That comes very unexpected!
According to informations we received the Sony NEX cameras will be sold with an optional optical viewfinder. We have no details yet, but we are certain the viewfinder is not electronic!!!
The Panasonic GF1 and the Olympus E-PL1/E-P2 do have electronic viewfinder
16 Responses
Some of these rumors are a little weird…like why would they supply a 25mm equivalent prime, and only an optical viewfinder? Seems weird.
odd move from Sony the electronics company… Guess they are hoping to transition some people from the SLRs.
That would be pretty bloody stupid. Optical viewfinders are useless with zoom lenses. What are Sony trying to do, build a flawed digital rangefinder-like camera? An EVF would make much more sense, but I guess they are saving that for the NEX7.
@Funkmon
it’s a rumor, that’s why it’s wired^^
And why “only an optical”?
Many people dislike the electronic ones even when never used one.
Remember the old film P&S cameras, they had an optical rangefinder – it worked.
And you can still use the screen like shown in every NEX promo video…
I will rate this as SR1. Obviously either Sony or your source is toying with you Andrea 😀
Hi Abai! I am never 100% sure. But in that case I am fairly convinced that the rumor is correct. Wanna bet with me? 🙂
I would be 100% okay with an optical viewfinder, this is exciting news! Two advantages being that such external optical viewfinders are usually luxuriously large, plus they encourage someone to stick to their prime lenses.
The best is to have the option… optical or electronic viewfinder. Personally I feel very comfortable with opticals viewfinders and primes. I like the feeling of a traditional (analogical or digital) photographic tool, not a video tool.
Let’s assume that this is correct. Then a good decision was made by Sony.
A good quality optical viewfinder is great, ever tried out a Leica viewfinder?
Maybe Sony has modernized such a viewfinder in the direction that it displays electronic framelines. These could be changed according to the focal length with a small wheel, display the focal length while the wheel is used or be set automatically from the camera. The necessary kind of electronic connection is possible if the phrase ‘non electronic’ just underlines that it’s not an electronic viewfinder.
All the later information build the picture of a camera that is focused to be small. That’s ok.
Opticals and primes. Sounds good to me. Actually, it sounds great!
If it is true great news…..
Optical Viewfinder is soooooooooooo much better
I can live with the framing error caused by range-finder like viewfinder
range-finder like viewfinder is 100000times better than the best elec-viewfinder
ahhh, this is gonna be a deal breaker for me…
I also like optical vf, except for a 18-200mm it would cost more than the camera to build one. I almost never use back lcd for framing because that is no way to take a photo. so optical or electronic, just let it have a viewfinder.
one nice thing they could do is adapting an optical system to the back lcd. they already did that on video cameras and zacuto is making big money out of this.
Leicaleicaleicaleica
Finding exact focus is hard, especially with a moving object on a small lcd screen. And as ktt says the zacuto viewfinder is great. It is a housing built around an existing schneider optical loupe. I saved money by buying the loupe separately and it is very useful for video or manual focussing when not using an autofocus lens. A similar, cheaper, and smaller, design for the rear of micro 4/3 or aps-c sized compacts would be awesome!