DSC-V1 View finder

I'm new to digital photography & the DSC-V1, Which I bought 2 days ago, Is my first digital camera. I've noticed a few things that don't seem right to me with this camera so I wondered if anyone with more experience could shed some light on the subject.

The main problem I've noticed so far is that the optical view finder seems to be looking towards a different point to what's on the LCD screen! This seems a bit strange as it makes the view finder next to useless for lining up shots. Is my camera faulty?

DogBoy73 said:

I'm new to digital photography & the DSC-V1, Which I bought 2 days
ago, Is my first digital camera. I've noticed a few things that
don't seem right to me with this camera so I wondered if anyone
with more experience could shed some light on the subject.

The main problem I've noticed so far is that the optical view
finder seems to be looking towards a different point to what's on
the LCD screen! This seems a bit strange as it makes the view
finder next to useless for lining up shots. Is my camera faulty?

Click to expand...

Hi,

--There is absolutely nothing wrong with your view finder. Optical viewfinders are notorious for only being able to show the photographer a pecentage or fraction of what is shown on the LCD. This is the primary draw back of these types of view finders. The viewfinder for the V1 has a field of view of approx. 80-85% (80% in wide and about 85% at tele) of the captured image. (I got this info off of http: www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/v1_pg2.html)

Since only 80-85% is actually viewable, that is why it seems that the viewfinder is "looking towards a different point". As you have noticed, the image taken will be exactly what is shown on the LCD, not the viewfinder.

This does not necessarily mean your viewfinder is "usesless"...the viewfinder can be used in very bright lighting conditions where the LCD screen isnt clear because of very bright light...or in really dark places (if you dont want to use nightframing) when the LCD is totally black...or if you want to save batteries, you can turn off the LCD and use the viewfinder. I personally use the LCD 99% of the time anyways.

On the other hand, higher-end digital cameras have EVF (electronic viewfinders) which often has a field of view of 95%+ . EVF are the ones found in camcorders...where there is an actual mini screen for you to look at. This is available in the dsc f717, 707 ( http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/f717_pg2.html )...It's hard to imagine that a EVF will ever be built onto the v1 because of its limited size.

So no worries, your V1 isnt faulty. Hope I answered your questions/concerns.

TAke care,
vince

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera with this much technology they can't even get the optical viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Hi!

The problem of misalignment is called parallax and is most severe at macro shots since the viewfinder is placed a bit off from the LCD. This is always the case with these optical viewfinders. Hence, you should use the LCD for macro shots.

Joakim

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply,

I just spoke to Sony customer support who told me that the problem shouldn't exist & certainly didn't exist on the DSC-V1 camera they were given to try.

I appreciate what you guys are saying & it certainly sounds like you know what you are talking about but I'm still on two minds about wether this is a fault with my camera or not. As it stands the problem seems bad enough for it to be un-exeptable for a product this advanced costing this much.

Cheers, Darren.

Joakim Edsjö said:

The problem of misalignment is called parallax and is most severe
at macro shots since the viewfinder is placed a bit off from the
LCD. This is always the case with these optical viewfinders. Hence,
you should use the LCD for macro shots.

Joakim

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

--

Look at the front of your camera and see the difference in the viewfinder and lens alignment. The optical finder is good for distant shots. You must use the LCD for macro

Greg Gebhardt Nikon D1 & D1x. Sony 717, V1! , Epson 2200 & PS7
Jacksonville, Florida

DogBoy73 said:

I just spoke to Sony customer support who told me that the problem
shouldn't exist & certainly didn't exist on the DSC-V1 camera they
were given to try.

I appreciate what you guys are saying & it certainly sounds like
you know what you are talking about but I'm still on two minds
about wether this is a fault with my camera or not. As it stands
the problem seems bad enough for it to be un-exeptable for a
product this advanced costing this much.

Cheers, Darren.

Joakim Edsjö said:

The problem of misalignment is called parallax and is most severe
at macro shots since the viewfinder is placed a bit off from the
LCD. This is always the case with these optical viewfinders. Hence,
you should use the LCD for macro shots.

Joakim

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--

It is impossible to use the view finder in very close shots. This is true of ALL cameras with optical viewfinders. When the subject is only an inch or two away from the optical finder the lens can not be aligned to what you are seeing in the finder. There are laws of physics involved here.

To get around this you should have purchased the 717 which uses an EVF which does allow you to do what you want.

Greg Gebhardt Nikon D1 & D1x. Sony 717, V1! , Epson 2200 & PS7
Jacksonville, Florida

I totally agree, the parallax problem is a lot bigger when the subject moves closer to the camera, because the lens is looking towards a different point than the Optical ViewFinder, only a couple of centimeters away and a couple of centimeters can make a big difference in a macro shot, but almost no difference in a landscape shot.

