What happened to optical viewfinders?

[SonicIce]

Barely any point and shoot cams have one these days. A few years ago they all had one. Now all you have is the LCD and there is no way to turn it off so it's eating batteries all the time. And LCD's are useless in sunlight. Are there any decent cameras under $200 with one?

 

[Anubis]

cost + market didn't want them because it wanted a P+S that you literally could point at things without having to look through a viewfinder

i have no idea about one for 200$ id guess no

 

[Muse]

Barely any point and shoot cams have one these days. A few years ago they all had one. Now all you have is the LCD and there is no way to turn it off so it's eating batteries all the time. And LCD's are useless in sunlight. Are there any decent cameras under $200 with one?

See, my old Samsung Digimax V3 bought January 2004 still has some value. Viewfinder, LCD (you can shut it off readily and I do most of the time to save batteries), even a wireless remote! In point of fact it remains the only digicam I've ever owned/used. I'm trying to make a decision on an entry level DSLR within a week or two. Not easy for someone with so little experience. Honestly, I've been trying to decide for two years! I'm thinking right now either:

Pentax K-x
Sony A330

I can't say I've ruled out other cameras. I'm told the Pentax with 2 lenses including the 55-300mm ($850 at Amazon) costs $200 more than it did a year or two ago, and that has me thinking WTF, and wondering if it's really a good idea. I really need a faster camera, though. My Samsung takes at least 7 seconds between shots! The viewfinder is somewhat annoying because the shot you get is (guessing here) around 30+% bigger in coverage than what you see! You learn to compensate, but it's a guessing game.

 

[timswim78]

Get a Canon SD780. I have one and love it.
http://www.adorama.com/ICASD780BKR.html

 

[SonicIce]

I like the sx120 is it has everything...except the viewfinder is nowhere to be found :'(. i was playing with it at the store and it's great except you cant turn the damn screen off it cuts the battery life to probably 1/3. why would they cripple it like that. and those alkalines it comes with in the box, may as well throw them away youll be lucky to get 10 shots with those

 

[alkemyst]

baby boomers and the fact they can't see.

 

[oogabooga]

Most people looking at P&S probably want as compact a camera as they can get, and will never use the viewfinder. Personally, I never use my viewfinder on my SD1000. The LCD has been pretty decent even in sunlight.

 

[corkyg]

The extreme proliferation of digicam users brings a whole lot of folks who don't even know what an optical finder is. I am on my 8th digicam (3 have been DSLRs) and have never been without an optical finder. In fact, I would not even look at a camera that didn't have one.

LCDs are great in certain situations, but few are really good in bright sun. But, they can make clueless photogs produce decent stuff.

 

[996GT2]

Get a DSLR if you want a good viewfinder

 

[jpeyton]

Barely any point and shoot cams have one these days. A few years ago they all had one. Now all you have is the LCD and there is no way to turn it off so it's eating batteries all the time. And LCD's are useless in sunlight. Are there any decent cameras under $200 with one?

They were/are total crap, so it's not like you're missing much. Extremely low magnification, awful frame coverage, dim, miniscule eyepiece, non-existent eyepoint, etc. And that is on the best of the best P&S digital cameras.

People who absolutely need one are better off buying a hot-shoe-mounted viewfinder (http://www.cameraquest.com/voigtacc.htm), assuming your P&S has a hot-shoe (like a Canon G-series).

The simple economics of the P&S digicam market favors huge LCD sizes over dim, miniscule viewfinders. When the 2.5" screens were no longer big enough and manufacturers needed room for a 3" screen, the viewfinder had to go.

 

[ElFenix]

The extreme proliferation of digicam users brings a whole lot of folks who don't even know what an optical finder is. I am on my 8th digicam (3 have been DSLRs) and have never been without an optical finder. In fact, I would not even look at a camera that didn't have one.

LCDs are great in certain situations, but few are really good in bright sun. But, they can make clueless photogs produce decent stuff.

your S5 does not have an optical finder




the optical finders on every p&s i've seen recently have been garbage. much smaller than the S40's optical finder (my first digicam). and a far cry from some of the big finders film cameras had (sureshot owl anyone?)

anyway, SD1200 still has one as does A1100. not sure if the sony W series is still current but those had some tiny little finders. canon G11 may have a decent finder. but to cover that large zoom range it has to be compromised in some manner or other.

edit: even G11's finder isn't decent

Above right of this is the optical viewfinder, whose accuracy is extremely poor and image very small despite its relatively large objective.

 

[corkyg]

your S5 does not have an optical finder

I don't have an S5 - my old S3 has one, my SX10 has one, and my very old Olympus D-40Z has one. The SX10 finder is very good - especially with grid line option.

Otherwise - concur.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Bleh. Optical viewfinders on most P&S cams are unbearably small, dim and don't always represent well what you're getting in your pic. There are some good ones, but they're few, far between, and generally cost more than $200.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I never even try the optical viewfinder in a small ELPH P&S. The SD600, SD900.. whatever. I don't even bother.

Now when I shot sports with my G-series, I did try. It helped a lot. I felt like I get a lot better anticipation/response and I deal with shutter lag a lot better using a VF.

Of course as a dSLR shooter now there's no question I love the VF, but when it comes down to P&S, I have no issue using the LCD.

 

[mooncancook]

I had a Canon S5, the viewfinder was horrible, I used the LCD all the time, and I didn't have a problem with its battery life. On the other hand, my Nikon D90 dSLR has a wonderful real optical viewfinder and I use it all the time. Unless they can make a optical view finder on a P&S as good as those in the dSLR cameras, while still have enough room for a large enough LCD and manage to keep the camera as compact as today's compact P&S, otherwise I don't see any reason they need to be there. Though I think battery technology definitely need improvement.

 

[ElFenix]

I don't have an S5 - my old S3 has one, my SX10 has one, and my very old Olympus D-40Z has one. The SX10 finder is very good - especially with grid line option.

Otherwise - concur.

ok, well your S3 and SX10 do not have optical finders.

 

[angry hampster]

Get a DSLR if you want a good viewfinder

Better yet, a full frame DSLR.

 

[corkyg]

ok, well your S3 and SX10 do not have optical finders.

They certainly do.

 

[Silenus]

They certainly do.

They have viewfinders yes. I think perhaps ElFenix was trying to make the point that they are electronic viewfinders, not optical.

 

[corkyg]

They have viewfinders yes. I think perhaps ElFenix was trying to make the point that they are electronic viewfinders, not optical.

That is true. I guess we can call them electro-optical since they are viewed though a standard optical eyepiece.