On 2006-06-27 15:43, John Francis wrote: >> Thanks for the clarification. I now understand better what magnification >> means. I did not expect that what you see in the viewfinder of a DSLR is >> that much smaller than the image of a full frame. > > Note that I'm comparing an MX (an early, minimal-automation camera) > with the *ist-D. The later Pentax bodies, with more information to > be shown in the viewfinder, dedicate less of the total area to the > image - they have to leave room for electronic readouts for aperture, > shutter speed, focus point selection, focus confirmation, over/under > exposure, etc. The MX had minimal additional information; the shutter > speed was superimposed on the image area, and the aperture was visible > through a small window that let you see the aperture ring on the lens. > The only extra information was the five coloured LEDs for exposure > (an electronic form of the old match needle metering). > > By the time you get to the auto focus bodies, though, the magnification > has been cut back to somewhere between 0.7x and 0.8x. For bodies such > as the MZ-6 (aka the ZX-L) or MZ-7 (ZX-7) the total image area, at 90% > coverage and 0.7x magnification, is only a little larger than the *ist-D > (95% coverage and 95% magnification of a rectangle only 67% of full frame).
That's an interesting info. Yes, the MX seems to be very special, where MX-6/7 are special on the other edge of the scale. The *istDL / K100D is within a different range than the *istD / *istDS. >From http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/viewfinder.html I learn that a magnification of 1.00 would be perfect when you have your standard lense (50 mm full frame) and crosscheck with the open other eye. I guess this technique is hardly used with current cameras? The page named above lists the magnification for different cameras. I found those results after I checked Boris' (always excellent) overview, since it lacked a viewfinder magnification for the LX (side note below). Robert Monaghan's numbers differ slightly from the spec numbers: Both PZ-1 and ZX-5 are speced at 0.8, while Robert names 0.86 and 0.78. Here's the full Pentax list from Boris: model VF vis mount MZ-6 / ZX-L 0.7 92% KAF MZ-7 / ZX-7 0.7 92% KAF MZ-30 / ZX-30 0.7 92% "crippled" KAF *ist 0.7 90% "crippled" KAF MZ-S 0.75 92% KAF2 MZ-D 0.75 92% KAF2 MZ-10 / ZX-10 0.77 92% KAF2 MZ-50 / ZX-50 0.77 92% "crippled" KAF MZ-60 / ZX-60 0.77 90% "crippled" KAF MZ-M / ZX-M 0.77 92% KA2 Z-10 / PZ-10 0.77 92% KAF2 Z-50p 0.77 92% KAF2 Z-70 / PZ-70 0.77 92% KAF2 MZ-3 0.8 92% KAF2 MZ-5n / ZX-5n 0.8 92% KAF2 MZ-5 / ZX-5 0.8 92% KAF2 Z-1p / PZ-1p 0.8 92% KAF2 Z-1 / PZ-1 0.8 92% KAF2 Z-5p 0.8 92% KAF2 Z-5 0.8 92% KAF2 Z-20 / PZ-20 0.8 92% KAF2 SFXn/SF1n 0.81 92% KAF SFX/SF1 0.81 92% KAF superA 0.82 92% KA programA 0.82 92% KA A3/A3000 0.82 92% KA P5/P50 0.82 92% KA P3n/P30n 0.82 92% KA P3/P30 0.82 92% KA SF7/SF10 0.82 92% KAF MV1 0.85 92% K MV 0.85 92% K *ist DL 0.85 95% "crippled" KAF2 KM(motor) 0.87 93% K KM 0.87 93% K MG 0.87 92% K K2 DMD 0.88 95% K K2 0.88 95% K KX(motor) 0.88 93% K KX 0.88 93% K K1000SE 0.88 ? % K K1000 0.88 ? % K LX(early) 0.9 98% K LX(late) 0.9 98% K ME F 0.95 92% KF ME Super 0.95 92% K ME 0.95 92% K *ist D 0.95 95% "crippled" KAF2 *ist DS2 0.95 95% "crippled" KAF2 *ist DS 0.95 95% "crippled" KAF2 MX 0.97 95% K Comments on LX: there are eight exchangable viewfinders, but I did not see specs for them. Some sources name 0.9, others 0.86. Visible area is speced at 98%. Other sources confirm 98% vertically, but 95% horizontally. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
