I have a question to all of you shooting newer mirrorless cameras. Do you use the viewfinder or the screen to frame and focus? Anyone who have ”moved” from one behavior to another? What’s your thoughts and comments? My eyes are getting a little worse and I’m contemplating if an alternative to getting an expensive viewfinder is re-learning and use the screen. Cheers!

Edited Sunday at 03:10 PM2 days by Christian K

Get the viewfinder. They usually have a diopter adjustment, so you never need to worry about vision. Focus to your liking!

The amazing superpower of mirrorless cameras (at least the current generation with excellent EVF) is that you can shoot and review in the EVF. No moving the camera or your head to see the screen. For me this was a great benefit.

I move from the screen to the inon 45° viewfinder one year ago.

For wideangle it s not necessary in my opinion... but for macro I can imagine shoot without the viewfinder now.

Isotta housing with Canon R5

I shoot mostly WA and CFWA and portrait shots. I rarely do macro. I use the screen and while I did briefly have a VF I had traded for I sold it off as I just did not use it. Fortunately or not ;), I have a prescription mask with bifocals and the screen is just fine for me.

Edit to add, I want to make it my byline, I am not a pro, I am barely an amateur, I manage to take a lucky shot once in a while.

Edited Sunday at 06:14 PM1 day by Nemrod

Most shooters I know use viewfinders, except a few sometimes use the rear display for wide angle. I think Alex Mustard recently mentioned that can help you frame a shot by holding the camera above your head or something.

Viewfinder all the way, I find I can see the detail in the image a lot better with the viewfinder, I can't focus all that well on the rear screen. I can see it and the composition quite clearly but not tell if I've achieved sharp focus. If your closeup vision is going, it will progressively get worse, so while you might be just OK with the rear screen now, in a couple of years you may straggle. The diopter adjuster on the view finder means you can see all the detail you need in the image, whether shooting or reviewing.

With mirrorless the viewfinders are different to DSLR, so be sure to get the new models which have a wider field of view to cover the full viewfinder to the corners.

4 minutes ago, Chris Ross said:

With mirrorless the viewfinders are different to DSLR, so be sure to get the new models which have a wider field of view to cover the full viewfinder to the corners.

Agreed on all of that, except the last point. At least with the Nikon Z cameras, you can change a setting to reduce (slightly) the size of the EVF. This makes the older Nauticam 45deg viewfinder perfectly usable with my Z8.

1 hour ago, Dave_Hicks said:

Agreed on all of that, except the last point. At least with the Nikon Z cameras, you can change a setting to reduce (slightly) the size of the EVF. This makes the older Nauticam 45deg viewfinder perfectly usable with my Z8.

Good to know, no such luck with my OM-1

Definitely viewfinder!

As probably most here, I started with pure screen (basic setup with initial investment) and was happy...

Then I acquired a used Nauticam housing and the former owner gave me also his 45° viewfinder along with the housing. Few dives for learning how to deal with 45°, then never looked back...

Superior for macro and also my clear preference for WA. Especially in shallow water, when the sun is shining, the screen is often invisible in practice, but the viewfinder works. The muscles in the neck will thank you for using a 45° viewfinder..

One of the view exceptions when a 45° viewfinder is suboptimal is when making photos vertically downwards (e.g. rotational panning).

Also with EMWL (I do not have one, but am thinking about it) it may be better to use the screen on the back, since my camera (A7R5) has the possibility to flip and mirror image the screen image (unfortunately not the image in the EVF). This allows to use EMWL without the expensive, clumsy and heavy "relay" unit (or the additional "inverting" 45° viewfinder).

Wolfgang

Edited yesterday at 07:30 AM1 day by Architeuthis

3 hours ago, Architeuthis said:

One of the view exceptions when a 45° viewfinder is suboptimal is when making photos vertically downwards (e.g. rotational panning).

Also with EMWL (I do not have one, but am thinking about it) it may be better to use the screen on the back, since my camera (A7R5) has the possibility to flip and mirror image the screen image (unfortunately not the image in the EVF). This allows to use EMWL without the expensive, clumsy and heavy "relay" unit (or the additional "inverting" 45° viewfinder).

Damn! Sony engineers didn't think A1 would need this function 😣 I guess since it doesnt have flippable monitor 🤦. And even though Shinobi does have flip option there is no way to change it during the dive so I'd be stuck with EMWL for entire dive.

Back to topic - a slight disadvantage to using the VF is the loss of surroundings awareness. Like when shooting seals I was scanning with periphery vision what coming next and from where. Also less ideal for video.