The Folding Viewfinder Hood - A Tale Of Digital Wonder - Hoodman Loupes

Those of you who have used, or do use, a 500-series Hasselblad, or a Rolleiflex, or a dear old Bronica S2* will be perfectly familiar with the folding viewfinder hood. You have been unfolding it regularly for years to let you see the viewfinder screen while out in the sunlight. It keeps the glare off the screen as you peer downwards.

You are people of surprising facility - your minds have long since mastered the art of seeing things reversed in the horizontal mode and then tracking your subject. You can probably write your name backward in a mirror at parties. But you are in dead trouble when you try to see the screen of your new digital camera in that same sunlight.

The screen whites out - and the manufacturers have not thought to include the dear old waist-level folding hood to help. Too old-school? Grrrrrrr...

Ingenious users will rig up cardboard and gaffer tape hoods and then Blu-Tac them to the LCD screen. Gadget geeks will search the internet for strange little plastic folding hoods that were current about 8 years ago - they were made for smaller screens so it will be anyone's guess how to stick it on.

We've found the Hoodman 3.0 and 3.2 Loupe products and their associated accessory holders to be the best compromise right now. Each case is an individual experiment, so anyone contemplating it would do well to bring the camera in and fiddle. Blu-Tac is not unknown...

We can arrange the sunlight.

* Bronica S2 users are recognisable by their massive forearms and deafness - caused by holding the things and firing the shutter in confined spaces.