> > Problem: None of the later models have an eye-level viewfinder!
> >
> > I used a borrowed Pentax S5 on holiday and found that it was
> > practically useless in bright sunlight. It is impossible to compose
> > a picture and I found myself pointing the camera in the vague
> > direction of the subject, and hoping. Result: about a quarter of my
> > pictures will have to be deleted.
> >
> > The moral of this story is: think carefully before buying a new
> > pocket camera. It may be capable of many megapixels, but you might
> > have limited control over what you capture.
I'll second that.
I recently bought a digital for Sue without thinking much about a
viewfinder. There were several other constraints/requirements and a
viewfinder didn't even appear on the list.
With my own digital, I use the screen for 95% of my photos and my
compositions are now as expected, not cropped to death by over-zealous
processing labs. The other 5% are typically the brght sunlight photos
and for that I switch to the viewfinder .. a slightly odd electronic
thing with modest resolution, but it does at least give TTL behaviour.
As Chris says, without the viewfinder, it can be very difficult to
compose a photo sensibly.
I do though sometimes take photos when I can't see either the screen or
the viewfinder. Inevitably that's tricky and usually it's "high above my
head" stuff, where one always takes that risk. I keep the angle wide,
pop off a few shots as best I can and crop/rotate/etc. later.
It's worth considering one or two "old fashioned" Press photoraphy
techniques, probably adapted for your camera. The pair I always keep
handy are setting the camera in a general-purpose condition and shoot
first then be clever. In the days of film Press photography, that would
mean the camera was left focussed at 3 metres and stopped to F8. When
you see the shot, just point and shoot a couple, "from the hip" if
necessary, then go on to compose a proper shot as you'd like it. Some of
those point and shoot photos will be total crap, some will have real
impact. It costs nothing but a few moments to bin the failures ..
digital pictures are cheap!
Well, it works for me.
ATB,
Gordon.
--
Gordon Scott http://www.gscott.co.uk
Linux ... Because I like to *get* there today.
