I see this as a self fulfilling prophecy. Put a squinty lousy optical
finder on a camera and few people will use it. Since so few people use
it put cheaper even worse finder on the next model. After a few
iterations of this, no one is using the optical viewfinder, so obviously
no optical viewfinder is necessary.
John Celio wrote:
I've been considering the Optio S5z for a while now, but I am not quite
sure how usefull the LCD monitor is outdoors in sunny weather. Any
comments
out there?
It's not bad. LCDs have been improving incrementally over the years,
but I'm not sure how much better they can get as far as viewability in
bright sunlight conditions. I tried the S5z once outside the shop I
work at, and could see the screen well enough to compose the photo.
What you should do is find a shop that has it and will let you take it
outside (we let customers do this, as long as a salesperson goes with
them) so you can see for yourself.
The reason Pentax and other companies are eliminating optical
viewfinders on their point-and-shoot cameras is because market
research shows the vast majority of P&S users rarely (if ever) use
them. Even outdoors. So by removing something no one uses, they're
able to both streamline their cameras and, more importantly, lower
their production costs.
In my opinion, optical viewfinders on digital point-and-shoot cameras
will disappear almost completely within five years.
John Celio
...is not a market analyst, but did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last
night...
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AIM: Neopifex
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