cjlai : .. what exactly did u mod? .. focus screen?

whoaah... cjlai, NICE split prism focusing screen 

i get it now..wow....friggin useful when u shoot manual... ...interesting..where did u source your parts and how much did the mod cost?

cjlai: Nice, I've never seen that split-prism before!

hmm I checked for the new module on A450 .... which is almost the same as A550 but 230k LCD Colors and 2.7 inch screen and no Live View

It was finally released at China and set the retail price on RMB5000 (RM2500) with SAL1855SAM

how much u mod the focusing screen cjlai...???gatal tangan d want to change the focusing screen....

cjlai: The Type-M focusing screen for the A700 if I remember was RM175, and the Type-M for A900 is RM285.

seriously...???that is cheap...!!

just plug and play or need modification bro...???

Might be worth mentioning the cons of these screens;

- spot metering is going to be screwed up because our exposure meter is above the viewfinder screen - not sure
- if you're not using F1.4-F2.0 lenses there really is no point - not much of a prob if u r using it in places with light
- any lens F4.0 or even F2.8 will look visibly darker, like there is a polarizer on your lens all the time - obviously darker than prev one
- if your sensor is not at the same focus plane then you won't get pictures in focus based on the screen - looks fine on mine
- it will be much harder to tell if your shot is in focus in the dark if you have a darker lens (F3.5) so I got some OOF crowd shots that way. Thus for event coverage I use the Type-G - really not ez to focus in the dark....  tested it in my room with light off...  try to focus at the corner with some bounce light fr outside
- the split prism is only in the center - not having much prob with this one

cjlai: I'm not talking about focusing in a room with the lights off - there was an event which I shot and the client was sitting outdoors, outside the restaurant. You could still see them with your eyes, but through the viewfinder it was just too dark to see if it was in focus or not with a F3.5 lens. The camera AF ended up focusing on a rattan chair but I could not see this at this kind of darkness. Obviously I cannot be focusing on a corner with light because that was already out of the plane of focus.

erm i am not going sell it wo... as my father definitely won't allow me wan de 
well i have some photo for it

hahha, sometimes even 11mm is not enough.. i'm framing for the entire scene, if i move too much to the right, the rocks on the left would be missing and there wont be any leading lines anymore

then become super distorted edi wor...

But manual focus lens are better with mid range entries like 550 and 700 right? is it ok to use it with a300 ?

that way, you would eventually need to crop the image as well coz of the empty black/white areas after the correction, no?

I see. Does i need to mod the focusing screen like you too or no need?

I see. what is the other way to assist? Interested to get one since its cheaper