Sony Cyber Shot DSC R-1

[BJL]

... what are they going to do with cameras like the R1?  Let them fail to reach their potential markets because the viewfinder is unusable?
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Current EVF's might be unusable to you, but clearly are found acceptable by the very large number of people who happily use fixed lens digital cameras with EVF's. So long as the R1 is selling largely to customers upgrading from compact digicam (what I call the "crossover market") the EVF with probably not hurt it too much.

On the other hand, us SLR optical TTL VF curmudgeons will of course take some more years to convert, if we ever do. I do want to give up my phase detection AF!

[BJL]

... 1 meg EVFs which will be 'good enough' for critical focus and DOF judgment.   I'm guessing 3-4 years.  Maybe sooner if Sony is moving into the 4/3", exchangeable lens market.
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I would change "Sony" to Panasonic, who I expect to be first with an interchangeable lens EVF camera, building on their video camera EVF experience.

[situgrrl]

When I was looking for a camera 8 mths ago I was torn between the portability and price of a FLD such as the Canon Pro 1 and the versitility of a DSLR.  I was told that KM A2 had a 1mp screen but found it hateful.

Fast forward to the summer and my cameras was confiscated by the cops when I was arrested at the G8 summit - ever since, I've been begging and borrowing cameras.  One friend has a Panasonic (FZ 30?) with an EVF that I've found to be, whilst not ideal, quite usable in conjunction with a very well implemented mf system where a 100% crop allows you to focus.  It's a million miles from the previous prosumers in terms of quality.

On the other hand, I find manual focusing my E1 to be very difficult - a bigger PITA since the AF is so sloooow and sometimes fails to lock.

I often borrow a 350D and whilst it is better than my olympus, the MF is still terrible.

Why when a lense come with a focus ring, does the camera it's designed for not come with a split prism?  How else do you judge focus?  That little green light in my viewfinder with "focus" underneath it?  Great it's in "focus"...WHAT is in focus, I can't see! </rant>

Do EOS 1Ds and D2s get prisms?  I'd have looked at them if I didn't know I'd sell the clothes off my back to own one, I had an EOS 1 film camera before it was nicked.  

To the person who suggested an RF on the Sony - you are thinking on my wave length!  The other camera Scotland's finest are allowing to collect dust is my Canonet QL17 - the one thing I could rely on to get the pictures no matter what shit I'm being subjected to - provided it could be captured in a 40mm lense on Tri X.  The RD1 is an anachronistic mess - a piece of millenium electronics dressed up as a 1950's mechanics.  A wind-on lever?  I don't know why it doesn't use a proprietary storage tape shaped like a roll of kodak's finest...

Buying a camera is always a trade off:  If I were looking now, I'd take a long look at the sony - even with the evf.  The optical vf of the DSLRs I've seen aren't up to standard either...

[Jonathan Wienke]

Why when a lense come with a focus ring, does the camera it's designed for not come with a split prism?  How else do you judge focus?  That little green light in my viewfinder with "focus" underneath it?  Great it's in "focus"...WHAT is in focus, I can't see! </rant>

If you RT...M, you'll discover that if you manually select a focus point, say the center one, that the "in focus" indicator will be based on the selected focus point. And the higher-end cameras (5D, and all of the 1-series bodies) do have an available split-prism focus screen. The reason it's not the default is because it can negatively affect metering accuracy when spot metering with the center metering sensor under certain conditions. But that's not an issue when using evaluative or center-weighted metering, or spot metering with a non-center metering sensor (something you can do on the 1-series bodies). The 1-series bodies also have a larger, brighter viewfinder more suited to manual focusing even without a split-prism focus screen.