See below:
Cotty wrote:
Well, thinking about some of the recent posts regarding digital capture and (separately) 'street' shooting (I know, I know - it's a misnomer but heck for the sake of argument, let's call it that for now), here are some more, and also a question
I was working in London yesterday and decided to take with me my wife's digital camera - a Powershot G2. I hadn't really played with it before. It's 4 MP delivering 2272 X 1704 which is certainly respectable for a pointy-shooty type of camera.
Now I am a great loather of LCDs on the backs of cameras for viewing during the shooting stage. I have no problem with reviewing shots on them, but for taking, it's got to be optical with me all the way - or so I thought.
One very nice feature of this camera is that the LCD can flip out and orientate in all manner of positions....
(movie file size 256kb)
<http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong2/Images/lcdanim.mov>
This brings up some interesting possibilities, and so during a long lull, I sat outside of the High Court in London and used the camera on unsuspecting passers-by. The really nice thing is that the camera can be almost totally concealed in the hands, with just the lens pointing out, and because one looks down onto the display for framing, it gives the impression that one is simply fiddling with something electronic, possibly even looking at previously taken pics.
This tactic worked really well - as long as the camera was held low, waist level, and I was looking down. The moment I returned the LCD to it's resting position on the back of the camera, and then held the camera up and used the screen, or put my eye to the viewfinder, I became conspicuous.
I discovered that I enjoyed using the waist level viewing method and would like to do some more. The only thing is, this camera is relatively big to carry around all the time in my pocket. I know the Pentax Optios are a really nice size - so eventually here is my question, and it's actually on topic:
Do any of the Optios, or any other Pentax digital camera for that matter have this type of swing-out, orientateable LCD finder?
Not of which I am aware, and tho' I hate to cross-recommend, my Olympus C-5050 will do that.
Flip out the LCD, and it tilts top downward for viewing over crowd's heads, or the other way, lying flat, for the old TLR viewing position...just like you said. <g>
keith whaley
