Don't know why this makes me bristle

[n8]

I've personally never put much attention towards these newer 4/3 and mirrorless cameras, but even with couple minutes of scanning over the nex-7, I'm sure wouldn't mind having one. Thinking of those as replacing dslr's is a bit of a leap for me though. I have a hard time with camera's that are touted as pocketable, but still have several inches of lens sticking out, which means I might as well have a dslr out. I can see the benefits of them being less intimidating and good for travel, and who knows...maybe the future wife will let me get one before we go to Greece to seal the deal. However, I'm the type that likes the feel of the heft of a big solid camera, and I doubt I'm the only one. I hope to see the new technology make it into similar bodies, even though it may not require that form.

[Franglais]

It doesn't bother me if an electronic viewfinder replaces the optical viewfinder in a "expert-pro-DSLR" type camera - as long as the result is better. There's an obvious advantage for video but even for stills the electronic viewfinder could add useful information.

Having said that - none of the current electronic viewfinders that I've seen come close to an optical viewfinder. This isn't going to happen soon.

I think the article is overdoing the "cameras get smaller" idea. The lens is the biggest thing and that's going to stay the same size. I just compared my D200+18-200 with a NEX-5+viewfinder+18-200. The NEX package is smaller but not by much. And that external viewfinder looks awfully exposed - the D200 is a solid (i.e. heavy) brick by comparison.