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D100 - viewfinder without batteries why so dark ?


david_tolcher

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I have just bought a D100 and was on the verge of sending it straight

back. I put a lens on it while the battery was charging and found the

viewfinder dark and was completely unable to focus manually. Put the

battery in and the viewfinder is bright, clear and easy to focus

manually. I assumed it was a standard viewfinder as it has a mirror

but maybe not - can someone explain why ?

 

Many thanks

 

Dave

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"Did you take the lens cap off?"

 

One reason I use a protection filter and a hood on every rangefinder lens is so that I never have to put a lens cap on these lenses. It is hard to do a lens cap screw-up with an SLR; easier with a rangefinder.

 

"Does the screen use some sort of liquid crystal display technology to achieve these features?"

 

Yes, LCDs display the on-demand architectural grid lines. The display going dim and soft without a battery in the camera is no big deal, since the camera as a whole won't function without a battery, but it is odd. Other than the N80 and the derivative D100, I'm not aware of another SLR or DSLR that does this.

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There's a transparent display called a "guest host LCD" between the D100 docusing screen and prism. The GH LCD is only about 30% transparent when not powered up. It's near 100% opaque or 100% transparent, as needed, when powered up. The GH LCD produces the 5 AF zone indicators and the D100 gridlines.

 

I believe Oly uses similar technology in the E-10, E-20, and E-1, and Canon in the 1D and 1Ds (but not the lower end cameras).

 

Ciao!

 

Joe

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