceilings) to give you a larger, soft light source. Some diffusers try to direct some of the light towards the subject as well. That's it.

Nothing could be simpler, other than people not understanding how light works and using the diffuser incorrectly and then wondering why their images don't look good....

[CemAygun]

"I have noticed one setback though. Even with the hood, the camera is not fully usable under the mean tropical sun because of the screen glare. It is much, much better, but not perfect..."

I swore that I would never buy a camera that did not have an eye level viewing system. Using the LCD as the main or only viewfinder is to me a big PITA. Unless you don't really care about how you frame your images. This is especially true in bright sun...

That is why I purchased the Fuji XP60 underwater camera. I use it for fishing pictures and needed a camera totally impervious to salt water. Just a "weather proof" camera would not work when I get soaked from a green water wave coming over the gunnels of the fishing boat. I didn't really care about great images. I just wanted to bring home some photo souvenirs of my fishing.

My main objective was to get a very reasonably priced (cheap) camera with fairly decent IQ that was waterproof and fairly impervious to hard knocks. The XP-60 fit that criteria and I purchased one used (about $80 USD) despite the fact that it doesn't incorporate an eye level viewing system. For my uses of this camera this is OK but, I sure as heck wouldn't want that to be my only viewing system!

Guess what? On the first trip that I took my camera, I was skunked and didn't catch a single fish to record...

Sorry to hear that Well I had to pay almost premium price (around $300) when Sony TX10 first came out because I wanted something to use underwater. Believe me the experience was no better. It was also a touch screen operated camera, with minimal set of buttons (=you need to use the touchscreen practically for everything), yet the touch screen did not work submerged So you had to surface every time to change a setting. That thing was the worst camera I ever lied my hands on. I wouldn't have minded loosing it honestly.

Just because it bore the Sony brand, I was able to sell it pretty quick though Now I use Mobius with an underwater case as I almost exclusively do videography down below. It is so light weight, small and streamlined that you forget you have it on before you even hit the water. On top of everything, it costs you mere $100 brand new, including the case. God bless the Chinese...

[CemAygun]

Cem - it's hard to go wrong with a flash diffuser. Effectively you are trying to get the light to spread out so it bounces off something (mostly walls of ceilings) to give you a larger, soft light source. Some diffusers try to direct some of the light towards the subject as well. That's it.

Nothing could be simpler, other than people not understanding how light works and using the diffuser incorrectly and then wondering why their images don't look good....

Well, thank you; that exactly is my point I have posted the article in DPReview forums already, I am trying to port it here. I believe I have covered most of the options in the article, based on and limited by, my humble experience. My complaint there is about certain products that cost an arm and a leg just because they have a famous name attached to them, yet perform worse than virtually free, home made solutions.

I will try to post it today, since I am curious about what you gurus of the craft would think about it...

[CemAygun]

It was a bit of a rush, but I managed to post Part 2:

Dollar Shop Journals, Part 2: Built-in Flash Remedies

I had to truncate it some, since there is a post character limit.

All C&C welcome