Shock of the old

[John R Smith]

While we are being Grumpy Old Men, it is apparently good for my health to get this off my chest:

It is not necessary to hold a camera at arms' length in order to compose on an LCD (unless you have vision problems).
WIth my pocket cameras, I compose on the LCD with my upper arms pressed against my torso and the camera very stable. Use of a short neck-strap pulled tight is another often-described method of stabilizing with Live View.

Just about everybody over the age of 45 or so will have vision problems, that's the point. In my case (and many others) I cannot see anything closer than about 3 feet with clarity unless I wear my reading glasses. If I do that, then I can't see the subject I am photographing or move around safely. With a viewfinder, I can do everything with my normal distance vision. Things like camera phones and point-and-shoots are very ageist and discriminatory for this very reason.

John

[BJL]

Just about everybody over the age of 45 or so will have vision problems, that's the point.

John,
I am not disputing the disadvantages of "Live View" on rear-screens (all of the time for some people; some of the time for all people), and would not accept it as the only VF option an anything but a very compact "24/7 availability" camera. But plenty of us do not need to use the "arm's length" method (and I am well past 45), so I will protest whenever yet another post claims that this is as a universal limitation of using Live View.
[Edit: after all, the first "arm's length" comment in this thread, post #7, is about a "young person" who likes Live View, not us presbyopic geezers.]

Also there are tools that can sometimes enhance Live View usage: tripods and bifocals!

[Rob C]

John,
I am not disputing the disadvantages of "Live View" on rear-screens (all of the time for some people; some of the time for all people), and would not accept it as the only VF option an anything but a very compact "24/7 availability" camera. But plenty of us do not need to use the "arm's length" method (and I am well past 45), so I will protest whenever yet another post claims that this is as a universal limitation of using Live View.
[Edit: after all, the first "arm's length" comment in this thread, post #7, is about a "young person" who likes Live View, not us presbyopic geezers.]

Also there are tools that can sometimes enhance Live View usage: tripods and bifocals!

I think you forgot the main bit: a great big black cloth.

All that technical progress and yet back to square one!

Rob C