How important is your viewfinder?

[celluloidprop]

Pretty important - but I played with a D5100 in Costco yesterday and I was surprised that even with the slow telephoto zoom they had mounted, it wasn't bad. Small but usable.

 

[zauhar]

I have the GXR with M mount module and a Sony NEX-5n with the hawk's adapter, both cameras with their viewfinders. While the Sony EVF is nice, it has a higher pixel count, I don't mind the EVF on the GXR at all.

Both offer 100% coverage, which my lowly Canon's never do. And both also tilt for viewing at angles through 90° which makes shooting from a lower position done more easily.

And I really prefer the camera body in every way to the Sony. The GXR has more buttons, but they are laid out intelligently and you can assign a lot of functions to them. I've customized the buttons to allow me to change metering pattern, ISO, exposure compensation and start MF assist - all without having to go to a menu setting! And with a dial, I've input 3 lenses to provide for EXIF info for them as well as change the defaults - I mirrored my settings across all lenses, but you could have different metering pattern, exposure, image type etc with the turning of a dial.

Perhaps the most surprising is that I use the live view screens half the time, which I've never done with digital cameras before. These 3" ground glass-like viewports make excellent finders too! And the sony, with it's tiltable screen is nice!

Is any EVF as clear as an optical? well of course not. But with the advantages of focus assist and two different sizes (EVF and live view screen) I can't say that they are worse than on optical VF and for how I use them, often better.

Thanks very much for that!

I have not been able to find one to play with yet, I may actually shell out a little to rent one for a week.

Randy

 

[thirtyfivefifty]

I would consider buying into a system because of the glass, but may opt out due to the viewfinders on the camera bodies, with every other considering factors aside. Simple as that. As an eyeglass wearer, the eye-point/eye-relief is particularly important, so I never try a viewfinder without my glasses, or try to compromise by wearing contacts. I mean, what's the point? Accuracy has grown to not be as an important factor over the years since frame-lines on a rangefinder are mere references, and any 35mm SLR with 97% coverage or better is fine by me. Side note: Anyone shoot slide and have them mounted? I am partial to a big, simple, and bright optical viewfinder, regardless of focusing mechanism. Viewfinders on larger formats are a real treat!--a real mesmerizing experience, though disorientating at times.