191010

Since I designed my MK1 NBC eyecup for the HS10 viewfinder I have been able to give it a good try out. When I posted the blog detailing its construction the weather was somewhat overcast and cloudy with no sun and it worked fine. However, since then we have had some fine sunny weather and I have to say that although MkI does improve things, in bright sunshine it suffers from some light ingress.


Nil desperandum as they say, I made a last desperate attempt to find another solution in the Milton Keynes branch of Jessops. I took my HS10 along and a young man – Chris – quickly removed an eyecup from a new NIKON SLR and offered it up to the HS10 viewfinder. Bingo! It was looking good. Chris explained that this was the only eyecup on any camera in the shop that had a large enough viewing area that would allow the viewfinder and the eye sensor to remain uncovered

Chris could not sell me the eyecup as it had to go back on the camera but he provided me with the details and offered to order one for me but told me that I’d probably be better of going to Ebay. In fact I ordered through Amazon and it arrived this morning.

Fixing it on the viewfinder was a simple matter of cutting three narrow strips of double sided selotape and applying to the back of the eyecup then carefully pressing it onto the HS10 viewfinder shroud. This is the result:

We had bright sunshine this morn so I into the garden to give it a go…….and?

Spiffing stuff matey! Only when shooting into bright sunshine does it allow a bit of light in but I rarely shoot into the sun anyway so no problem there. I suspect that if I removed my Delkin LCD shroud I would be able to get my eye in closer and achieve even better results but this will do for me OK. The eye sensor is unaffected and continues auto switching between viewfinder and LCD screen although I have this permanently turned of - in my opinion it’s a dopey idea and Fujifilm would have made a better job of the design by using the space to provide a larger viewfinder

MkII then gives the result I was looking for and can be considered a success. Oh happy day!!!!

If you want to carry out this simple mod to your own HS10 you need to order a NIKON DK-20 eyecup. As I mentioned before, I ordered mine through Amazon, it cost £5.99 with free delivery. Once again this mod will not void your warranty as the eyecup and selotape can be easily removed with a little surgical spirit to clean up. If the bloke who flogs these eyecups on Amazon reads this could I suggest 10% please?

Many thanks to the very friendly and helpful staff at the MK Jessops branch and especially Chris.

If you implement MkII on your HS10 I would be tickled to hear from you and how you got on either here or via my email ad.

PS. since I posted this entry I have had plenty of chance to try the mod and have found that the selotape kept coming unstuck so I have stuck it on with gel type superglue and it seems like its on there for good. (Added 11.05 on Boxing day - 26/12/10)

grampyblog@aol.com

And now for something else completely different – again!!!!

Down to the pub a few days ago for a glug and was quite taken aback by this piece of truly remarkable engineering confection in the car park...........

I spoke to the driver of the machine - a chap sporting a Parachute Regiment sweatshirt...."you what"? ; and he told me that this design is known as a “Phoenix” and “it’s powered by a 1600 VW engine”. I didn’t say anything to him but I quietly reflected that it would look fantastic being hauled instead by three snorting, straining, snow white stallions ………..now that’s real horsepower!..........that's romantic.........but it's NOT "para" so I'll just have to dream on won't I?

So long and see you later.