Nikon F5/F6 comparison

[ilkka_nissila]

Various magnifiers are available, with 1.2X or 2X magnification, and some right angle ones. I am not sure if these are widely used. I think the live view probably has supplanted much of the use of the 2X though since the screen on most models doesn't tilt, the right angle one may still be useful. They make it more difficult to see the edges especially with glasses on AFAIK, so I've stayed away from them. I would like to see a higher eyepoint viewfinder for myself (possibly sacrificing a bit of magnification) or an action finder. Fuji GFX 50s has a tilting EVF, I think this would find many users and would potentially make Nikon more appealing to video users.

 

I just ordered the DK-17A actually. It has been a frequent problem for me during the coldest part of winter that the ocular freezes up.

[Andrew Garrard]

I had a (zoomable) third-party angle finder on my Eos 300D - it probably would work better with a pentaprism than a crop-sensor pentamirror and a kit zoom! I'm not a huge fan of them because you lose the edge of the viewfinder, as Ilkka mentions - plus I don't really trust the finder screen for manual focus. (Yes, it should be fine, but there's still more in the optical path than going straight to the sensor, and a risk of mis-calibration; also you don't get the full DoF of wide lenses and there's a risk of the focus transition zone behaving oddly.) I don't really like split prism finders for a similar reason - having the most accurate focus available only in one place in the frame centre is restricting, especially now focus-and-recompose is seen as not good enough with a fast lens and a high megapixel body. But to be fair I've only really had much experience with the one in my Pentax 645. Digital zoom is much better for this, and you can do things like focus peaking.<br />

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If the D810 successor had an OVF and an EVF (either internally switchable in a good implementation or as two separate prisms), I'd be interested. I'd be put off with EVF only unless it was an exceptional implementation, though.<br />

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As an aside, I picked up a VuFine display recently (with a view to using it on flights, although I've not much done so) - other display glasses are available. It strikes me that I could use that with my left eye (which I largely have to, given the weirdness with my right and the eye relief it offers), and my right eye with the optical viewfinder. Plug the VuFine into the D810's HDMI socket and I'd have, effectively, a switchable OVF. Just in case anyone else wants to try a similar rig...</p>

[ilkka_nissila]

I don't like the idea of a hybrid EVF/OVF as I'm sure the contrast of both will be lower than in separate implementations dedicated to one type of viewfinder. But I think having a modular camera with interchangeable viewfinders is the practical solution to this problem, although it will be somewhat expensive. An F5 was still less expensive than a D5 today, so it should be feasible in that price class. Nikon has the know-how of how to do the mechanics; I would guess some of the people are still in the house, and might even be proud to ask to implement such a feature in a new camera.