TTArtisan’s puts a Marksman Dot Sight on your camera

Red dot sights aren’t a new idea. They’ve been around since the days of film. Their goal is to help you more easily find wildlife and other distant subjects. They don’t actually project a dot onto your subject but provide a second viewfinder to make it easier to find and follow them.

Last year, we saw a new red dot sight from Tokina, and now TTArtisan has jumped into the fray with a dot sight of its own. Priced at only $53 – 1/8th the price of the Tokina – it has a folding design that looks like it should keep it protected very well in your bag, too.

TTArtisan Dot Sight – What do they do?

TTArtisan’s dot sight mounts to your camera’s hotshoe, essentially giving you a second viewfinder. And like all dot sights, it’s designed to help you find distant subjects more easily. How it does this is a little difficult to explain if you’ve never used one, but once you do, they can be invaluable.

Dot sights typically offer a wider field of view than the kinds of super-telephoto lenses used for photographing wildlife. With those long lenses, if your subject moves out of the camera’s frame, it can be difficult to find them. Even if your subject is static, when you’re at a distance, all tree branches can start to look the same.

When you look through the viewfinder, as the name suggests, you see a dot. This dot needs to be calibrated to the camera and lens you’re using, and the approximate focus distance you’ll be shooting at. That way, when you see the dot lined up on your subject, your camera’s lens is looking at the same spot.

The dot just gets you in the rough ballpark of the subject, though. Once you’ve got it in your sights, you look through your camera’s regular viewfinder to compose your photo and hit the shutter.

Not just red, but also green

While most wildlife typically tends to live against a green background, not all of them do. Sometimes, the red dot can be difficult to see against a red or brown background. So, there’s also a green option to provide a little more contrast when red doesn’t work.

The TTArtisan Dot Sight provides 6 hours of use on a single CR2032 battery and has five different levels of brightness. It mounts directly onto the camera’s hotshoe so that it’s as close to the camera’s viewpoint as possible. And it’s not one of those horrible old-fashioned screw locks, either. It has a nice, quick-release locking lever, so it’s easy to put it on and take it off as needed.

The position of the reticle (the dot) is adjustable. This allows you to calibrate it specifically to the lens you’re using at the distance you’re focusing at. You’ll want to do this each time you use it to ensure that it’s matched to your current shooting conditions.

Price and Availability

The TTArtisan Dot Sight is available to pre-order now for $53. Shipping is expected to begin in the coming weeks.

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