Greg Gebhardt said:

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

--
Look at the front of your camera and see the difference in the
viewfinder and lens alignment. The optical finder is good for
distant shots. You must use the LCD for macro

Greg Gebhardt Nikon D1 & D1x. Sony 717, V1! , Epson 2200 & PS7
Jacksonville, Florida

Click to expand...

--
--
Patrick Middag ( http://www.pbase.com/pmiddag )
F717 - HVL-F1000

Dog boy,

Your post prompted me to check my cam as well...bought my cam less than a week ago.

In extreme closeup and macro, VF image is a lot different from what is shown in the LCD. In wide angle, I assess that even less than 85% of what is shown on the LCD is on the VF. I agree to those other posts stating that this is normal but I have to admit I got a li'l concerned too that the deviation between the LCD & VF is quite high, and yes, considering this equipment to be high-tech and high-priced.

Share with us what the Sony folks there will tell you.

Thanks for bringing this up,
Han Phil

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

Greg Gebhardt said:

It is impossible to use the view finder in very close shots. This
is true of ALL cameras with optical viewfinders. When the subject
is only an inch or two away from the optical finder the lens can
not be aligned to what you are seeing in the finder. There are
laws of physics involved here.

To get around this you should have purchased the 717 which uses an
EVF which does allow you to do what you want.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replt, Greg.

I just spoke to a friend I work with who has had a lot more experience with Camera's & photography than me & told me about the technology you are talking about (EVF) which rectifies the View finder/Lens problem.

He also said the all compact camera's suffer from the view finder problem & not just digital camera's.

I guess the best thing for me to do is buy a tripod to use for macro photography - The main problem I've found with using the LCD is that it's difficult to steady the camera well enough to achive a focus lock so a tripod will sort this.

Thanks again for everyone's replies & advice.

The person I spoke to at Sony said that this was a problem with my camera as another person there had used one & tried taking a macro shot without the apparent problems I was experiencing.

However, I'm convinced now that they must have been talking about the 717 which has an EVF - After discussing it on this thread & with other people it's clear now that it would be immposible to have the same image on the LCD as what you would see at very close distances through a normal VF.

Han Phil Vahn said:

Dog boy,

Your post prompted me to check my cam as well...bought my cam less
than a week ago.

In extreme closeup and macro, VF image is a lot different from what
is shown in the LCD. In wide angle, I assess that even less than
85% of what is shown on the LCD is on the VF. I agree to those
other posts stating that this is normal but I have to admit I got a
li'l concerned too that the deviation between the LCD & VF is quite
high, and yes, considering this equipment to be high-tech and
high-priced.

Share with us what the Sony folks there will tell you.

Thanks for bringing this up,
Han Phil

Click to expand...

DogBoy73 said:

Greg Gebhardt said:

It is impossible to use the view finder in very close shots. This
is true of ALL cameras with optical viewfinders. When the subject
is only an inch or two away from the optical finder the lens can
not be aligned to what you are seeing in the finder. There are
laws of physics involved here.

To get around this you should have purchased the 717 which uses an
EVF which does allow you to do what you want.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replt, Greg.

I just spoke to a friend I work with who has had a lot more
experience with Camera's & photography than me & told me about the
technology you are talking about (EVF) which rectifies the View
finder/Lens problem.

He also said the all compact camera's suffer from the view finder
problem & not just digital camera's.

I guess the best thing for me to do is buy a tripod to use for
macro photography - The main problem I've found with using the LCD
is that it's difficult to steady the camera well enough to achive a
focus lock so a tripod will sort this.

Thanks again for everyone's replies & advice.

Click to expand...

--

You will see a GREAT improvement in your macro work with a tripod. I use tripods, when allowed, on alot of my images. It will slow you down so you can think about composing your image. My best images are taken on tripod using the self timer so there is no shake. It also give the auto focus a better shot at getting locked down before the image is taken

Greg Gebhardt Nikon D1 & D1x. Sony 717, V1! , Epson 2200 & PS7
Jacksonville, Florida

I've been posting twice about this subject without much reaction - I wonder why; see: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=5554718 .

