Olympus viewfinder is tiny!

This is not a question, but an observation. I went to CC last weekend and

checked out the dSLRs they had on display. The viewfinders on Rebel XT, Nikon

D70s, and Pentax (don't remember the model) were very similar (maybe there are

differences, but I could not tell). However, the viewfinder of the Olympus

E500 was TINY!

 

The reason I am posting this is so the people who want to order an Olympus

E500 online without looking through the viewfinder first might be very

dissapointed.

Look through an old Olympus OM viewfinder to see the big view!

Yep, no doubt about it. But I think if you went back and looked closely, you'd find the Pentax viewfinder to be the best of the bunch. If that's important to you, go give the Pentax another look.

 

Of course, on this issue, "best" only means "not sucking nearly so bad as the others".

You are pointing out the 'cheap' aspect of many (if not most) DSLRs.

The makers figure they can get away with it since there is a screen to look at.

 

But it remains important for a few people like me. In fact, it will be the first thing i will look after when i jump in.

 

If i am not mistaken, the only model at reasonnable price is the Pentax istDS 2 (not the DL). I want a nice optical viewfinder or i won't buy.

The ME-1 magnifier eyecup for the E-500 make a giant difference, and it's like $35.00 or so from amazon. I love the camera.

Can you say, "Tunnel Vision"?

Yes...tunnel vision.

It has to do with the sensor size really. Even at 1x viewfinder magnification, the Olympus viewfinders will still be small in comparsion. Nikon D200 and Pentax *istD/DS/DS2 have 0.95x, the highest viewfinder magnification at the moment. But having bigger chips mean they will always be practically bigger than Olympus with the same viewfinder magnification. The same is also true for FF DSLRs where the viewfinder will always appear bigger than any other DSLRs with smaller chips.

One plus side of the tiny viewfinder and mirror is that it is an exceptionaly quite camera in use - pretty similar to the Canon EOS5 (Rebel)- the small viewfinder is not a real issue if you use the AF Oly E-digital lenses, but if you want to mount older manual focus lenses on the camera then it becomes difficult to focus accurately, either ME-1 magnifier or the VA-1 vario anglefinder (the cheap EBAY advertised Chinese Dove anglefinder or Canon's Anglefinder C both fit but are opposite ends of the price spectrum!)help considerably.

 

The tiny size and quiet operation make it a great street camera if you do cameo photography, both the Oly Pro spec E11-22 and E14-54ED lenses are exceptionally sharp - the supplied "kit lenses" are as good as if not better than Canon's kit lenses.

I can, kind of, live with the TINY VF, but Oly simply refuse to frunish us with some for real lens ( I mean either some real fast fix focals, or at least real compact fix focals to go with the body ).

 

As is, I had to say Pentax got it right, especially now that the K100D is out together with the DA21 ( other than size & noise , this looks to be a GR-Digital killer )