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Q: optical viewfinder and focusing

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Fantomas

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there is something that its not clear to me yet.
can you see in the optical viewfinder if the image is well focused or not?

I mean, lets suppose that your focus is wrong... will you see the image blurry in the optical viewfinder?

any reply is welcome

F.
 
Fantomas and All,

I don't think you can tell, but i really don't know and will watch this thread for some authoritative answer. But I would like to add a related question to yours..... how does an optical viewfinder simulate the zoom feature? I have a Kodak DC280Z with an optical viewfinder and when i zoom in and out with the 3x optical zoom, the scene moves in and out too. So how does it do that?

Good question Fantomas!

Cheers,

jim
 
Fantomas,

The optical viewfinder will zoom in and out, but does not change with the focusing of camera. You must either rely on the green focus lock light, or view the lcd to confirm that the shot is in focus.

--
Randy C.
C-2100, C-5050, TCON-17
San Antonio, TX
 
Randy Collins said:
Fantomas,

The optical viewfinder will zoom in and out, but does not change
with the focusing of camera. You must either rely on the green
focus lock light, or view the lcd to confirm that the shot is in
focus.

--
Randy C.
C-2100, C-5050, TCON-17
San Antonio, TX
Click to expand...
oh, thats a pity.

yes, I guess I made this same question some months ago in the Powershot-A forum, and the answer was the same at that time.
I just wanted to make sure.

but... people often complain about EVFs, saying that it is very difficult in low light conditions to tell if the image is well focused. Then, I thought, that they were implicitly saying that optical viewfinders were better for this purpose... is this wrong?

thanks for your reply
 
Sandman said:
Fantomas and All,

I don't think you can tell, but i really don't know and will watch
this thread for some authoritative answer. But I would like to add
a related question to yours..... how does an optical viewfinder
simulate the zoom feature? I have a Kodak DC280Z with an optical
viewfinder and when i zoom in and out with the 3x optical zoom, the
scene moves in and out too. So how does it do that?

Good question Fantomas!

Cheers,

jim
Click to expand...
Well, it seems, according to Randy's reply, that its not possible to tell the focus in the OVF. That is too bad. :(

I don't know how the zoom is simulated.

maybe there is a simplified zoom mechanism in the viewfinder lenses, that mimics the zoom in the main lenses?
 
well, after a google search:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=es&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=how+viewfinder+zooms&lr=

reading some of the excerpts, it seems that the viewfinder zooms in and out along with the lens. That is, the viewfinder has a small zoom mechanism implemented.
Fantomas said:
Sandman said:
Fantomas and All,

I don't think you can tell, but i really don't know and will watch
this thread for some authoritative answer. But I would like to add
a related question to yours..... how does an optical viewfinder
simulate the zoom feature? I have a Kodak DC280Z with an optical
viewfinder and when i zoom in and out with the 3x optical zoom, the
scene moves in and out too. So how does it do that?

Good question Fantomas!

Cheers,

jim
Click to expand...
Well, it seems, according to Randy's reply, that its not possible
to tell the focus in the OVF. That is too bad. :(

I don't know how the zoom is simulated.
maybe there is a simplified zoom mechanism in the viewfinder
lenses, that mimics the zoom in the main lenses?
Click to expand...
 
Fantomas,

But this is not the case with a TTL viewfinder, like on the E-xx. Since this viewfinder is TTL, what you see thru the viewfinder is what you get: zoom and focus. The only thing a TTL viewfinder does not show is the effect of exposure settings on the final shot.

I actually have one camera from each category:
Kodak DC280: rangefinder
Olympus 2100UZ: EVF
Olympus E-10: TTL Viewfinder

I gotta tell you there are things about the EVF that i really like: mostly that you see the effect of exposure on your overall image. But the bright and sharp view through the E-10 is hard to beat!

Cheers,

jim
 
thanks jim.

upon your post, I have made a search, and found this beautiful link that explains everything:

http://www.megapixel.net/cgi-bin/fs_loader.pl?p=http%3A//www.megapixel.net/html/articles/article-viewfinders.html

Quote:
Sandman said:
Optical VF:

Whether the camera's lens is a zoom or not, the (optical) viewfinder is > separate from the lens and mimics the view and focal length of the lens.
Click to expand...
so it seems that the OVF can indeed zoom in and out, just like the main lenses.
But they can't mimic the focus, so they are useless to tell the focusing :(

Then, to tell the focus, a EVF is better.

