LCD or Viewfinder? How Do You See the World?

A very well written, great article is up on The New York Times that talks about the shifting trend to move away from optical viewfinders and digital viewfinders towards just using the LCD screen on the back of the digital camera.

Millions of people no longer see eye-to-eyepiece with their cameras. It has been such a subtle shift that digital photographers, without realizing it, are developing a new relationship with their cameras. They are no longer looking through the camera but holding it at arms’ length.

Pressing a camera to your face and peering into its optical viewfinder — an intimate human-machine moment — is becoming quaint, if not antiquated, for a generation of photographers who prefer to study their cameras’ liquid-crystal display screens at a distance.

I find that personally, I am about 50/50 when it comes to using the viewfinder or LCD, depending on the shot I am going to take. Most people with digital cameras review the images taken on the LCD, so why not take the next shot on the same screen. Most people find it easier, and some cameras have done away with viewfinders at all, preferring to give large LCD’s for people to use to frame their shots.

I find that LCD’s are not very good for bright outdoor shots, and so I use the digital viewfinder in my camera in those situations. I also find it a great alternative to use it more often when I know battery life is going to be a concern for me as the LCD uses much more battery life than the viewfinder.

The LCD can be much more convenient though, especially on my digital camera, as it can move in a wide range of motion, allowing me to frame group shots with my friends while being in the shot, or taking perspective shots from angles that would be difficult for me to position myself to look through the viewfinder.

The fact is, Mr. Porter said, optical viewfinders take up more space in a digital camera’s body than you may suspect. Far from being a glass or plastic window, viewfinders in many point-and-shoot cameras usually require variable lens systems so they can replicate whatever zoom abilities the camera has.

Eliminating the optical viewfinder, camera makers say, reduces a camera’s size, something that consumers, in focus groups, say that they want.

We have entered the age of LCD’s for most consumers, leaving viewfinders only to those that won’t give them up, or realize their use, like many professionals and certain hobbyists.

June 8th, 2006 Posted by David in Uncategorized at 12:19 pm Comment Now! »
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