> That is not the issue now. What do I see through the viewfinder? If I am > using a 200m lens and the "crop" will make it look like 350mm -- am I seeing 200mm > through the viewfinder or 350mm? And if I am seeing 200mm, then as someone > mentioned previously, are there crop lines?
No. You'll see what you would see if you looked through the viewfinder of an MX with an identical lens mounted, *if the MX had masking tape on the ground-glass screen to crop the image size down to (95% of) the size of the CCD sensor*. In other words you'd see the cropped central portion of that MX viewfinder image. No crop lines, because the image doesn't extend beyond the cropping area. Just a smaller image. Pentax could have increased the magnification of the viewfinder eyepiece to make this smaller portion of the image cover the same angle of view as the full image in the MX viewfinder, but they chose not to do so. If you put a 300mm (not a 350mm) lens on another MX (one without masking tape) and looked through that viewfinder you'd see a full-screen image which covered roughly the same subject area as the smaller cropped image of the modified MX. > Actually, it seems to me that Pentax wouldn't be stupid enough not to have > the viewfinder match the image that will result. And I can't remember reading or > hearing of this discrepancy in any DSLRs reviews. That's because that discrepancy doesn't exist. > So, yes, I think a lot of answers in this thread have been confusing because > some people really haven't know what they were talking about. I think everybody would agree with you here. Unfortunately not everybody would agree as to just who was spreading misinformation, and who had the facts straight. > Marnie aka Doe ;-) Also William Robb said the 50mm looked "close," ergo that > would not be a 50mm but an 75 or 80 or 85mm or something. No - it would be a 50mm. But it would be cropped to roughly the same field of view as a 75mm on an MX (or a 150mm on a 6x7, or ...)
