I've tried a few and the viewfinders tend to make me yearn for the
rangefinder/viewfinder on my Retina IIc, which in itself isn't on of the
best I've ever seen. Last p&s digital with an optical viewfinder I
looked at was just painful.
John Celio wrote:
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.
Eh, I don't know, the viewfinders in the small cameras aren't really
that bad. They just seem small, like the cameras they're built into.
I doubt there's a way to build larger ones. I've never had a problem
using viewfinders (even with my glasses) in current digital P&S
cameras, though I admit I'd never use one when I can use the screen
instead.
Anyway, according to market research I was able to read a year or so
ago, the majority of P&S camera owners stopped using viewfinders as
soon as they figured out what that little screen on the back of their
camera was for. It's really about convenience, as far as the consumer
is concerned, and the camera manufacturers have picked up on that.
They're probably happy to get rid of viewfinders, since removing those
small moving parts that no one uses probably increases their profit
margin and reduces their rate of defective units.
And with the way the market has been going lately, most camera makers
could really use the extra profit.
John Celio
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AIM: Neopifex
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