The PNS Viewfinder: Going the Way of the Dodo

So, time was a tiny, teeny little hole in most point-and-shoots served as a viewfinder. These days, that little feature is getting pretty hard to find, to much mumbling and grumbling from the forum-dwellers. And, while there are cons to losing the sorry excuse for a viewfinder that was the plastic hole on many of these cameras, I don’t think it’s quite worth all the gnashing of teeth I see. Here’s why:

Why People Want a Viewfinder

Let’s start with what the viewfinder’s purpose is and was. Back in the bad old days of digital cameras (like, three years ago), LCDs weren’t exactly on the top of their game. They had resolution issues, viewing angle oddities, and were basically incapable of being used in light brighter than an overcast day. The tiny little viewfinder was a cheap and effective way to let people frame their shots when the sun overwhelmed the LCD.

Why the Viewfinder Matters Less Now

Skip ahead to, well, now. LCDs have come an amazing way. Astounding way. They’re not perfect, extraordinarily bright sunlight can still overpower them, but they handle a lot of lighting conditions far better than they ever could have in the past.

On top of that, these little viewfinders have always suffered a couple major problems of their own:

1. Parallax Error: Because the viewfinder isn’t actually reading through the lens (like on a DSLR), what you see isn’t the same perspective as what the picture will have. This is called ‘parallax error’ and can be a frustration for people who want precise framing.
2. Speak of precise framing, most of these viewfinders don’t cover the entire scene, unlike and LCD which shows exactly as much as the sensor sees. A niggle, for sure, but when precise framing matters, it’s nice knowing your final picture won’t have a surprise kid picking his nose at the very edge your viewfinder didn’t show.
3. Size. Compact cameras are, well, compact. And they’re getting more so every year due to market demand. If you’ve ever wished a camera would fit in your pocket better, you’ve played a role in the demise of the PNS viewfinder. Space constraints had them pretty minuscule to begin with, and once the deck-of-cards aesthetic rose to prominence, well, there’s just not the space there once was.

So, me, I’m not too torn up about this feature fading away. With pricing on the market as it is, if I need the confidence of a viewfinder I can upgrade with little more money to an ultra-zoom with more zoom and a superior electronic viewfinder. For not much more than that I can move up to a full-fledged DSLR.

But that’s me.