I use both the Beattie and the Olympus 2-4 screens, and there isn't a lot
of difference. Overall, I like the Beattie as it has no center
obstruction. I don't know of the prices but I wouldn't pay much more for
the Beattie, it isn't worth it IMHO. My Beattie screen is about 15 yrs
old, so the currently available screens may be different. I had a grid
Beattie for a while, but the grid lines were 2-3x the thickness of the
Olympus Grid screen lines, so I returned it.
Unless you file down the tab, be aware that the Olympus 2-4 screen won't
fit in an OM1(n) or OM-2(n). The tab on the screen is larger than the
available slot on the earlier cameras. I use a Grid screen on my OM-1 for
that reason.
Here's what I have in my archives from the OLympus list
Skip
>>
Last time we have talked about bright focusing screen, now I found that the
bright and easy focus FC that came with the used OM-4 I got from a
professional photography was a Canon E-Series "E-C" screen. It took me a
long time to find it out because I didn't notice that the E-Series FC from
Canon have different brightness, I had got a E-screen with Grid lines that
was a "Laser-matte" while the "E-C" was "New Laser-matte", which is much
brighter than the old one.
The E-C is very cheap, I paid US$34 for two, they are now installed in my
OM-4 and 4Ti. The B&H price is $19.95, with slight modifications it works
very well with OM3s and 4s. I rate it very fine and brightness is between
OM's 2-series screen and Minolta 7000 series screen.
C.H.Ling
<<
Yes, the OM 2 series screen is the brightest screen I have ever seen, but it
is too fine and a bit difficult to focus with wider lens (less than 50mm).
The Canon E-C is better balanced but still favor towards the long lenses.
The Beattie I had was very similar to Minolta Acute Matte and I just found
that you can still find the 7000i screens from B&H and it fits on OM cameras
with NO rework (there are two types available the "G" is standard screen and
the "L" is with Grid, both are with same brightness.). The old 7000 screen I
had was a little bit longer and need some trimming.
As a summary of my own opinion on the FCs.
1. The OM 2-4 FC - Excellent for long and small aperture lenses, not so good
for wide.
2. The Canon E-C New Laser Matte - Very good for long and small aperture
lenses, okay for wide.
3. The Minolta Acute matte - Very good for both long and wide lenses.
Actually the above three FCs works very well even with a 2x on my 85-250/F5,
only with the Minolta looks a bit coarse.
C.H.Ling
At 10/14/99 08:54 AM +0000, you wrote:
Does anyone use a Beattie screen in thier cameras? Is it better than the
oem ones, and do you have to compensate the exposure on the early cameras?
After using my wife's N*k*n cameras, I'm a little downtrodden at the
relatively dim screen in my OM's.
Be seeing you.
Dirk Wright
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Skip Williams
Westfield, NJ
skipwilliams@xxxxxxxxx
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