Optical viewfinder accessories are generally rather less expensive though, and don't require complex (and perhaps delicate) electrical connections to the host camera. If you're suitably familiar with your camera's external controls, they even allow you to browse menus and quickly change settings without taking the viewfinder away from your eye. They can provide essentially anything the main LCD can, allowing photographers to view the same overlays that they'd see on the LCD, including things like live histograms that are simply impossible with an optical viewfinder.
Both paths have already been trodden by Micro Four Thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic, and each has its advantages and disadvantages.Įlectronic viewfinder accessories allow not only framing of images without parallax error, but also allow review, and even preview of how zoom, white balance, exposure settings, and the like will affect the final image. The only acceptable option for providing a viewfinder eyepiece was to do so externally, and here Sony faced two choice: an optical, or an electronic viewfinder accessory. They also increase the size of the camera itself, diluting the main advantage that SLDs hold over their SLR brethren - and that would hardly fit with Sony's design ethos for the NEX-series cameras. Some competing cameras have included a built-in electronic viewfinder in place of the optical finder, and with the higher-resolution displays now available, these can serve as a fairly useful replacement. Of course, like any other single-lens direct view camera, the absence of a mirror box negates the possibility of providing a through-the-lens optical viewfinder. The other main type is the direct optical viewfinder found on rangefinders from Leica and the cameras in Fuji's intriguing line of X-series mirrorless cameras.Among the concessions made in the name of attaining the Sony's NEX-5 extraordinarily compact size was the elimination of any form of built-in viewfinder, with the LCD display serving as the sole method of framing and reviewing images. In fact, the single-lens reflex viewfinder system on SLRs is one of several optical viewfinder types. We've treated all optical viewfinders as identical, explaining their functionality as they would work on SLRs. You can see all cameras with viewfinders, mirrorless cameras with viewfinders and point-and-shoot cameras with viewfinders. The type of viewfinder is a major difference between these types of cameras, but only one of a number of factors to consider. With some exceptions, you'll only find optical viewfinders on SLRs, while viewfinders on compact and mirrorless cameras are of the EVF variety. Optical viewfinders provide much better clarity, better dynamic range (roughly, ability to resolve scenes with extreme differences in brightness) and an instantanteous view of the action lacking the delay found in some EVF systems. Since the image in an optical viewfinder relies on the actual light passing through a camera rather than a digital representation, they offer a few unique benefits. Some cameras also augment the EVF display in various ways, such as by highlighting areas in focus ('peaking' autofocus), simulating the motion blur you'll see if you take a photo and automatically boosting brightness when shooting very dark scenes. The advantage of electronic viewfinders is you get to see exactly what the camera's sensor sees and your view of a scene is never obstructed when taking a photo (your view is momentarily blocked when taking photos on DSLR cameras).
Electronic viewfinders use a tiny electronic display much like the larger LCD screen on the back of all cameras, whereas optical viewfinders use mirrors and prisms to represent the view of a scene. There are two types of viewfinders: optical (OVF) and electronic (EVF). Some cameras also include an eye-level viewfinder, which allows you to frame a photo in bright light and reduce the power drain of a larger LCD screen.
All cameras these days have an LCD (or OLED) screen on the back for framing and viewing photos.