New Accessory Lets Photographers Attach Gun Sights to Their Camera

Although they serve extremely different purposes, there has long been an overlap between photography gear and firearms that goes far beyond the concept of “shooting” photos. A new accessory from Japanese company Etsumi, which, alongside making its own gear, also distributes products from brands like Shimoda, Tenba, and f.64, to name a few, makes the connection between cameras and guns even clearer.

As reported by DC.Watch, Etsumi’s newest photo accessory, the Dot Sight Plate (E-2582), enables photographers to fit their cameras with military-grade optical and rifle sights for the low price of just 1,430 yen, or about $9.

The Dot Sight Plate lets users mount firearm equipment that uses standard Picatinny rails to the 1/4-inch screw holes on the bottom of a camera. The plate attaches to the bottom of the camera and has Picatinny rails on the sides, so photographers can mount a rifle sight right next to their lens. Separately sold accessories let photographers tweak the precise mounting location of their gun sights. Theoretically, photographers could even mount gun sights and scopes made by well-known photo companies like Leica, Zeiss, and Nikon. However, Zeiss is spinning off its hunting division, which includes rifle scopes. Nikon shockingly left the rifle scope market in 2020.

Presumably, the idea is that photographers can more easily line up long-range shots using a rifle sight than their camera’s viewfinder, or perhaps that their camera lacks a viewfinder altogether and they don’t like using the screen.

Apparently, there is a market for something like this. It’s not even Etsumi’s first rodeo adding gun sights to a camera kit. Back in 2015, Etsumi released a bracket specifically for mounting red dot sights to mirrorless and high-zoom digital cameras, including the one Olympus (now OM System) announced in 2015. The OM System EE-1 Dot Sight is a $200 accessory that is still available now and promises to help photographers better track fast-moving subjects. It basically puts an aiming reticle on the top of any camera with a hot shoe, an idea that wasn’t wholly unique when Olympus unveiled it in 2015.

Photography’s love affair with guns goes far beyond borrowing sights. Leica’s extremely rare Leitz Rifle Camera has received a lot of attention over the years. One of them sold at auction for about $170,000 a couple of years ago. A much more affordable but similar idea was the Soviet-era Zenit Fotosniper.

Then there’s the Stockcam announced in 2023. This new photo tool promised to let photographers mount their entire camera kit on a military-inspired gun stock, complete with a wireless trigger, safety mode, and accessory rails. The Stockcam, which borrows heavily from Kriss Vector firearms, appears to have failed, as its website is no longer online.

Back to the Etsumi Dot Sight Plate. DC.Watch writes that it will be available for 1,430 yen starting on May 8 in Japan. It does not come with a sight, of course, so photographers will need to pick their preferred gun sight to attach to their camera.

Image credits: Etsumi, OM System, Stockcam