TTArtisan announced a new red (or green) dot sight for wildlife photographers. It attaches to a camera’s hotshoe and is designed to make it easier to track distant subjects.
Dot sights aren’t a new concept although they have dropped off in popularity in recent years since the autofocus capability of mirrorless cameras has become so reliable. In 2012, PetaPixel shared insight from photographer Chris Malcolm where he mounted one to his lens and explains why some wildlife enthusiasts may want to consider a sight for their long lenses — in his case, a 500mm. He reported that it made it “trivially easy to aim the lens at anything very quickly.” This type of tracking is useful in wildlife photography when animals in motion can be difficult to keep in frame.
OM System, then Olympus, announced one in 2015 called the EE-1 which was advertised at the same market: wildlife photographers. Olympus even built one in to the E-M10 50x superzoom camera in 2014. Last year, Kenko Tokina announced one called the SZ Super Tele Finder, but it didn’t feature a pop-up action.
TTArtisan’s new dot sight promises the same benefits as these other options: as long as it is calibrated correctly (which must be done for each camera and lens combination), a photographer would be able to keep a subject in frame without having to look through the viewfinder or rely on the rear LCD. Calibration instructions can be found on TTArtisan’s website and are pretty straightforward. Photographers will need to find a subject and center it in the frame on the EVF or rear LCD and then adjust the dials on the side of the Dot Sight until it is also centered on the subject.
The TTArtisan Dot Sight offers the option to use a red or green dot, which can be toggled from a button on the back, as well as provides five levels of brightness. At the middle brightness setting, the company says that one 3V CR2032 button battery will power the sight for 100 hours. The pop-up function is facilitated by a switch on the back of the sight and TTArtisan also includes a hot shoe lock switch that keeps it affixed to the top of the camera.
The 73-gram TTArtisan Dot Sight is available for $53.
Image credits: TTArtisan