Review of the Zigview R
Manufacturer: Zigview
Model: R
Price: £200
www.intro2020.co.uk
The Zigview R attaches to the viewfinder of SLR cameras and allows real-time viewing of the finder via a small LCD, in effect giving a waist-level finder for the camera.
It offers much more than that though. Built in is a motion detector and intervalometer, allowing remote automatic shooting. This makes it potentially ideal for wildlife and time-lapse photography, where a camera needs to be placed in a remote position and shots taken either as the subject comes into view or regular images need to be taken over a set time frame. Its a nice idea, and is sure to appeal to some people, especially as it is quite affordable for the amateur naturalist. It might even appeal to naturists! But the screen is very low resolution, and on the Canon 300D with which I tried it, fails to show the viewfinder information.
After several hours I got it to work, and it was effective, but its complicated, with a fiddly and unpredictable menu system. Theres three main menus and it seems to be luck which one comes up when you select it. The instruction book is of little use, and seems to have been written by the same author of MFI and Ikea manuals.
The motion sensor and intervalometer manual is more useful, and absolutely necessary in explaining the operation. Once set up though, the device did the job its supposed to and I managed to take a series of pictures of my fingers doing the Yellow Pages walk.
Overall, the low-resolution screen and complicated interface make this a frustrating piece of kit. With patience you can make it work, and wildlife photographers are known for their patience unfortunately, I am not.
What Digital Camera Score: 75%