Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: Mark F on December 12, 2010, 02:12:17 pm

Title: G12 viewfinder accuracy?
Post by: Mark F on December 12, 2010, 02:12:17 pm: I'm looking for a quality small camera for my son and was thinking about the Canon G12. I own a G9 and except for the viewfinder am quite pleased. I find the viewfinder to be so inaccurate as to be almost useless, and wonder if the G12 is better? Does anyone know if the Nikon Coolpix 7000 has an accurate viewfinder?

THanks.
Title: Re: G12 viewfinder accuracy?
Post by: Gary Brown on December 12, 2010, 02:37:54 pm: Quote from: Mark F on December 12, 2010, 02:12:17 pm
I find the viewfinder to be so inaccurate as to be almost useless, and wonder if the G12 is better? Does anyone know if the Nikon Coolpix 7000 has an accurate viewfinder?

FWIW, Thom Hogan's review comparing the P7000, G12, and LX-5 (http://www.bythom.com/compactHQ1.htm) says, “If you don't want to look at an LCD to frame shots, the Canon and Nikon both have terrible optical viewfinders. Yes, they deserve the adjective (terrible). They zoom with the lens, but they provide ~80-85% views that aren't parallax corrected. They can't be used for precision framing.”
Title: Re: G12 viewfinder accuracy?
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on December 12, 2010, 05:50:54 pm: Quote from: Gary Brown on December 12, 2010, 02:37:54 pm
FWIW, Thom Hogan's review comparing the P7000, G12, and LX-5 (http://www.bythom.com/compactHQ1.htm) says, “If you don't want to look at an LCD to frame shots, the Canon and Nikon both have terrible optical viewfinders. Yes, they deserve the adjective (terrible). They zoom with the lens, but they provide ~80-85% views that aren't parallax corrected. They can't be used for precision framing.”
That has certainly been my experience with the G10. Not a bad little camera but the viewfinder, which was a significant factor in my choosing the camera over the competition (whatever that might then have been), is pretty much worthless.

Jeremy
Title: Re: G12 viewfinder accuracy?
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 12, 2010, 06:53:24 pm: Quote from: kikashi on December 12, 2010, 05:50:54 pm
That has certainly been my experience with the G10. Not a bad little camera but the viewfinder, which was a significant factor in my choosing the camera over the competition (whatever that might then have been), is pretty much worthless.

Jeremy
I totally agree with what Jeremy said. My G10 taught me (very grudgingly) to learn to frame by the LCD on the back, which is, of course, virtually impossible if the sun is shining.

Eric
Title: Re: G12 viewfinder accuracy?
Post by: Mark F on December 13, 2010, 10:58:06 pm: Thanks to all and thanks Gary for the Hogan review - it's very helpful. It seems like both the Canon and Nikon models have useless viewfinders.