Viewing LCD in bright light

Previous threads and postings have bemoaned the problems of viewing an
LCD in bright light which is particularly a problem when there is no
viewfinder on the camera. Our current camera lacks a viewfinder. Does
anyone know of any work-arounds? I have tried putting a dark cloth
over my head and the camera. It looks like oldtime photography and
gets strange stares but it works but it is a nuisance. For instance,
does anyone market a viewfinder which could be attached to the top of
the camera?

Arozz wrote:
Previous threads and postings have bemoaned the problems of viewing an
LCD in bright light which is particularly a problem when there is no
viewfinder on the camera. Our current camera lacks a viewfinder. Does
anyone know of any work-arounds? I have tried putting a dark cloth
over my head and the camera. It looks like oldtime photography and
gets strange stares but it works but it is a nuisance. For instance,
does anyone market a viewfinder which could be attached to the top of
the camera?

No, but there are some detachable 'hoods' that shade the display enough
to make it usable.

It is too late for you now, but never buy a camera without an optical
viewfinder, which is becoming more and more difficult these days. It is mere
expensive to produce camera with mechanically driven optical viewfinder than
without it.

Jan

"Arozz" wrote in message
...
Previous threads and postings have bemoaned the problems of viewing an
LCD in bright light which is particularly a problem when there is no
viewfinder on the camera. Our current camera lacks a viewfinder. Does
anyone know of any work-arounds? I have tried putting a dark cloth
over my head and the camera. It looks like oldtime photography and
gets strange stares but it works but it is a nuisance. For instance,
does anyone market a viewfinder which could be attached to the top of
the camera?

Jan Nademlejnsky wrote:
It is too late for you now, but never buy a camera without an optical
viewfinder, which is becoming more and more difficult these days. It
is mere expensive to produce camera with mechanically driven optical
viewfinder than without it.

Jan

An optical finder is impractical for cameras which have a wide zoom range
(e.g. the 10:1 and higher we see today), and is not accurate for macro
work. No wonder EVF and LCD have taken over. For me, having an optical
finder would excessively restrict my choice of compact camera.

Cheers,
David

David J Taylor wrote:
Jan Nademlejnsky wrote:
It is too late for you now, but never buy a camera without an optical
viewfinder, which is becoming more and more difficult these days. It
is mere expensive to produce camera with mechanically driven optical
viewfinder than without it.

Jan

An optical finder is impractical for cameras which have a wide zoom range
(e.g. the 10:1 and higher we see today), and is not accurate for macro
work. No wonder EVF and LCD have taken over. For me, having an optical
finder would excessively restrict my choice of compact camera.

Cheers,
David


It does, indeed, but some of us just won't buy a camera without one....
My wife, on the other hand, refused to use the optical viewfinder.
Takes all types. BTW, guess who gets blurry pictures...

Ron Hunter wrote:
[]
It does, indeed, but some of us just won't buy a camera without
one.... My wife, on the other hand, refused to use the optical
viewfinder. Takes all types. BTW, guess who gets blurry pictures...

You do!

G

I'm used to TTL viewfinders now, and prefer even a lower resolution EVF to
an optical finder (which I find have too small an image). Yes, a 230K or
even 900K pixel EVF is better, and the view through a decent DSLR is great
(although I've found some DSLRs rather dark).

David

Ron Hunter wrote:
[]
It does, indeed, but some of us just won't buy a camera without
one.... My wife, on the other hand, refused to use the optical
viewfinder. Takes all types. BTW, guess who gets blurry pictures...

I should also have added - my wife has just been away for a week's trip,
and took my / our / now her? Panasonic TZ3, with just the LCD finder.
She's normally used to an EVF (Panasonic FZ20) but spoke very highly of
the TZ3 during the week. It will be interesting to see what the images
are like when viewed on our normal 1600 x 1200 displays, and to hear how
the LCD alone compared to the EVF/LCD combination of the FZ20 in
operation. The TZ3 does have some features to enhance visibility in
bright light, but in Central Sweden at this time of year the sun isn't
that bright, but it /is/ quite low on the horizon which could cause other
problems! From what she said, we may have to get a second TZ3 to have one
each!

Cheers,
David

In article 4cfe629c-3f4e-4e15-94c1-
, Arozz says...
Previous threads and postings have bemoaned the problems of viewing an
LCD in bright light which is particularly a problem when there is no
viewfinder on the camera. Our current camera lacks a viewfinder. Does
anyone know of any work-arounds? I have tried putting a dark cloth
over my head and the camera. It looks like oldtime photography and
gets strange stares but it works but it is a nuisance. For instance,
does anyone market a viewfinder which could be attached to the top of
the camera?

You'll find out that in practice that LCD viewfinder is usable in bright
daylight. Colours might not be well visible if the sun directly shines
on the viewfinder, but you should be able to correctly frame.
--

Alfred Molon
------------------------------
Olympus 50X0, 8080, E3X0, E4X0, E5X0 and E3 forum at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MyOlympus/
http://myolympus.org/ photo sharing site

On Dec 21, 8:55*pm, Ron Hunter wrote:
Arozz wrote:

No, but there are some detachable 'hoods' that shade the display enough
to make it usable.

Thanks for the suggestion - I will pursue this. BTW I find that even
with the brighter setting on the TZ1 it is very difficult to frame a
picture on the beach on a sunny day. Perhaps I would be better to
restrict my picture taking to central Sweden at this time of year
(just kidding).

"Arozz" wrote in message
...
Previous threads and postings have bemoaned the problems of viewing an
LCD in bright light which is particularly a problem when there is no
viewfinder on the camera. Our current camera lacks a viewfinder. Does
anyone know of any work-arounds? I have tried putting a dark cloth
over my head and the camera. It looks like oldtime photography and
gets strange stares but it works but it is a nuisance. For instance,
does anyone market a viewfinder which could be attached to the top of
the camera?


See if you can find one of those pyramid shape slide viewers that are used
by holding up to the light. Placed over the LCD of any digital camera, held
on by an elastic band, you'll get perfect vision in bright light.