LCD viewers - how do you cope?

There are some lovely pictures posted on this board - especially close up flower portraits - sharp and detailed. I would love to be able to match them.

My 5 year old digital camera Cannon A70 is not really up to it so I have recently bought a Fuji finepix 9600 at about �£240. But I am horrified at the digital viewfinder. My old camera was not very high spec, but it did have an optical viewer. The Fuji has an LCD screen and an LCD viewer - which essentially looks at the screen but through the eyepiece.

The picture that you see is so coarse that you cannot tell if it is in focus or not. It has focussing aids but they just underline how bad the LCD screen is. I specifically chose a camera with a manual focus, as it is so easy for the automatic focus to see through a plant and focus on the background. But the manual focus seems to be unusable. The screen in the eyepiece is very difficult to see in sunlight as I wear glasses and cannot get my eye right up to the eyepiece. I have to always hold one hand over the camera to shade it.

I think all cameras below a full SLR use an LCD screen. How do people manage? Is there anyone taking really good pictures using an LCD screen. Or do you all have SLRs. I have been completely put off taking pictures, as I seem to have no control. All I can do is point and hope.

 

Hi PeterS you seem to have paid a lot of money for a camera that doesn,t seem to do its job i took this photo and more using a pentax digital 6mp3xzoom, about �£80.

 

theres a macro focus mode ideal for this sort of pic. thats what i used. DEE

 

http://www.cameras.co.uk/reviews/fuji-finepix-s9600.cfm

Is this the one Peter, if so they give it quite a good write up.

 

Youngdaiseydee - thats a really nice photo. That's just the sort of thing that I want to be able to take. I am sure my camera is capable of taking nice pictures, it does have a couple of macro settings - the problem is the LCD screen. I presume yours has one. How do you cope with a screen that is really pretty blured - you can't see if it is in focus or not. Do you just point and hope. And how can you see the screen when the sun is shining.

 

I've not come across a camera that uses the LCD screen in the viewfinder, but I can see how this could be a problem when focusing manually.

Does not the autofocus, focus on the centre object when you depress the shutter half way, normally giving a bleep when in focus, you can then move the camera but the focus is set while you hold the shutter half down.
I do that when I want the object in focus not in the centre of the picture.
I'm sure some of our photo experts can sort this out for you.

 

i do have an lcd screen Peter, i also have to wear glasses, but your right if the sun is on the screen i cant see it, i try to stand with the sun behind me. if your screen is blurred theres something wrong with your camera i think, or you need new glasses DEE

 

Yes Pete it is - your post appeared after I posted mine. I did quite a bit of research, and the spec is very good. Bur when I saw it is the shops it didn't have batteries in, so the one thing I couldn't check out was the viewfinder. I am sure the camera will take some very nice pictures, but to me its like buying an expensive motor car that arrives with a semi opaque windscreen. If you can't see what you are doing your 500 horsepower engine and racing gearbox are not a lot of use.

My question is do other people find LCD screens a problem or is it just me?

 

pete knows what hes talking about, my cameras a simple digital compared to yours, so good luck Dee

 

DEE. I think that my LCD screen is working as it should. The problem is that I have never had a camera with an LCD screen before. And I find the screen resolution so low that it is almost impossible to tell if something is in focus or not.

 

Peter, I cant see how you can use a manual focus on an LCD screen, not the ones that I have seen, anyway.
The LCD just gives you an idea as to what you are pointing at, the focus has to be auto as far as I'm concerned.

 

Pete - sorry the posts keep getting crossed. Yes it does have an auto focus, and I am sure that for general pictures it would probably be OK. The problem with plants is that they are see through. I tried to take a close up of a small plant, but in the resultant picture the background was in perfect focus and the plant was very blurred. However there was no way that I could see that at the time with the LCD screen. Because see through plants are a problem I bought a camera with a manual focus as well, but you can't use it if you can see where the focus is.

 

Crossed again :D

 

Pete - I think you have put your finger on it. The LCD screen just gives you an idea of what you are doing. I was hoping that for that amount of money that I would be able to actually see and be in control of what I was doing. For the record I understand that all bridge cameras (ie half way between an SLR and the simplest digitals) have LCD view finders, as well as an LCD screen at the back. I just had no idea how bad they were.