  pog Premium join:2004-06-03 Kihei, HI
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| Comparing viewfinders
Prompted by recent discussion about the new Nikon D700.
Here's a list of dSLRs in reverse order of actual viewfinder size. One missing piece of the puzzle, I suppose, has to do with "eye relief"... »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_relief ...for this post, I'm assuming all are roughly the same here.
Also, the "rankings" here ignore the fact that some people care about overall coverage more than they care about actual viewfinder size. For me, 95% and above is close enough.
Make Camera Type Coverage Mag Sensor Viewfinder sq. mm % 1 Canon 1Ds Mk3 Pentaprism 100% 0.76 36.0x24.0 27.36x18.24= 499.05 100% 2 Nikon D3 Pentaprism 100% 0.70 36.0x24.0 25.20x16.80= 423.36 85% 3 Pentax DS/pog Pentaprism 95% 1.11 23.5x15.7 24.81x16.58= 411.37 82% 4 Nikon D700 Pentaprism 95% 0.72 36.0x24.0 24.62x16.42= 404.23 81% 5 Canon 5D Pentaprism 96% 0.71 36.0x24.0 24.54x16.36= 401.40 80% 6 Nikon D300 Pentaprism 100% 0.94 23.6x15.8 22.18x14.85= 329.48 66% 7 Olympus E-3 Pentaprism 100% 1.15 18.0x13.5 20.70x15.53= 321.37 64% 8 Nikon D80 Pentaprism 95% 0.95 23.6x15.8 21.30x14.26= 303.71 61% 9 Pentax K10D Pentaprism 95% 0.95 23.5x15.7 21.21x14.17= 300.51 60% 10 Pentax DS Pentaprism 95% 0.95 23.5x15.7 21.21x14.17= 300.51 60% 11 Pentax K20D Pentaprism 95% 0.95 23.4x15.6 21.12x14.08= 297.33 60% 12 Pentax K200D Pentamirror 96% 0.85 23.5x15.7 19.18x12.81= 245.67 49% 13 Canon Rbl XSi Pentamirror 95% 0.87 22.2x14.8 18.35x12.23= 224.44 45% 14 Nikon D60 Pentamirror 95% 0.80 23.6x15.8 17.94x12.01= 215.38 43% 15 Nikon D40 Pentamirror 95% 0.80 23.7x15.5 18.01x11.78= 212.18 43% 16 Canon Rbl XS Pentamirror 95% 0.81 22.2x14.8 17.08x11.39= 194.55 39% 17 Canon Rbl Xti Pentamirror 95% 0.80 22.2x14.8 16.87x11.25= 189.78 38% 18 Olympus E-520 Pentamirror 95% 0.92 18.0x13.5 15.73x11.80= 185.62 37% 19 Olympus E-420 Pentamirror 95% 0.92 18.0x13.5 15.73x11.80= 185.62 37%
In case you noticed... my Pentax DS has had a viewfinder magnifier for years which gives an extra 1.17x magnification with no vignetting... probably the best $25 I've spent on camera gear, I think!
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