All right, while we can all admit that location scouting trips can sometimes be a good excuse to take a fun little vacation, when you’re actually on the clock for a serious project location scouting—and pre-production in general—can quickly turn into a stressful nightmare.

There’s a lot of pressure riding on finding the right spots, as well as confirming that you’ll be able to get your ideal shots. One way in which directors and DPs are able to location scout efficiently and effectively is by making use of viewfinders and other tools to test out all of the lighting and angles.

However, to do that well, you’ll need a good viewfinder. And, these days, preferably a smart one. And that’s where this new iOS app from FinderKit comes in with its Viewfinder app.

While not the first of its kind, let’s take a look at what new features it brings to the table to speed up your location scouting processes.

The FinderKit Viewfinder App

As mentioned above, viewfinder apps are not an entirely new invention by any means. There’s been plenty over the years, and for the most part, they’re all solid options.

However, what makes this one unique is that it comes from Zak Ray, the same developer of apps like CameraKit and LensKit.

This new FinderKit app is a new way to look at viewfinder apps and can be a helpful tool for location scouting and pre-production in general in several ways. It has an easy-to-use interface and includes all of the basic features that you might expect like different overlays and image looks.

However, the app’s killer feature might simply be that it allows users to create custom lens kits for their projects by grouping together different lenses, as well as even fully simulating what your camera will look like with a particular lens.

FinderKit in action

FinderKit in action

FinderKit

Fully Simulate Your Camera Experience

Pretty cool, right? This feature allows for the FinderKit app to simulate what your camera, with your desired lens, would look like and be able to frame up— which you can see directly on your smartphone screen in front of you.

This would be a huge game changer for any previsualization processes as it really would let you go through a location with your cameras and lenses, but—of course— without lugging around all of your actual gear with you.

The FinderKit app offers over 100 cameras and thousands of lenses from all of your name-brand manufacturers like Sony, Canon, ARRI, Cooke, and tons more. The app even features other accessories like extenders, speed boosters, or even customizable crop features so you can truly visualize just about anything your heart desires.

FinderKit

Price and Availability

The FinderKit Viewfinder app is available now and is about par for the course as to what these viewfinder apps usually cost.

That is, the app is free to download from the Apple App Store; however, to truly get the full experience, you’ll need to either sign up for it as a subscription model for $4.99 a month (which also gets you the LensKit and CameraKit apps). Or you can get it with a one-time purchase for $24.99 (but without the other apps)

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