Deity Mira Canon C300 / C500 Loupe review – Not only for Philatelists !:o)

A while ago I wrote a short post about my first thoughts on the Deity Mira C300 / C500 viewfinder loupe.

I promised to write a Deity Mira Canon C300 / C500 Loupe review after some time with it. Also quiet a few question reached me after the last article on it, which I’m trying to anser in this follow up post.

I received the Mira loupe a couple of days ago and played around with in various conditions.

Do I still like it?

Oh yes !

The Mira loupe is a great addon for many use cases.

Being able to use the LCD as a viewfinder and so being able to see any possible information on screen, while shooting, is a much apreciated feature.

I always us the waveform display when using C-Log. But in the past this was a bit of pain in bright outdoors, because this information is not available in the original C300 rear viewfinder. Not anymore.

The LCD/Mira combination also produces a much more detailed picture then using the rear C300 viewfinder. So also stuff like focusing is getting easier.

Want another plus?

If you are planning to build up a rig similar to the Zacuto Recoil, then you must look out for a EVF solution to beeing able to shoot.

In the past you would have bought an electronic EVF, build up a rig, add up some batteries and cables.

This is where the Mira Loupe comes into play. You can use the current LCD position or you could relocate the C300 screen slightly (there are some pics further down in this post), so you can actually skip an additional EVF.

No additional batteries needed, but still awesome runtime, with the small stock C300 batteries and even a 3x magnified 1280×960 screen). The stock LCD also has a higher resolution then most EVF’s out there ;o)

Here’s a list of what kind of resolutions current EVF’s got:

• Canon LCD: 1260×960
• Alphatron EVF EVF-035W-3G (Retina): 960×640
• Cineroid EVF EVF4RVW (Retina) : 960×640
• Zacuto Z-Finder EVF Pro (LCD) : 800×480
• Kinotehnik LCDVFe (LCD) : 800×440

In some pics bellow I played around with a GENUSTECH C300 / C500 Top Handle and a 15mm to cold shoe adapter to relocate the LCD far forward, so it would suit a straight on the shoulder rig like a Zacuto Recoil.

In some other pics i used it in a more backward position for out of the hand shooting.

As you can also see from the loupe side it fits pretty well.

In my case I also had a Denz C300 Support and a Sachtler quickrelease plate attached. By removing some of it, the camera would be at perfect level.

So this solution can actually save you money, weight and additional stuff to carry around.

Would I use the c300 on the shoulder without a rig?

Definetly not. Focusing and zooming would be a hard task. I’m also unsure how strong the cold shoe on the C300 body is. The LCD relocation produces a longer leverage effect, holding and moving the camera by holding the Mira puts more stress on the C300 cold shoe. So be aware of that if you relocate the LCD.

But using it on a rig like a Zacuto Recoil, with grip relocator and Twister would be a very cool combination. Maybe I can test that when Zacuto finaly released all the new parts.

Do you need a rig to use the Mira at all?

No! Using it on the LCD, placed in normal position, also adds a ton of performance.

You can shoot the C300 out of hands in a very light setup and still profit from a bigger view with all information on display out in the brightest sunlight.

Is there anything I don’t like ?

– The rubber compund on the eyepiece could be a bit softer.

– My eyes are very strong so I don’t really need optical correction. So its hard for me to validate the range of the diopter. Comparing it to others, it seems like a rather small correction range. But since the eyepice is pretty big, you should also be able to work with glasses if youz really need to

Here is a straight answer from Deity about my point above:

There is no blur when you rotate the diopter for a simple reason

actually.

We made focal range calculation.

I explain:

The choice of the 2 glass depend of N°1 Sinze of the LCD screen N°2 Distance between our eye & the LCD

When you combine those 2 data you got your focal range position.

Just an exemple, when you take a sony camera with integrated vf, when you turn to blur at the maximum, you agree than its blur for 100% of the people on heart surface and than nobody can see clearly right?

 From our side, we just a limited the focale range on his good calculation place.

– There is no way yet, to flip up the loup to use the LCD without it. So you would need to remove it if you want to use just the C300 LCD. removal is not big of a task, due of the 2 snap levers, but it would force you to stow the loupe away somewhere.

Do I recomend the Mira?

If you work outdoors, out of the hand or are looking for a C300/C500 shoulder rig solution with on shoulder camera placement, then the Mira is definetly worth looking at.

I wouldn’t wanna miss it in my gearbox anymore. Sure there’s room for tiny improvements, but the current feature set already sold me 100% to it.

You can get the DEITY Mira Viewfinder at their website  www.deitygear.com

Here are some more pictures from some recent shootings.