Customer Reviews

Canon EP-EX15 Eyepiece Extender for EOS Cameras

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Yes it does extend your eyepiece out, but at what price? It's like looking through a pair of binoculars backward. Your view finder is about half the size.

As a part-time professional photographer, I had high hopes for the EP-EX15 eye extender when purchased. My nose and cheeks tend to oil up whenever I press anything against them. My Canon Digital Rebel's LCD screen is my bread and butter determiner on "when I have the shot" and can go on to my next pose, subject or client and my goal was to have that viewing area oil free!

Unfortunately, a microfiber cloth eyeglass cleaner for around 2 bucks with a spray bottle of Costco eyeglass solution seems to work best for me.

With a larger nose than another reviewer - the extra spacing actually helps my framing angle - but mentioned by others - I lose some framing area using the EP-EX15. Tough trade-off! Worst of all - although it works better than NO Eyepiece Extender - oil and sweat still cover 1/2 of my LCD area.

If you decide to keep this unit on your camera long enough - you will eventually lose all or part of it. I've gone through two rubber eye cups (lost who knows where -- oops - found one under the bed yesterday) - and must reseat the eyepiece extender at the start of every photo shoot - as it doesn't lock down tightly enough and tends to migrate up and off the eyepiece mounting bracket.

For a time - I actually used the EP-EX15 without the rubber eye-cup and got better framing results than with the rubber attached.

It is one of the cheapest accessories you can buy for the Canon Rebel. I still use it - and reframe most of what I do in photoshop anyway.

This is not a sterling endorsement of the product - if on a tight budget - live without it. If you're a large nosed, oily cheeked photographer - try it out (what's $18 bucks anyway) - but keep the eyeglass cleaner handy!

Oh my god, it doesn't prevent my nose going against the LCD screen at all, it extended about 2mm, that's pretty much it, I am asian and my nose is not even as close to Jacky Chen! on top of that, the viewfinder is about 30% smaller! it's so hard to focus at low light, cause all your objects are SO FREAKING SMALL NOW!

I bought this eyepiece because I was tired of my face smashed against my LCD display on my 20D and the resulting smudges.

The extender moves my face away just the right amount - no smudges but also not so far out that it is obstructive.

I wear glasses and my prescription is too strong to correct with the standard diopter adjustment. I have to press my eyeglasses against the eyepiece warping them in the process. On top of that, my eye still sits too far from the viewfinder screen to see it all at once. Sometimes this means that I miss important information like a shutter speed set too slow to avoid blurring or the fact that my flash unit isn't quit ready yet for the next shot. Or I miss seeing a portion of the scene that I would have liked to completely include or exclude from the shot. The Canon EP-EX15 Eyepiece Extender solves this by showing me the entire viewfinder screen all at once. And I no longer have to keep adjusting my viewing angle or smashing my nose to do it. Ah, that's much better.

The point of the EP-EX15 is to increase the "eye relief" so that glasses wearers can see the entire frame.

The problem for glasses wearers is that the glasses themselves prevent us from getting our eyeball close enough to the existing eyepiece to allow us to see the whole frame. Just imagine standing back farther from a window - you can't see as much of the outside view, right?

Anyhow, the EP-EX15 takes care of this by providing the same function as one of those peep-hole lenses you might find in an old motel room door. You might think of it as a wide-angle adapter.

So, the EP-EX15 works just as advertised. But the problem is that because you now have such a wide view, the image appears far more distant and small (just what we wanted, right?). And because everything now looks smaller, it makes it virtually impossible to do critical focusing.

So you just can't win if you wear glasses. With the EP-EX15 in place, you can see the whole frame - that's good. But you also can't see any of it well - that's bad.

This is not a fault with the EP-EX15, it does exactly what it's supposed to do. It's just that this turns out to be a less than satisfactory solution.

The real solution is to be able to get your eye closer to the camera's eyepiece. And to do that, you either need contact lenses or small glasses lenses/frames so that you can mash your face right up there and get your eye in close.

For those people worried about getting nose grease on the back of the camera, I say: Who cares? The plastic stands up to nose grease just fine. Don't worry about it. What's more important: Being able to properly see to frame and focus or having the back of your camera remain pristine? The grease wipes right off with your shirt-tail anyhow.

So if you're just worried about nose grease, I'd say just don't worry about it. And if you wear glasses, I'd recommend trying the EP-EX15 before you buy it. Most people find that the EP-EX15 stays in its box in a drawer. So if you want to try one, just look around. There's probably someone who will give you one :)

I purchased this extender so that I could be more comfortable looking through the viewfinder. 5/8ths of an inch doesn't seem like a big difference, but it is enough to put some space between your face and the camera.

Having your face pressed against the camera is a good thing, as it helps to stabilize the camera reducing camera shake. However I find the 20D very uncomfortable without the extender. My discomfort comes more from how the eyepiece cushion rests on the eye and not so much from a smashed nose. The extender doesn't prevent the camera from pressing against my nose, although it clearly doesn't press as much. My face still is in contact with the back of the camera. The eyepiece cushion feels more comfortable pressed against the eye with the extender in place.

To install, you remove the eyepiece cushion from the camera, slip on the extender and then reattach the eyepiece cushion to the extender.

The extender does reduce the magnification in the viewfinder, but not enough to be an issue for me. The extenders can be purchased with your eye glass prescription strength in mind so one doesn't need to wear their glasses when using the camera. This particular extender does not correct vision.

This extender stays on my camera at all times.

PROS:
Gives your nose some breathing room.
Adds comfort

CONS:
Reduces magnification in the viewfinder.

Just to note, there is an adjustment wheel that makes a big difference on the size of the picture that you see, and its clarity. There is a pretty good chance that if one of those things is an issue, this just needs adjusted until it is right for you. I find this accessory indespensible myself.

This little item does what it's suppose to do with a some cons depending on how you look at hit. It will extend your eyepiece by about 5mm from the original position which will help reduce those oil smear from the lcd screen. This will help you find a better position to take your shot since it you won't have to push your face in contact with the camera body to actually see your subject.

The extender will reduce the size of your viewfinder by about 20-30% which can be a pro or a con depending on how you look at it. Pro if you want to see the whole view faster since you'll see the image on the viewfinder at a reduced size, meaning that you can evaluate the shot faster. Con if you need to see a magnified image on the view finder to see the detail before taking a shot. (not really a con for me, that's what the LCD is for :P)

Better comfort overall.

I wear glasses and press against the viewfinder as hard as I can to help keep the shot stable (I shoot birds at 700mm). The first thing my friend and I did was to compare two identical lenses/cameras etc. - one with, one without, the extender.

Result: - the image appeared the same size, and the extender slightly blurred the image. In other words - completely useless.