Olympus EE-1 Dot Sight for Cameras with Hot Shoe,Black

Product Information

Lumix GX8 + MC-14 + 300mm f/4 + EE-1 The red reticle helps you frame flying birds and similar subjects. The reticle is projected on a polycarbonate lens (similar to sunglasses) via a red LED light. The RDS has some play in the hotshoe until you tighten the thumbwheel, and the adjustment dials are easy to move during handling, so I always align the RDS each time I mount it (I don't leave it mounted on the camera at home) In moving my eye to the EVF or TS the subject was no longer shown where I thought it was, due to camera movement.

When I got my OM-1, I tried the old dot sight again. Clearly, subject recognition eliminated the problem of slight misalignment of the reticle dot and the camera focus point. It worked really well for birds. Unfortunately, the mount of the sight didn't fit precisely in the camera shoe so alignment was iffy. Moreover, it required a hex key for calibration, it was heavy and clunky, the battery compartment cover threads were horrible to work with, and the switches required a lot of force that would move the sight around in the shoe. It suffers from parallax (unsurprisingly), so the dot and the photo centre line up at one distance and move apart closer/further. My approach was to calibrate at the distance I expected stuff to happen at and aim a little high/low for stuff at different distances. This is mostly an issue with long lenses with small FoVs. The EE-1 is lightweight (73 g with battery), and designed to mount on the flash shoe of the camera. It folds down to about twice the size of the mini electronic flash included with all high-end Olympus cameras, and uses a cheap CR2032 battery that lasts quite a long time. Unlike the dedicated mini flash, it does not draw power from the camera, which means it can be used on any camera, or even off-camera.My experience is that using the MC20 for BIF is really difficult, but that may be just me. The FOV is just too narrow for small agile birds, Dot Sight or not. But the MC14 works well enough. it's important for me to 'get a certain feeling' (muscle memory) of the position which I hold the lens/camera while using the EE1...and calibrate the EE1 to the center AF point for that position. Forget the single AF point because it would require your composition to be more precise and for you to keep an eye on the LCD/EVF constantly to make sure the AF point was on the subject. On the E-M1 I used the 9-Target Group area and even the All-Target group area on some occasions. With the GX8 I set a Custom Area with 9 areas or more depending on the subject and the scene.

It's well made and much smaller/lighter than most home-brew solutions (for attaching a gun RDS to a Cold shoe). I sometimes use an extender to get the EE-1 in front of the camera; because I wear hats and the EE-1 gets in the way when trying to use the EVF. I'm still looking for a good low-profile extender, however. As one person already mentioned, you sort of need to hold the camera away from your face, the way a person w/o an EVF would need to use the display. For me, that's uncomfortable and not natural, along with having to put up with the sun's glare. I tend to be a bit wobbly when I shoot, so I keep the camera on a loose tripod during shooting. I find it useful to open the LCD so I can aim the RDS at the target and then see it in the LCD in my peripheral vision, rather than relying totally on the RDS. An alternative is to calibrate the sight against a target at infinity (or at a high distance), measure the distance between lens axis and sight, which is about 90 mm with the EE-1 on-camera (i.e., about the width of four fingers), then point the circle-and-cross 90 mm above the center of the intended field of view. You will have to evaluate the 90 mm by eye, and with really large and distant subjects you can skip this step and simply center the circle-and-cross onto the subject. 90 mm off-target hardly makes a difference in the picture of a car or a buffalo, for instance.

Keep the live view on the LCD screen activated so that you can see your composition better. Adjust your camera’s position until you see that reference point in the middle of the LCD screen. Now look at the EE-1 and move the red dot until it sits on the same reference point as the centre of your composition. It is important that you remain in the same position while performing the whole operation so that your view of the LCD screen and Red Dot Sight doesn’t change much. Now everything you point the Dot Sight at should appear at the centre of your image. The EE-1 is described as weather-proof, which I assume applies to the battery compartment and electrical parts. There is no weather protection whatsoever of the holographic reticle plate and casing mechanics when the sight is open, and no weather seal around the parts that close against each other. The top of the casing is only there as a sun-shade against stray light and as a finger guard to prevent touching the reticle. Once adjusted my combined contraption was able to follow and accurately focus on a very small drone even at a considerable distance and also in front of trees. I have one, but I don't use it much. I bought it as I found the EVF tiring to use for long periods and with a limited FoV. However there are some issues and I tend to use my FF DSLR more for BIF now, as it isn't tiring and you get a wider FoV for the same reach.