Giottos LCD Cover Glasses

[Speenth]

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Do you know if it is possible to obtain just the aerosol, the one I was supplied with was tiny, from your description (whiteboard-pen -sized) it looks like I did not have sufficient liquid to do the job ( No funny remarks please). I have kept the old protector, so may be able to re-use if the Giottos goes south.

Regards.

 

Hi' there,

 

Send me your address via Private Message and I'll send you one of my spare aerosols (I'm sure Zagg would be happy to send one too, but its a lot further from USA to Biggin Hill, than it is from Vienna!

 

Regards

 

Steve'

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[Daniel Ortego]

... The ZAGG screens are much more robust than static activated iPod protectors and can be easily removed if necessary. No, I don't work for the company...

 

Mark

 

Ok, now I'm interested. So, how exactly are they “easily” removed?

Regards,

[highlander]

Do you know if it is possible to obtain just the aerosol, the one I was supplied with was tiny, from your description (whiteboard-pen -sized) it looks like I did not have sufficient liquid to do the job ( No funny remarks please). I have kept the old protector, so may be able to re-use if the Giottos goes south.

Regards.

 

Well thanks to Steve (Speenth) who sent me the proper volume of applicant for the Zagg , it was seven times the volume of the one I was supplied with, I have now reapplied the screen protector and it looks fine. Considering it has been off and on more times that a "show bis" romance it is remarkably clear ... Thanks once again Steve.

[Guest tummydoc]

The Giottos are an ultra-thin piece of glass with a tape edging that results in a slight gap between the glass and the LCD everywhere. An impact can and has shattered them.

 

The Invisible Shield stuff is expensive and unless you're extremely handy, a good chance you'll ruin one before getting one applied perfectly. Another company called BEST SKINS EVER sells the exact material in a sheet several times the size of an M8 screen, for significantly less than the Invisible Shield charges for one pre-cut protector. You can follow their directions and use a mild diluted soap solution, but after bad luck with the first try I applied mine dry like any PDA protector and it worked perfectly.

[highlander]

The Giottos are an ultra-thin piece of glass with a tape edging that results in a slight gap between the glass and the LCD everywhere. An impact can and has shattered them.

 

The Invisible Shield stuff is expensive and unless you're extremely handy, a good chance you'll ruin one before getting one applied perfectly. Another company called BEST SKINS EVER sells the exact material in a sheet several times the size of an M8 screen, for significantly less than the Invisible Shield charges for one pre-cut protector. You can follow their directions and use a mild diluted soap solution, but after bad luck with the first try I applied mine dry like any PDA protector and it worked perfectly.

 

I wonder if the gap and subsequent shattering if struck, is what they are designed to do? Yes I know if it is a very harsh impact it could be bye bye LCD. On the other hand the Zagg or any other film type of protector for that matter could to my way of thinking act like body armour, it may stop the projectile from entering but by the forces of nature the energy spent has to go somewhere. One has to consider the effect of blunt force trauma, this is a known factor when dealing with the human body but what would it do to the camera?

Or could it all come down to what you like or are prepared to pay? why scrimp a few bucks on a camera of this value and why buy something which is but ugly???

Horses for courses perhaps.

[AlanJW]

The Giottos are an ultra-thin piece of glass with a tape edging that results in a slight gap between the glass and the LCD everywhere. An impact can and has shattered them.

 

The Invisible Shield stuff is expensive and unless you're extremely handy, a good chance you'll ruin one before getting one applied perfectly. Another company called BEST SKINS EVER sells the exact material in a sheet several times the size of an M8 screen, for significantly less than the Invisible Shield charges for one pre-cut protector. You can follow their directions and use a mild diluted soap solution, but after bad luck with the first try I applied mine dry like any PDA protector and it worked perfectly.

 

The whole point of the protector is to sacrifice itself for the good of the LCD glass. I had a Giottos on and after a trip one of the corners had broken. I was happy to get it off and put on another, with my LCD cover still pristine. As for Invisible Shield, it is suposed to protect also, and I tried it on my D-Lux 3, but I just could not get it installed properly. The bubbles are supposed to disappear leving a perfectly smooth and transparent surface. They didn't, and even without bubbles, I like tooking through glass as opposed to plastic. So the Giottos remains my choice. Now if the Leica LCD cover could be poppoed off with a suction cup the way that Canon's can be, and if a new LCD cover could be had for a reasonsble price, I'd go with a naked M8.

[mustafasoleiman]

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Highlander

 

I have been trying to reach you to no avail by send ing you an email via the Buy & Sell link.

Can you email me when you have a chance?

 

Many thanks

[IMast]

Thanks to all who responded to my question.

 

I looked for Zagg under both its names but couldn't find any references to them in UK nor any UK sellers. If anyone has further knowledge on this please respond.

