Viewfinder magnification 0.8x vs. 0.7x, why ?

[Bo-Ming Tong]

Dear all,

I think my old trusty Z-1p would stand up well against any camera from 
Nikon/Canon except the top and second top models, except for AF, and I 
would expect the finder to be larger, brighter and more clear in 
particular. Comparing it to a friend's Canon Elan 7E, my friend made the 
comment that the Elan 7E's finder looks larger. How come ? The Canon is 
spec'ed at 0.7x and the Pentax, 0.8x. So we could expect the Pentax's 
finder to be more than 10% larger. To my eyes the sizes look pretty much 
the same with no differences.

Also, comparing the Canon 28-105 and the Pentax 28-105 in the finder, 
the Canon had a wider field of view. According to a test of popular 
photography, it should be the other way around since Canon cheated much 
more on the wide end of the lens (around 30mm) than Pentax, although I 
haven't test-shot these two particular samples side by side to know for 
sure. The Canon has 92% coverage horizontally and the Pentax also 92%. I 
don't get these at all.

Why ? Quite depressed that the pinnacle of the Z series not to defeat 
the Elan which is pretty low on Canon's food chain in these areas. In 
terms of features they are pretty much equal and the Canon even have 
eye-controlled focus. Well the Pentax has illuminated LCD though...

In terms of brightness, the lenses have a 1/2 stop difference, and the 
Pentax finder looks darker, but I can't tell it is 1/2 stops darker, 
more than 1/2 stops, or less than 1/2 stops.

Bo-Ming Tong