Tiny Viewfinders...

[Bobtrips]

I've been thinking about the 'reshaping the orb' issue.

Two ways this could happen.  

With a lot of viewfinder use you might change the shape by prolonged pressing against the eye cup.  Unlikely, I think.

Or you're squinting to change the shape of your eyeball in order to change the focus of your lens.  Seems like this would be better done with glasses or diopter adjustment.  

If you don't want to wear glasses I seem to remember that one can have optically corrected lenses fitted to viewfinders.

(Squinting won't change your focal length - enlarge the image.  It will change focus - the distance from lens to retina.  That's if I correctly remember what I learned about 40 years ago.  ;o)

[Peter McLennan]

Just as difficult on the eyes (at least for my 60-year-old eyes) is the LCD panel.  Why, O why can't they bury this information *inside* the camera and allow us to peer at it (magnified) through a viewfinder as we do with camcorders?

The LCD panels are too small, as is the information displayed thereon, and those panels won't get any bigger.  The stuff on those displays is very difficult to see in sunshine, no matter what marketing says.  Putting this stuff *inside* the camera would make it far easier to see.

It's important stuff, right?  Histograms and such.  I've even taken to wearing dark clothing while shooting, to eliminate one variable - namely my reflection in the LCD screen.

C',mon, engineers!  As Michael says: "Do they ever actually USE these cameras?"

Peter

[jani]

Too bad he didn't know about the add on LCD hoods such as the Extend-A-View.  They turn the LCD into a eyepiece viewer - complete with magnifying lens.

I had one for my first digital (Oly C2020) and it worked great.  Gave me very usable TTL viewing in bright sunlight.  Attached (when desired) with Velcro.

How much did/does such an item cost?

And do you think it would work with something like the da' Oly protector?

[BJL]

Heh. If you're dodgy, you can trick people into thinking you're shooting a view camera...

You compose by two-eyed viewing of an image on a screen on the back of the camera, instead of peeping with one eye through a little "telescope".

So it *is* a view camera; just a tiny, digital, view camera.


Might this be the solution to Pom's eye problems: a digital camera with live video feed to a laptop screen?

[DiaAzul]

Don't know how much this would help (not sure about quality and battery life), an external LCD monitor that clips to the viewfinder of an SLR camera. Even if you don't get one - I can see many reasons where this may actually come in quite handy (macro, mounting camera on end of pole to see over crowds, etc..).

Only articles I can find so far are in Korean or Hungarian.

Zigview

Someone posted an english link on FM

Zigview in English

[BryanHansel]

My right eye is much worse than my left eye, and I never thought it could have anything to do with photography.  About two years ago, I started using my left eye and now that's going bad also.  Hmmm.  Or an I getting older?

Last night, I was packing for a job that got postponed today, and I stuffed my N80 body into my pack, but before I did, I looked through it and though, man, look how great this viewfinder is.  When I got that camera, I remember thinking how small of a viewfinder it was.

[BJL]

We are buying N80's or Rebels which are $200-300 cameras with $500 plus of digital processing equipment added on. = D70/Drebel
...
Doesn't seem entirely proportional but R&D has to be high for the manufacture in the race to finish at the top of the heap.

About $500 sounds about right for the extra cost of the electronics that replace the film in an entry-level DSLR. For this you get, amongst other things, a sensor IC that is bigger than most PC micro-processors and sells in far smaller quantities, increasing overhead. ("APS-C" sensors are about as big as the high end Intel Itanium chips I believe). And probably you get to avoid $500 or more in film and processing costs within the first year of ownership. It was more like six months for me, and I am not nearly as trigger happy as people like Jonathan Weinke!

This seems very reasonable judged by either manufacturing and R&D costs, or by value for money.

[Bobtrips]

It was under $20 as I recall.  (That was about five years ago.)

I don't know why it wouldn't work with the protector in place.  You just glue some small strips of Velcro around the LCD.  Or you can hold the viewer in place if you don't want to glue to your camera.

The only downside that I found was that it was "one more thing" to pack into the field.  But for shooting macros it was extremely valuable.  You avoided the parallax problems - got TTL viewing that you could see in bright light.

If the LCD had been high resolution it would have made an excellent viewfinder.  Shades of future EVFs to come.