Viewfinder

Does the viewfinder look through the lens?


EDIT: I've just looked on a website and the answer is no.

beingme said:

I have a point and shoot Canon sd600 and when I use the viewfinder to compose my pictures, they differ from the end result I see on the lcd screen of the camera when reviewing. Is the viewfinder inaccurate or is it just me?

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I am guessing these are fairly close-up images; is that correct?

One of the shortcomings with point-and-shoot camera viewfinders is you are looking through a separate window at the subject - so there is a bit of parallax there. For something far away (say a tree, or a mountain) that difference of viewpoint is negligible; what you see in the viewfinder is pretty much what you get through the lens. But for something close to the camera, the angle through the viewfinder window is quite a bit different than the angle through the lens; so the viewfinder is not helpful in framing.

What you see on your LCD screen is through the lens, so the framing will be correct; but of course the resolution isn't that good, plus in bright sunlight the LCD image may not stand out sufficiently.

I really only use my viewfinder when there's so much sun that I can't adequately see the LCD anymore. Funny thing is, Canon put so little effort into making a decent viewfinder on my Powershot G7, that when you have the lens fully zoomed in you can see a large part of it in the view finder...

The alignment of the viewfinder also differs from one camera model to the other. I had a simple Nikon P&S previously where the viewfinder was way off irrespective of kind of picture I was taking. Needless to say I never ended up using it.

This, my friend, is a real disadvantage of point and shoots, especially for macro work.

beingme said:

so dslrs do not have this viewfinder problem like point and shoots?

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With an SLR, what you see in the viewfinder is what is coming through the lens - there's a little mirror or prism that reflects that light up into the viewfinder. When you hit the shutter release, the mirror/prism is flipped up out of the way.

This is true for both film and digital SLRs.