I agree with DogBoy73 that the misalignment is large and I disagree that it's 'normal parallax' effect, supposedly seen on any such camera. My friend has Pentax 450 and does NOT have this 'misalignment' between OVF and LCD, only the field of view difference (OVF 'sees' less than LCD - but in his Pentax there's NO misalignment - at least at non-closeup shots). I did some experiments (see previous post) and have a link to my Webshots gallery with some examples of this 'misalignment' effect (this friend of mine said the gallery was not accessible to him, which might explain why I got no reactions. Let me know if you can access my test-photo's). All these pictures are NOT close-ups and should not exhibit so much 'parallax', so I wouldn't call it parallax, but indeed rather 'misalignment', happening also at shots of up to 5 meters (haven't tried landscape yet). I think in a camera in this (price)class it shouldn't happen, but I don't want to trade it in, because otherwise I like my V1 and it's extendibility. I'm just glad that I now see that I'm not the only one seeing the misalignment, so it's probably a 'design flaw' and not a problem of my particular camera. I'll have to learn to live with it and probably be buying this nice little 'Extend-a-View' LCD viewer/sun-shade accessory for $30.00, see: http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendaview/promini/index.html , which will solve a lot of issues: misalignment, bright sunlight on LCD and stability of grip while using LCD.

Let me know if you can reach my testphotos's and what you think about this. What's your opnion ? Still wonder why nobody seems to bother/notice ?

Regards,
Stein.

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

Yes, Stein...the photos won't show! I think your albums are marked as private the message said "You are not the owner!"

Stein Kurstjens said:

http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendaview/promini/index.html , which will solve a lot of issues: misalignment, bright sunlight on LCD and stability of grip while using LCD.
Let me know if you can reach my testphotos's and what you think
about this. What's your opnion ? Still wonder why nobody seems to
bother/notice ?

Regards,
Stein.

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hi again,

forget about my test-photos at Webshots (although they ARE public as far as I can tell, don't know what's wrong then): today I went back to the store (Germany) to buy the wide-angle and tele lenses and to check-out more V1's wrt my OVF misalignment problem. Indeed it turned out not to be just parallax but a fault in MY v1 (I assume a mirror in OVF was misaligned a bit). I checked two other v1's in store and they didn't seem to have the asymmetry problem I've been posting about. I returned my v1 and got a nice new one, to go along with the ad-on lenses.Will be going on holiday soon and then have plenty of time to play around with the whole set. Hope to show some nice results later. If the blue haze (white balance) issue doesn't show up too much (according to postings lately the issue seems to have disappeared - only in early shipments ?) I think I'm really gonna love this system.

Regards,
Stein

PS: swap your camera if you see a misalignment between OVF & LCD at NON-close-up shots, because it's YOUR camera then that's faulty (at close-up ofcourse you will have parallax, which is normal)

Han Phil Vahn said:

Stein Kurstjens said:

http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendaview/promini/index.html , which will solve a lot of issues: misalignment, bright sunlight on LCD and stability of grip while using LCD.
Let me know if you can reach my testphotos's and what you think
about this. What's your opnion ? Still wonder why nobody seems to
bother/notice ?

Regards,
Stein.

DogBoy73 said:

Thanks for your response,

I did read that the viewfinder only shows about 85% of the actual
area but on my camera it seems the alignment is way off. For e.g. I
used the macro function to take a picture of a flower - In the view
finder the flower filled the whole frame but when I took the
picture & looked what I had on the LCD All that was there was the
bottom left petals of the flower!

Surely this isn't right? It seems strange to me that in a camera
with this much technology they can't even get the optical
viewfinder aligned with the LCD display!

Cheers, Darren.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for that info, Stein. I've had a chance to experiment some more with my camera (First real chance since I got it to be honest) & the problem goes away with any distance between subjects.

It's a shame the EVF technology is not available for this camera - Another problem I've discovered with using the LCD dispaly to line up macro shots (Which we've established is the only way to line up macro shots with an optical VF) is that it's very difficult to see in sunny conditions. I understand there is some sort of attachment available that magnifies the LCD display & also allows you to view it better in 'bright' conditions. It looks like a fairly cumbesome & bulky add-on though & it's not an official Sony product. It's also hard to see how it would attach to the V1. Anybody tried one of these yet?

Cheers.

Stein Kurstjens said:

Hi again,
forget about my test-photos at Webshots (although they ARE public
as far as I can tell, don't know what's wrong then): today I went
back to the store (Germany) to buy the wide-angle and tele lenses
and to check-out more V1's wrt my OVF misalignment problem. Indeed
it turned out not to be just parallax but a fault in MY v1 (I
assume a mirror in OVF was misaligned a bit). I checked two other
v1's in store and they didn't seem to have the asymmetry problem
I've been posting about. I returned my v1 and got a nice new one,
to go along with the ad-on lenses.Will be going on holiday soon and
then have plenty of time to play around with the whole set. Hope to
show some nice results later. If the blue haze (white balance)
issue doesn't show up too much (according to postings lately the
issue seems to have disappeared - only in early shipments ?) I
think I'm really gonna love this system.

Regards,
Stein
PS: swap your camera if you see a misalignment between OVF & LCD at
NON-close-up shots, because it's YOUR camera then that's faulty (at
close-up ofcourse you will have parallax, which is normal)

Click to expand...