Friday, March 07, 2008

Sony A300

Oops, it's Pogue day today. David writes about the Sony A300. It seems Sony is the one to make live view really usable.

I wonder how much money and bulk they could save by doing away with the viewfinder altogether?
Many photographers, especially old-time ones, won't hear of that. But I wonder how much of that is just habit? When I use a digital compact, I never use the viewfinder, I use the screen. I feel it helps me see the composition in relation with the frame, something that's easy to overlook in a viewfinder (which is why so many pictures have too much background around the main subject).
I suspect that if cameras had always had screens to use for composition, and somebody now brought out a camera where you had to press it against your face, nobody would use it. :)

4 comments:

Bert said...

Your link points to page 2 of Pogue's post... ;-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Well, it was the important page!

:)
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I've used both viewfinders and compacts with screen and I really don't like screens to compose a photo. Often, it shifts exposure while I am trying to compose, or there is glare of some kind and I can't see it clearly enough. At least with my viewfinder, I know what is in my frame without glare or shifting exposure changing in front of me and making it hard to see what is really in the screen.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Mmm, I haven't had that problem. To me it's mainly that most screens are still too small and low-rez.