Pentax Q-S1 and JJC LCD Hood

One of the biggest issue with mirrorless camera is the ability to see the LCD screen in bright daylight. While my Pentax Q-S1 is not totally hopeless in this area, I reckon I could improve the situation by adding a LCD hood.

I have always read about these kind of LCD hoods that are available from eBay but have never really given a lot of thought to actually buying one to try, until now. JJC has a model which I reckon has the same size as the LCD on my Pentax Q-S1. The model which I bought is the JJC LCH-3.0 Black (LCH-3.0B). This cost me Aud $12. Delivery is fast enough (for a package shipped from China) so no complains there.

The package comes in a nice plastic package. There are 2 components to it:

1. A frame to mount the LCD hood. This has an adhesive side so that the frame can be attached onto the camera. The frame also come complete with a screen protector. The screen protector appears to be plastic and not a glass type similar to the GGS glass screen protector you can also find on eBay.
2. The collapsible LCD hood. The hood has some sort of latches/hooks to enable it to be locked onto the frame. The LCD hood is detachable so I can remove it when I feel it is getting in the way.

Some photos:

So the frame comes with a built in screen protector…..but wait. I already have one attached to the Q-S1! Now how is this going to work?

Well, I am not prepared to give up the current screen protector that I have on my Q-S1. It is a glass type screen protector which has far better built quality than the JJC one. So the only way I can deal with this is to just fix the JJC’s frame onto the existing screen protector.

Fortunately the size is okay and this is what it looks like.

The back of the screen is now slightly thicker because I now have “double” screen protection.

 This is how the final configuration looks like:

Observations and Conclusions:

1. The built quality is not too flimsy but not great either. I have doubt that this LCD hood can survive long term in the field but then again for Aud $12, what can I complain.
2. It is relatively easy to attach and remove the LCD hood from its associated frame. Don’t push too hard however as the frame can get dislocated from the camera.
3. Does the LCD hood really work in bright sunlight? Yes. Is the hood useful in all shooting condition? Not really. Sometimes the top of the hood gets in the way of composing the images as it will block the LCD view if the camera is located below eye level.

Would I recommend this hood to Pentax Q users? For Aud $12….sure!

Hope this helps any pentaxian out there!