Live preview VS Pentaprism / mirror

Which one?

The way I see it is live preview on a DSLR is an awesome feature!

Is there any cons to this feature?

Does looking through the pentaprism have an advantage?>

With so many DSLR's hitting the market with live preview it makes those models much more desireable, since I am so used to it on my point, and shoot...

Opinions?

Using the viewfinder is steadier.
Battery life may be longer with only momentary viewing.
Shooting in bright light is a lot easier through the viewfinder.
On my K10D I can get a preview shot for evaluating exposure,dof, etc if I want.
Live preview can make shooting from low or high angles a lot easier.

Manual focusing is almost impossible with the LCD. Many types of photograph, especially Macro are very dependant of critical manual focusing or touchup to the auto focus.

Secondly there is the extra Junk installed in the camera. A DSLR has a mirror in front of the sensor along with an actual shutter. The sensor does not see anything until the shutter release is triggered, the mirror flips out of the way and the shutter curtains open and then close. To have an LCD view you have to have a second sensor of some type, or some weird conflagulation of internal componets to bypass the standard well tested, tried and true construction of an SLR. If it ain't broke, don't fix it cause sure as the world the fix will break sooner than later.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/camera5.htm

I wouldn't use live view for handheld, general photography. The optical viewfinder is far superior for panning and it also adds another solid point to the camera to keep it steadier. I have a lot of trouble getting good mountain bike photos with a lot of the current compact digital cameras since they don't have an optical viewfinder. It's nearly impossible to pan accurately using only an LCD.

On the other hand, I do a lot of tabletop product photography. And I would love to have an articulated live view LCD like the Olympus E-330 has. That would mean no more bending over or squatting down to look through the viewfinder. As for focusing, all of the live view SLRs have super closeup views to actually help you focus. I wouldn't use the live view for handheld photography. But for studio work, or tripod-mounted photos, it should be great. I can also see it being excellent for macro photos in the field. And that's one of the things Olympus was marketing the E-330 for. Imagine shooting some tiny flower on the ground. Instead of lying on your belly in the dirt, you could set up the camera, flip up the live view LCD, and comfortably look down on the LCD when you shoot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

I wouldn't use the live view for handheld photography. But for studio work, or tripod-mounted photos, it should be great. I can also see it being excellent for macro photos in the field. And that's one of the things Olympus was marketing the E-330 for. Imagine shooting some tiny flower on the ground. Instead of lying on your belly in the dirt, you could set up the camera, flip up the live view LCD, and comfortably look down on the LCD when you shoot.

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One tool that helped with this problem is no longer made, as far as I can tell. This angle finder that I bought in the '80s to use on my K1000 for low angle, in the grass, shots worked pretty well. It's just a small periscope the fit into the eyecup slots of the viewfinder so you could easily use the viewfinder when the camera was on the ground or table top. Unfortunately it doesn't fit the K10D. I think I will get a spare eyecup to try making an adapter plate that would work.

The optics in it are simple and they didn't cost much at the time. The image seen through the angle finder was a little bit dimmer than using the viewfinder directly but it was still very usable and more comfortable than trying to get an eye down low.

The small part in the photo is an adapter to fit cameras with screw mounted eyecups.
The angle finder pivoted so that it could point toward the side (for taking candid photos or poking the camera around the corner of a building?) or toward the bottom (High angle shots).

Have you seen anything similar from current accessory makers at any of the shows, John?

After a little searching, it looks like Canon and Nikon do have angle finders for their cameras.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chunk

After a little searching, it looks like Canon and Nikon do have angle finders for their cameras.

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The angle finder for the EOS-3 fits the Digital Rebel (300D). It might fit the other digital Rebels as well.

Bada Bing - Bada Boom!

http://www.hoodmanusa.com/H-RAV.asp

Oh great! Something else I gotta have.