Vivitar 3" LCD Hood Review

When I bought my Sony Nex 5 my one complaint was I had a hard time seeing the screen in bright light.  I found myself having to turn my body to view the screen properly.  The high cost of Sony's add on view find left me looking for other options.  I looked at various lens hoods to block the light and then I cam across the Vivitar 3" LCD hood.

Let me tell you I love this thing.  At less than $20 it was a bargain.  It allowed me to not only see the screen it bright light, it magnified the object 2X helping me to check focus without having to zoom in.

This viewfinder (and others like it) also work great on camcorders.

The viewfinder came with two mounting plates.  The mounting plates have double stick tape on them so you can attatch the plate directly on your camera's viewfinder.  The Vivitar viewfinder has little magnets on it so you can just pop it on and off the camera body when you want.


The only issue I had with this was the way the Sony scree was set up.  Sony states my camera has a 3" screen.  But I found the viewfinder mounting plate was about 1/8 of an inch taller than the screen (I think Sony rounded up).  This meant the bottom of the mounting plate was not squarely on the the LCD.

I do not use my Sony Nex 5 as much as I used to because I have a Canon 7D which is much easier to see in the bright sunlight.  But I still carry the Vivitar LCD around my neck so I can check critical focus when I need to quickly and easily.

Their are much more expensive LCD viewfinders on the market.  I do not know how they perform, but I was more than happy with my experience with this inexpensive option.

If you click the link above it will take you to Amazon (where I made my purchase) and it will help me to earn a commission to continue developing this blog.