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There’s an abundance of smartphone camera accessories available but until now we’ve been missing one item: a viewfinder. Thanks to the OKO crowdfunding project on Kickstarter this gap might soon be filled, however.
The OKO is designed to do pretty much the same things as a conventional viewfinder. It blocks screen reflections, offering an immersive and undistracted view of the scene and allowing for a more stable shooting stance when holding it up to your face. Its design is far from conventional, however.
The OKO resembles a VR-headset and is compatible with most 4.7″ and larger smartphones. The mobile device is inserted at the front and in the bottom there is a fairly large hole, allowing you to control the camera on the touch screen of your phone (but probably also letting some light in).
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In front of the phone screen two 6x magnifying oculars provide a view that should be much closer to the real scene than what your smartphone display alone can provide and many photographers might find that using two eyes to frame your shots is more comfortable than just using one, like with a traditional camera viewfinder.
The OKO’s major downside is pretty obvious: you’ll look pretty ridiculous wearing the thing on your head while hunting for photo opportunities. For some this might be a small price to pay for the perfect shot, however.
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If you fall into that latter group, you can now pledge between $ 39 for the early bird basic kit and $ 160 for a full-blown package including 4 accessory lenses. At the time of writing the project has almost reached its funding goal with 56 more days to go, so there’s a good chance the project will go ahead. Shipping is expected in March 2019.
Watch the video below for more information or head straight to the OKO Kickstarter page.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)