 

However one respondent referred to 3M vikuiti and I have just found a DigiCover for the M8 made of this material on Robert White's site here in the UK and have ordered one to try. I think this brand must be a new addition to his site since I didnt see it there when I first looked and then started this thread.

 

Once again, many thanks to all.

[Guest tummydoc]

I wonder if the gap and subsequent shattering if struck, is what they are designed to do?

 

Sounds like you've been hanging around Leica fans too long

 

Yes I know if it is a very harsh impact it could be bye bye LCD. On the other hand the Zagg or any other film type of protector for that matter could to my way of thinking act like body armour, it may stop the projectile from entering but by the forces of nature the energy spent has to go somewhere. One has to consider the effect of blunt force trauma, this is a known factor when dealing with the human body but what would it do to the camera?

 

I think you're over-thinking Remember that some people are actually using the M8 versus admiring it, therefore that projectile of which you speak would necessarily have to pass through their head or body first in order to then strike the LCD.

 

Or could it all come down to what you like or are prepared to pay? why scrimp a few bucks on a camera of this value and why buy something which is but ugly???

Horses for courses perhaps.

 

I thought the point of the screen protector was to place something of lesser value yet more reslient than the screen itself. The Best Skins Ever (same material as Zagg except not pre-cut and therefore a fraction of the cost) is actually designed to protect heliocopter blades. If the course your horse runs on involves a mere esthetic adornment, then the Giottos is indeed your best choice.

[Guest tummydoc]

As for Invisible Shield, it is suposed to protect also, and I tried it on my D-Lux 3, but I just could not get it installed properly. The bubbles are supposed to disappear leving a perfectly smooth and transparent surface.

 

I had the same result until I gave up on the liquid spray and simply applied the protector as any other, dry, starting from one end sliding a credit card along the surface. No bubbles at all.

[Speenth]

Thanks to all who responded to my question.

 

I looked for Zagg under both its names but couldn't find any references to them in UK nor any UK sellers. If anyone has further knowledge on this please respond.

 

However one respondent referred to 3M vikuiti and I have just found a DigiCover for the M8 made of this material on Robert White's site here in the UK and have ordered one to try. I think this brand must be a new addition to his site since I didnt see it there when I first looked and then started this thread.

 

Once again, many thanks to all.

 

Hi' there,

 

I ordered mine from Zagg in USA (http://www.shieldzone.com/form/index.html), who duly delivered them (at ordinary postal rates) to my home in Austria (incidentally, they're a nice company to do business with - when one of my orders went astray I received very polite apologies from Zagg and a new set arrived soon after at no further charge, even though it wasn't their fault in the first place).

 

The second point I'd make to a lot of the posters here, is that ftting these screens should be done EXACTLY as advised by Zagg. I have now fitted four, and three are perfect (they're on my M8, my wife's D-Lux-3 and on my Archos 605 PMA). The first was a disaster, because I did not spray on the supplied liquid in the manner described.

 

None of the screens are visible in practice - there are no bubbles or marks. They're quite thick and squidgy - thus very effectively absorbing bumps and scratches and they do not lift at the corners (in my experience, no other brand of stick-on protector has ever been so obliging). Most interestingly, they do not seem to affect the visual qualities of the device they're protecting and subjectively to me, image contrast appears to be improved!

 

The most testing application for these screens is the Archos. It is a touch-screen device and thus the protector is attacked all day and every day by the hard plastic stylus with which I stab at the screen and drag all over the place. There is not the slightest trace of any wear or permanent marking and the touch-screen sensitivity is completely unaffected.

 

'Highlander' bought a Zagg screen (when they were still called 'Invisible Shield') and recieved a very small amount of the application fluid. I bought the screen under the new Zagg brand name and recieved so much of the fluid that I was able to send him a spare bottle of it! Thus it seems to me this is a company engaged in continuous improvement. I recommend them to you.

[Guest tummydoc]

 

The second point I'd make to a lot of the posters here, is that ftting these screens should be done EXACTLY as advised by Zagg. I have now fitted four, and three are perfect (they're on my M8, my wife's D-Lux-3 and on my Archos 605 PMA). The first was a disaster, because I did not spray on the supplied liquid in the manner described.

 

Balderdash. They are easy as any cheap PDA protector to apply dry with a credit card. Not only does the liquid complicate and frustrate, it's sheer idiocy to intentionally get liquid anywhere on the M8 other than perhaps a drop of sensor cleaner on a swab. I ruined several with the liquid, then applied them dry to my M8, three DLux-3s (wife's, daughter's, sister-in-law's), my PDA, cellphone, wife's and daughters' cell phones and iPods, and my GPS. All done dry, all done in seconds, and all without problems or bubbles. And all using 3 sheets of the un-cut Zagg material from Best Skins Ever, for the cost of one M8 screen from Zagg...which, to their credit, they refunded my money for.

