Nikon DK-17M viewfinder

In hopes of improving my manual focusing skills, I recently replaced my factory focusing screen in favor of Katz Eye split prism screen, for my D700. This only helped a little and generally everything must focus in the center of the frame then recompose. Unfortunately, it's the only advantage over the factory screen as it doesn't even offer Optibrite (which helps brighten the scene, making it especially helpful for low light shooting) Why they didn't include Optibrite option for the D700 is beyond me. In all honesty I enjoy eyeballing the entire frame and focus where I wanted to, without having to recompose. Shooting at f2.0, it is difficult to recompose especially, on a lens such as the zeiss 100mm f2 makro and those f1.4 primes, because depth of field is so thin, any shifts you make will throw your original focus spot out of whack.

Enter Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece (the 'M' is important, it means magnification/magnifier ) Don't purchase the regular DK-17 as it's just a factory replacement. The DK-17M helps viewfinder magnification by 1.5x. This is very helpful when you use manual focus lenses. In my opinion, It's more helpful than the Katz Eye screen. Sometimes I hardly even see the stupid prism in the middle, and again, I just eyeball the entire frame and shoot what I think is in focus. With the DK-17M, I have a better look at what's in focus. If subjects or objects are too far away, I'll use Live view for critical focus at wide open apertures.

The Eyepiece is only available for pro level cameras such as the D700 and D3 (S and X).