03-27-2008, 09:00 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,350
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That's an interesting comment on the viewfinders. I tend to like to put a camera to my eye (and not my eye to a camera) when framing a picture. And I don't really enjoy Electronic ViewFinders (EVF) like the one I can attach to my GX100, since I prefer a good Optical ViewFinder (OVF) as found in a DSLR. It's an area where they say the FourThirds system is limited, by the relation between sensor size (which is small in FourThirds) and viewfinder.
With DSLRs I started with an Olympus E-1. The E-1 viewfinder is pretty good in my opinion. It's bright enough, and gives 100% coverage, which is an asset if you like to crop in the field, which is almost a necessity when you only have 5 megepixels at your disposal. The viewfinder is small though, and a bit tunnel like, but in practice I never found it an issue. And that's coming straight from an old school SLR, with a gorgeous view of the world through the viewfinder.
I did manage to take a look through the E-330 viewfinder, and that one is dimmer (and I believe even smaller) than the E-1 (caused by the light path needed to create liveview A). I think that might be an issue, but people I know who use that camera (or it's stepbrother Panasonic L1) say they don't mind. The last consumer releases, the E410 and E510, have better viewfinders than other consumer cameras before, or so I hear, but I have no personal experience with them.
My latest addition, the E-3, has a (for the FourThirds system) great viewfinder, large and bright. Olympus enlarges the view, to overcome the negative effect on the viewfinder of their small sensor. I sense the difference in viewfinders immediately after changing from the E-3 to the E-1, but after a moment of using the E-1 I no longer realize the viewfinder is smaller, since I just use it. The enlarged view does have a negative side effect: the prism housing on the E-3 is pretty large, which contributes to the things that make it feel like a much larger camera than the E-1 before (even when that difference is not that great).
So I can not imagine that they'd use the E-3 viewfinder design in a camera that is created to be as small as possible with current technology. I haven't been able to take a look through the E-420 viewfinder, but I'd be surprised if that would be any better than the one in the E-410. I can imagine that someone who is used to the viewfinders of cameras based on larger sensors (especially full frame cameras), the FourThirds viewfinders might look difficult to use. I think that in real life, people will do fine with such viewfinders. And it beats having to look through an EVF, or even worse, having to frame while holding the camera with extended arms in front of you. 
But even than: such a camera has its advantage as well. There still is an enormous size gap between the smallest DSLR (E420 with pancake lens) and a true pocket camera, even when it has a large sensor (the DP1). See a thread on DPReview which contains an enlightening picture. The DP1 looks pocketable, no matter what you wear. The E420 will require cargo pants or jacket pockets.
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Last edited by marlof; 03-27-2008 at 09:04 AM..
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