X100v OVF

Jay A wrote:

Truman Prevatt wrote:

Jay A wrote:

When I first purchased an X100 camera years ago, I felt that the fact that it had an OVF along with an EVF was wonderful. Until recently, I never cared for EVFs as I felt they were very difficult to view through and see all the details in the scene. Nowadays though, they have become pretty good and it has led me to question the usefulness of the OVF in the latest X100 cameras.

A couple of things about the OVF really bother me.

First, while I understand that some like the idea of seeing outside the actual frame, I do think that the frame at least on the OVF in the X100v is too small. The image should be magnified a bit with less outside frame real estate.

Second, a very irritating fact about focusing with the OVF is the fact that if you use the corrected frame option (and you should so that you are positioning the camera correctly in order to compensate for parallax error), you cannot even see a correctly placed corrected frame until you first press down the shutter release to focus. The frame will THEN be positioned correctly. So, unless you already knew where the camera would correctly focus, you must focus a second time where that corrected frame now falls.

Parallax error is a function of distance. Hence it cannot be calculated until the camera knows the distance which is why you have to focus first. However, for a fixed focal length lens - it is pretty simple to estimate it just by eyeball.

Third, the focus frames in the OVF are just too big. When using the OVF, the camera does not always focus correctly. When using the EVF, the focus point frame size can be changed and become more able to pinpoint correctly.

I do understand that one of the biggest draws to these cameras is the ability to switch between EVF and OVF. But I think that at this point with improved EVFs, the OVF has outlived its value. It seems to be more of a gimmick than anything. An effort to make these cameras seem like Leicas.

Comments?

I suppose you may be able to estimate where the corrected focus frame will appear, but with the EVF you don't have to. The current EVF is pretty good. You can see highlights much better than you could with the EVF in the original X100. I am just saying that I am not sure the current OVF makes much sense anymore unless you want to see outside the frame lines.

Hmmm. I use the OVF 99% if the time on the Pro3,  In manual focus I use the ERV to focus.  Even with parallax the ERV will give you the exact focal point.  I detest EVF's of any kind and will not use one unless I have to.  If Fuji didn't have the XPro line I would not have a Fuji, I would have bitten the bullet for an M10.  I not only want to see outside the frame I also don't ever want to see my viewfinder blacked out.  On the H1 - I have no choice but I absolutely detest using an EVF.  For that reason I probably don't use my H1 as much as I should.

The XH1 has a nice EVF same for the XT3 and I suspect the XT4 uses the same one.  The Pro3 uses the same EVF and its fine for an EVF but it is still an EVF at the end of the day and I just don't like to use an EVF.  The saving grace on the Pro3 is the ERV insert in the hybrid viewfinder if I need it.  However, about the only time I need it is when I am in manual focus.

Many who started photography in the 60 and 70 started with a TLR - Twin Lens Reflex where the lenses were stack and you focused using the top lens which was directed up by a 45 degree mirror.  The image frame was below (lightly the focused frame. If you were focusing near infinity - the frames were the same. In fact parallax is how the human brain uses to gain depth perception and estimate the distance to an object because there is a parallax offset between the scene seen though the two eyes. Parallax is what is used in astrometry to measure the distance of starts.

In the case of the TLR the focal point will appear below the point in the image as in the viewfinder.  In the case of a Leica rangefinder with the range finder slight above and to the left of the lens, the focal point seen in the viewfinder will be below and to the left.  The offset in the two frames is is inversely proportional to the distance to the subject, call this d.  As d becomes large, the parallax is insignificant.  Macro photography with a rangefinder can be an issue.  But for normal distances the parallax offset is small.  There should be sites online that give the equations if you want to see them.

The Pro2 and Pro3 in default before focus give you the focal box at infinity and at the closest the lens can focus (assuming a Fuji lens).  Only when you focus close do you get even close the the box below and the the right of the infinity box.