DIY Red Dot Finder for DSLR Camera

[steppenwolf]

A minor issue that I discovered recently when taking some widefield images with my DSLR camera and lens was that in the dark, it is quite difficult to determine exactly where the camera is pointing. A Red Dot Finder (RDF) is the perfect tool for this as it is low profile and low weight but getting one to fit on the camera's hot shoe fitting is not as simple as you'd expect. You can buy suitable units from the States or a rather crude bent metal bracket from a supplier in the UK but I thought I'd make my own.

I bought a rather nicely made all aluminium RDF for an air rifle from Amazon as my start point. I am a terrible hoarder and in my photographic box (or should that be chest?), I have several old flashguns dating back to my old film days and one of them at least was not compatible with the lower switching voltages available on modern DSLRs so I used this as the donor for the hotshoe fitting. This simply unbolted from the base of the flashgun with four tiny screws, revealing a couple of wires for the hotshoe contact and a tiny bit of aluminium making up a simple switch for the test-fire button - I removed these completely.

I filed a small bit of aluminium to size to bolt onto the hot shoe fitting and filed a second piece of aluminium into the shape of a dovetail. I bolted the two pieces of aluminium together in a cross shape and then simply attached the RDF with its dovetail clamp.

I can now very easily point the camera accurately to the portion of sky I want to image.

There is no truth to the wicked rumour that I made this unit because last week I took a whole sequence of images of the Sadr region of Cygnus only to discover a rather nicely tracked image of Vega with the Harp of Lyra hanging below it......... No truth in that rumour at all .....

[emadmoussa]

Pretty good idea. funny enough I was thinking about a way to point the camera when it's dark....

It's also a good idea getting an air rifle red dot finder to use on the telescope. It's actually less than half price of a dedicated one.

Here's a similar idea:

[jgs001]

Looks great Steve, very slimline and low profile, and looks very secure... much more solid than the ally bracket I got from AstroBoot a while back. I bet it was a lovely result you achieved, even if you were weren't pointing in the wrong place

[Dave Lloyd]

That's a great idea Steve. Now I just have to find a fixing compatible with my awkward dynax shoe.

[James s]

What a great bit of diy I am going to make one of these for my nikon I've got an old flash somewhere when I put a red dot finder on a samsung video camera I just glued it on but but cannot glue one to my nikon