Among the more interesting and most under-mentioned digital camera accessories I can think of are focusing screens. Pick up your DSLR real quick and put it to your eye. Depending on your brand you’ll see different things, you might see nothing, or maybe you see a few AF areas marked out. What you aren’t seeing is the very finely textured screen that lets you discern focus through your viewfinder.

In the modern age of auto-focus this is the most versatile way of doing a focusing screen. It allows for focus points anywhere in the frame, and provides bright, clear viewfinders. But, for people who prefer manual focusing (like for macro work), the old split-prism focus screens of the film age are missed. Those of you who used film know what I mean, but for those of you who joined us in the digital age cameras used to have a circle in the viewfinder with a dark ring around it and it was split in half. The line through the center would divide subjects and if they weren’t in focus they wouldn’t line up, which made confirming focus pretty darn easy.

What a lot of people don’t realize in a lot of modern DSLRs, including several Canon digital SLR cameras, Nikon digital SLR cameras, Olympus digital cameras like my E-3, and more have available alternative focus screens.

Some of these screens are just even more precise “matte” screens, but some have grids etched (for making sure straight lines are, ya know, straight), and hey, some of them even have the split prism functionality.

So, you might take some time and look into it. Odds are, the way you currently see through your DSLR might not be the only option you have.