The Xtend-a-Sight™ is an adapter that slides into the hot shoe of a camera enabling the attachment of red dot sights. Those sights are mostly used by hunters to track moving targets while keeping both eyes open. We have red dot sights on our telescopes, but as we are not hunters, it never occurred to us that it would be helpful to mount such a sight on a camera. However, once it was pointed out to us, we could appreciate the utility of such a pairing!

The adapter is milled out of aluminum and has a black anodized finish. There is a split at the end which fits into the hot shoe. A small hole has been tapped in the split end and fitted with a headless screw. This screw can be used to wedge open the split to solidly affix the adapter in the hot shoe. It would make sense to do that if attaching an expensive sight.

The adapter accommodates 3/8" and 7/8" standard Weaver mount found on most sights. These sights range in quality and price from basic models at around $10, to professional units that can cost several hundred dollars.

We have shown the adapter inserted with the overhang on top of the pop-up flash of the Nikon D40. However, the adapter could easily have been inserted the other way such that it would not have interfered with the flash. The red dot sight slides into the smaller rail and is fixed into place by tightening the two screws on the side of the finder mount.

The laser sight attaches pretty much in the same way except it has a wider mount, so it sits on the larger part of the Xtend-a-sight adapter. To activate the laser, a contact switch must be pressed. The switch would probably be easier to trigger if it was somehow attached to the body of the camera.  We'll fiddle with that to make it easier to operate with one hand.

We are not too certain of how we'll use a laser sight on a DSLR, but we think it will come in handy for low light or over-the-head free shooting situations. The only way to know is to take it out into the field and give it a try.

In our FirstUse report, we'll try using the two sights with different lenes and show some examples of action shots taken with and without the assistance of the red-dot and laser finders. [Permalink] -PhotoSolve XTendASight FirstLook