Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I think this is a necessary upgrade for your camera if you use high-speed lenses often. It makes a slight improvement to focusing, but not that much. I was a little under-whelmed when I started using it. It could be better. The darkness through the viewfinder is much more noticeable as well using apetures smaller than f2.8.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

With my two Zeiss ZE lenses, I've been learning the art of manual focusing. I'm mainly into cinematography, but I like to snap the occasional still.
This screen fits a 60D.
It is easy to install, but it does require a bit of confidence and dexterity.
It seems to help, but not by a lot.
Back in the day, I had a similar screen on my OM-2 and that seemed to help a lot more. And well, my eyes are not quite as young anymore.
Fortunately, for critical focusing, live view is awesome.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

so far this has help me greatly when focusing
will have more info as time goes along
thanks

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I might have to switch back and forth a few times to really notice. I didn't have the original focusing screen very long to compare. I made the immediate jump to this one. I do have a 50mm f/1.4 and I guess it helps at some point. What doesn't seem to help is if you have accidentally turned the diopter dial on your Canon.

Can say that it was easy to install.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

This has really helped me focus in the manual mode. It makes focusing in dim lighting much easier.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

Good quality product.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I bought this screen for my Canon 60d because I was getting too many "almost but not quite in focus" pictures using a Zeiss Distagon 2/35 lens.

It works as advertised and greatly improves your ability to focus manually.

I gave it 4 stars because it is not recommended for lenses with a maximum aperture above 2.8.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I am using mine with Zeiss Lenses and it helps bring about the pop. While it does not have the split screen for even easier focusing I feel that is a great compromise for the price. Like the other commenters stated, its super easy to install and does get a bit darker for f/4 lenses. If you are using any fast glass/manual focusing/adapted glass this is the way to go.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I use it with 135mm F/2 and 35mm F/1.4. DOF is better and does not suffer viewfinder darkness.

Works great. Recomend it with fast lens.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I own my 50d 4 days and then purchased this. I now almost exclusively manual focus everything. I have been shooting my son's soccer games all with manual focus. I can now focus faster that AI Servo on a moving subject. Comes with great directions for installation.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I have started using this focusing screen with my Canon 40D as the standard focusing screen wasn't able to get a good focal fix with my macro lens. I swapped out the original screen for this one and I have been able to get a sharper focus on my macro subjects. So far I haven't found a fault with this screen. I wish I had ordered this sooner, I am sure my photos would have been sharper.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I use mostly lens with focal length less than 55mm. And I'm learning to do manual focusing. This screen helps me see the focus better.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I use a lot of old, low light manual focus primes with fotodiox adapters (can't afford fast auto focus canon glass on a college budget). This is screen is perfect if you're in a situation like me.

It was insanely difficult to be able to focus in low light situations with the stock screen. As soon as I installed the screen, manual focusing at say f/2 became a piece of cake.

It's pretty easy to install, but the manual can be a bit confusing. There are plenty of videos on YouTube showing how to install the screen.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I can't recommend this screen. For me it does nothing. I actually had to double-check that I put the correct screen into my 40D after the initial installation; the difference from the standard screen was so minute.

There's no split prism in the center or anything at all to guide your focus; supposedly it's more sensitive with faster glass.

I've tried my 50mm 1.4 and the 70-200 2.8 and I can't see any difference from the standard screen that was originally supplied in my 40D. It's nice to have a backup I guess, but for me that's all it's good for.

On the plus side, it comes in a nice container that stores the screen you replace. With steady hands it's fairly easy to install, and it's not too expensive. I don't notice any darkening of the viewfinder either, even with slower lenses like the 17-40.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I bought this specifically to use with manual focus lenses. This screen coupled with a 1.3x eyepiece magnifier on my 50D makes it very easy to not only focus with manual lenses but also to see critical focus and DOF with modern lenses.

However, it would be nice if Canon offered the EF-S screen with grid lines. I had to give up my EF-D screen for this.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

This is the cure to not seing sharpness when you shoot. The improvement was so dramatic I stopped shooting some closing cyclist when I could see AI-servo was lagging. Normally I wouldn't catch this until I had loaded them into Lightroom. I expanded my DOF and got the shots.

Everyone shooting F2.8 or faster needs one of these.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

I like to shoot with fast primes and this focusing screen is a big step up over the standard screen when manual focusing. However, if you have a slower zoom lens, the image in the viewfinder is definitely darker than with the standard screen. If you have mostly slower zoom and one or two fast primes, I would probably stick with the standard focusing screen, but if you are shooting almost exclusively with fast lenses, this screen is a great upgrade.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

i noticed a slight difference only with this attached. for the price, i feel i should also include a grid. it might be worthwhile if you do a lot of macro work or shoot in low light indoors. for daily every day use i do not think it makes a huge impact.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

For the price there isn't much to complain about. This focus screen does what it says, improves your ability to focus manually by making out of focus objects appear 'more' out of focus. This is fine, but if you're shooting with anything >f/2.8 the image appears rather dim in the view finder compared to the stock screen.

Comments about Canon EF-S Focusing Screen for EOS 40D & 50D SLR Camera:

After using the EF-S Focusing Screen for about a week and making a side-by-side comparison with the EF-A Screen (the one that comes with the camera) these are my observations:
- With f/2.8 or faster lenses you can appreciate the improvement in the out-of-focus areas. Not so much with f/4.0 or slower lenses. However, the effect is much more pronounced with f/2.0 and faster lenses; at f/2.8 it isn't as dramatic as I expected, but still makes focusing easier anyways.
- It really darkens your viewfinder. Besides being recommended for lenses not slower than f/2.8, I've find the screen usable up to a f/4.0 lens. At f/2.8 the viewfinder already gets sensibly darker than the EF-A screen which makes a bit harder to photograph in low light environments. At f/1.8 the darkening is almost negligible.
- Works OK for macro with a f/2.8 lens, but will darken considerably with extension tubes. I can't say if it darkens less or more compared with the EF-A, but you can have a harder time trying to focus it the scene is already too dark.
- Exchanging focusing screens is very easy and can be done in the field with the supplied tool.
- After replacing the focusing screen, you must remember to change the corresponding custom function on the camera or your metering won't work correctly.

I'm not giving it 5 stars because at f/2.8 the EF-S screen isn't that great (sadly, the most lens I own are f/2.8, despite f/2.8 being and officially supported aperture. For the time being, however, I'm keeping it installed on my camera because I'm not too fond of the EF-A (which I may replace with a EF-D screen just for landscapes at night/dawn, where a brighter viewfinder with grid lines will be more useful than the EF-S).