The EVF in the C-750 has 180.000 pixels, more than it is usual in LCDs.
For example, the C4000 and C5050's LCD screen has only 110,000 pixels.

Then, it seems that it is easier to tell the focus in a 750 than in a C4000 or C5050 (even if the AF works better in these two).

The TTL VFs are the best, indeed!
You can see exactly the image that it is being fed to the CCD!!
at optical resolution!! (infinite, so to speak).
It must be wonderful, eh Sandman?

Oh, I see, the E-10 is one of those SLRs... not bad.
slightly above 1000 euros. well, thats not a mad price...
but still unreachable for me. :)

regards

F.
Sandman said:
Fantomas,

But this is not the case with a TTL viewfinder, like on the E-xx.
Since this viewfinder is TTL, what you see thru the viewfinder is
what you get: zoom and focus. The only thing a TTL viewfinder does
not show is the effect of exposure settings on the final shot.

I actually have one camera from each category:
Kodak DC280: rangefinder
Olympus 2100UZ: EVF
Olympus E-10: TTL Viewfinder

I gotta tell you there are things about the EVF that i really like:
mostly that you see the effect of exposure on your overall image.
But the bright and sharp view through the E-10 is hard to beat!

Cheers,

jim
Click to expand...
 
Fantomas said:
so it seems that the OVF can indeed zoom in and out, just like the
main lenses.
But they can't mimic the focus, so they are useless to tell the
focusing :(
Click to expand...
Correct. My circa 1999 D-400z behaves this way. The optical viewfinder zooms along with the 3x lens to give you a good idea of your framing, but you have no focus cue, other than a solid green LED that says focus is locked. Locked on WHAT, is sometimes a problem.
 
Inigo Montoya said:
Fantomas said:
so it seems that the OVF can indeed zoom in and out, just like the
main lenses.
But they can't mimic the focus, so they are useless to tell the
focusing :(
Click to expand...
Correct. My circa 1999 D-400z behaves this way. The optical
viewfinder zooms along with the 3x lens to give you a good idea of
your framing, but you have no focus cue, other than a solid green
LED that says focus is locked. Locked on WHAT, is sometimes a
problem.
Click to expand...
 
Sandman said:
Fantomas and All,

I don't think you can tell, but i really don't know and will watch
this thread for some authoritative answer. But I would like to add
a related question to yours..... how does an optical viewfinder
simulate the zoom feature? I have a Kodak DC280Z with an optical
viewfinder and when i zoom in and out with the 3x optical zoom, the
scene moves in and out too. So how does it do that?

Good question Fantomas!

Cheers,
Click to expand...
An optical viewfinder normally has no facility to judge focus.

There are exceptiond.

Ground glass screens are found in 35mm Single Lens Reflex cameras. These used to have half circular inserts. Verticals were viewed through these two half circles. If the vertical in the top half circle did not join the vertical in the bottom half circle, the camera was not focused.

One camera I owned showed the subject twice, slightly offset if the camera was not in focus.

For zooming in a view finder and movable lens is needed, which needs to have a mechanical or electronic linkage to the main zoom.

Henry

--
H. Falkner
 
then this is yet another VF type, isn't it?

-optical
-optical with half circular inserts
-optical TTL
-EVF
Henry Falkner said:
Sandman said:
Fantomas and All,

I don't think you can tell, but i really don't know and will watch
this thread for some authoritative answer. But I would like to add
a related question to yours..... how does an optical viewfinder
simulate the zoom feature? I have a Kodak DC280Z with an optical
viewfinder and when i zoom in and out with the 3x optical zoom, the
scene moves in and out too. So how does it do that?

Good question Fantomas!

Cheers,
Click to expand...
An optical viewfinder normally has no facility to judge focus.

There are exceptiond.

Ground glass screens are found in 35mm Single Lens Reflex cameras.
These used to have half circular inserts. Verticals were viewed
through these two half circles. If the vertical in the top half
circle did not join the vertical in the bottom half circle, the
camera was not focused.

One camera I owned showed the subject twice, slightly offset if the
camera was not in focus.

For zooming in a view finder and movable lens is needed, which
needs to have a mechanical or electronic linkage to the main zoom.

Henry

--
H. Falkner
Click to expand...
 
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