If you came here for the video, just click here. 

So all your life, you've wanted a focusing aid in your E500's viewfinder's focus screen?  What are your options?

Well, you  could get this, from the very cool-ly named Katz Eye Optics.  Many people have used it, and give it good reviews. 

The gadgetmiser in you can't justify AUD$135 for what is essentially a piece of machined plastic? Well then, another option is to go with the perhaps-not-so-cool-but-certainly-oh-so-funkyily-named Virtual Village option for about AUD$40 . 

Ye-eah!

I say young man, bad eyes have you got,
I say young man, can't you nail all your shots
You just got to, get a new focus screen
And then all you shoot will be keen

Virtual Village Ebay
Virtual Village Eba-ay
For a focus screen, they are the connection
Just don't ex-pect instructions.

Don't get me wrong, they are efficient and friendly enough.  But when I enquired before buying about how to install this on an E500, they emailed me this (click the picture to view full size):



It was more than adequate to give you the right idea, but the sharp among you will observe, also depicted a Canon. It was not then, perhaps reflective of best practice in the undoubtedly highly competitive focus screen replacement industry, and does even less to instill confidence in one's ability to successfully perform the operation, particularly when a quick google on the topic suggests that the E500's focus screen, being "fixed", cannot be changed.  For the record, they must mean fixed - but only when it is not detached.  The screen most certainly is changeable.

Reservations aside however, Village Voice  were at least priced on the breatheable side of Earth's atmosphere.  And surely the screen would ship with proper E500 instructions! And the savings! So, somewhat inevitably, I placed my order.

The screen is shipped from China , and arrived in less than 2 weeks in a padded airmail bag, which I eagerly ravaged. Out dropped this:



It comes well protected, encased in what appears to be an SD Card holder, with further plastic padding inside that.  The handwritten “E500” indicates to me that the market for these things must number in the sheer dozens! So, based on my experience, you can be relatively assured that you will get the screen, and it will readily survive the journey from a long way overseas.  What you see will also be, ah, all you get. Nothing else; no instruction sheet, no documentation - not even one for a Canon.

Fortunately, in addition to the Canon instructions, there is some information out there in Googleland on how you install these things, and I came across these.
But no pictures!

Then I stumbled on this article on how to Install the Teaching to the Burnt Screen.  An instant classic, the site is bested only by this one.

Actual pictures of an E500 undergoing the sacred ritual cracked it for me.  Like Tom Hanks in that most disappointing of adaptations, I now knew what exactly what to do (and not just in respect of the installation, for the link must surely also have some metaphysical meaning).

Woot! All you burnt screen are belong to me!

In fact, it is all terribly easy.  Here you go:

 



 

There, not quite the building of the Suez, is it?

In case the video isn’t working, the basic steps really are just:

1. Turn E500 upside down.
2. Remove original screen.
3. Insert new screen.

1. The centre of the burnt screen has a little bump in it.  When you install, the bump should face towards the lens, not the viewfinder (after installation, the bump should point to the bottom of the camera).  Otherwise, the burnt screen will not work.
2. The original E500 focus screen has a little plastic notch extending from a corner to help in lifting it off its mounting with no scratching (the manual focus burnt screen  does not, if you ever need to remove it after installation).  All the instructions from the net suggest you should somehow use your tool to lift the screen off the camera.  In practice, I found the best way to remove screens was to tip the body over, give a gentle tap and drop the screen onto a soft surface.  Don’t bother with trying to lift it off with anything that has the potential to scratch it.  When you do this, by the way, another square metal thing in addition to the shim might drop out - don't worry, just reinsert it.  It goes under the screen.
3. Similarly, when inserting the new screen use something that won’t scratch to gently realign it.
4. Be mindful of dust and oil on your hands; wash first.

Easy though it is, as to why you would do this - in a shameless attempt to get you to read something else I’ve written - well, this is one reason.

How well does the Virtual Village manual focus burnt screen work?  Very well indeed. It won’t make the E500’s viewfinder any larger, of course, (for that, you'll need this) and if your focussing target is not vertical, it can still be hard to focus.  But it’s much much better than having no guide at all.  Where you have a vertical target, it will significantly improve  focussing accuracy. Here it is in action:

It works perfectly fine with autofocus lenses, by the way, so don’t worry about that part of it.  It’s quite fun watching the misaligned halves come together when you half press the shutter with an autofocus lens.

As with everything on the net, if you’re keen enough to try this, you’re genetically predisposed to taking full responsibility for your actions (which is good), so don’t blame me if something goes wrong, blah blah, etc etc. In the unlikely event  you wreck something, well, the E510 is out soon, isn't it:)? Good luck.

Useful discussion links on Split Focus Screen Replacements for Olympus E-Series

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/vbb/showthread.php?p=88823#post88823

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/vbb/archive/index.php/t-270.html

http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00K2Vi

Comments? Email me at larry@gadgetmiser.com

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