Camera Labs

sony's alpha 55 does not have an optical viewfinder. can someone explain this to me. does this mean that you must use the led screen to compose the photo ?

Not in the sense of using the LCD on the back panel of the camera. Essentially, the camera has TWO electronic display screens - one of them is the LCD panel on the back of the camera, while the other is a high-resolution one mounted in the viewfinder binnacle. If you want to use the traditional camera stance, holding the camera up to your eye to shoot, and blacking out stray light by looking into a viewfinder, this will be done exactly as it is done on a DSLR - except instead of looking optically off a mirror or through a prism and through the lens, you are looking at a very high res electronic display feeding off the main sensor which is looking through the lens.

A switch on the camera can select either electronic viewfinder or LCD - or you can have the camera set to switch to the viewfinder when your eye raises to the camera.

Whenever you see 'EVF' instead of 'OVF', it means the camera still has a viewfinder, but that it is electronic rather than optical.

_________________
Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

thanks...all makes sense now !

I hate the EVF.

Its a flat 2D image, while the OVF is what it see. Its also blue.
The thing that I don't get with the a33 & a55 is you get less battery life when not using the EVF on the a33 & a55 and using the LCD display.
Its something a third less shots.

_________________
http:/dowdenphotography.com/
Camera: who cares its the photographer
Lens: Lots