 

But if paying several times more for the same material and then dousing their M8 with soapy water is appealing to anyone, I will join the chorus in chanting for the Zagg protectors and their wet application protocol.

[Speenth]

Balderdash. .

 

I can only speak for my own experience - the one that didn't work for me was the one for which I spared the fluid. The problem with applying a Zagg screen dry or near-dry (as I did first time around) is that Zagg screens have an adhesive on one side that is seriously non-slip! Unless the sheet is wet it immediately sticks hard, before it has been properly aligned. As I tried to get the alignment right it began to stretch and buckle. So it had to come off, already ruined.

 

This may be the main difference between the Zagg product and the sheets you describe. Same material, but the Zagg's have glue on one surface.

 

Wetting temporarily overcomes the stickiness of the Zagg adhesive and allows plenty of time to easily and perfectly align the sheet. Then, as it dries, it sticks hard in place.

 

Incidentally, my M8 gets a lot wetter thanks to Central Europe's inclement weather than it did from making contact with a wet sheet of plastic! Also, when fitting the sheets, I took the batteries out of the M8 and D-Lux-3 (as per Zagg's instructions) and left the cameras untouched and battery-less for 24 hours (also as per Zagg's instructions).

[highlander]

Hi' there,

 

I ordered mine from Zagg in USA (http://www.shieldzone.com/form/index.html), who duly delivered them (at ordinary postal rates) to my home in Austria (incidentally, they're a nice company to do business with - when one of my orders went astray I received very polite apologies from Zagg and a new set arrived soon after at no further charge, even though it wasn't their fault in the first place).

 

The second point I'd make to a lot of the posters here, is that ftting these screens should be done EXACTLY as advised by Zagg. I have now fitted four, and three are perfect (they're on my M8, my wife's D-Lux-3 and on my Archos 605 PMA). The first was a disaster, because I did not spray on the supplied liquid in the manner described.

 

None of the screens are visible in practice - there are no bubbles or marks. They're quite thick and squidgy - thus very effectively absorbing bumps and scratches and they do not lift at the corners (in my experience, no other brand of stick-on protector has ever been so obliging). Most interestingly, they do not seem to affect the visual qualities of the device they're protecting and subjectively to me, image contrast appears to be improved!

 

The most testing application for these screens is the Archos. It is a touch-screen device and thus the protector is attacked all day and every day by the hard plastic stylus with which I stab at the screen and drag all over the place. There is not the slightest trace of any wear or permanent marking and the touch-screen sensitivity is completely unaffected.

 

'Highlander' bought a Zagg screen (when they were still called 'Invisible Shield') and recieved a very small amount of the application fluid. I bought the screen under the new Zagg brand name and recieved so much of the fluid that I was able to send him a spare bottle of it! Thus it seems to me this is a company engaged in continuous improvement. I recommend them to you.

 

I concur.

[Guest tummydoc]

I can only speak for my own experience - the one that didn't work for me was the one for which I spared the fluid. The problem with applying a Zagg screen dry or near-dry (as I did first time around) is that Zagg screens have an adhesive on one side that is seriously non-slip! Unless the sheet is wet it immediately sticks hard, before it has been properly aligned. As I tried to get the alignment right it began to stretch and buckle. So it had to come off, already ruined.

 

This may be the main difference between the Zagg product and the sheets you describe. Same material, but the Zagg's have glue on one surface.

 

Wetting temporarily overcomes the stickiness of the Zagg adhesive and allows plenty of time to easily and perfectly align the sheet. Then, as it dries, it sticks hard in place.

 

The Best Skins Ever material is identical to the Zagg. I read that several places before I bought some. And I had the Zagg material to compare, they are indeed absolutely one and the same. In fact, BSE's instructions, if anyone were to take the time to read their website FAQ, are to use a very dilute soap-water mixture, which is exactly what Zagg supplies. There is indeed a rather stronger adhesive than the typical static-cling PDA sheets, and one must indeed be meticulous in aligning it if applying dry because one can't merely peel it off and try again, it will stretch. However, by peeling back perhaps 2mm of the backing paper, it is fairly straight-forward to align the sheet with the LCD. Then one merely slides the edge of a credit card somewhat quickly along the sheet whilst at the same time retracting the paper backing from underneath with one's other hand. It isn't brain surgery, or even gastric surgery But the method of application is secondary. If you have dish soap and water at your disposal, you don't need the little spray bottle Zagg supplies, and if you have a credit card (most likely you do if you bought an M8 ) then you don't need the [too flexible] rubber squeegee Zagg supplies, and if you have a ruler and a pair of scissors you don't need the material pre-cut. Therefore one sheet of BSE for $9US is enough to do 3-4 LCDs (or ruin a couple before getting one perfect), vs $25 or more for one Zagg. Here's just one of numerous REVIEWS that can be googled.