EVFs have an advantage when light levels are such that focusing through
an OVF is pure guesswork while an EVF gains up so you can see what your
doing. Yes noise goes up, but I'll take a noisy viewfinder that I can
focus with over a dark viewfinder that makes focusing impossible.
For times when critical focus is required an EVF can zoom in on the
point of critical focus (yes, a DSLR can do that in live view, which is
defacto using the camera as if it has an EVF).
For times when focus is critical an an EVF will provide focus peaking
while an OVF will at best give you a green light focus indicator that
what the camera thinks it's pointing at is in focus. DSLR AF sensors
have a bad habit of being too large, misaligned or (and the K5 was a
brutally bad example of this) colour failure of the AF sensor causing
front or rear focusing.
My own K5 had unfixable AF colour failure to the point I was unable to
use AF in the studio or any time the light colour wasn't unadulterated
daylight.
When doing head & shoulders portraits with my K1 (and every AF Pentax
I've used) putting the focus point on the subject's eye more often than
not puts critical focus on the eyebrow, meaning that if I'm trying to
control DOF with a wider aperture I'm out of focus. Not every picture
want's f8, but with Pentax that was my only solution to have some
assurance that the eye would fall into the DOF and look at least
halfways in focus.
With my Fuji I can use my 56/1.2 or 75/1.2 at f1.2 and secure critical
focus every time with a close H&S portrait. With my Pentax DFA* 85/1.2
on the K1 I have to stop down to f8 and pray, which kind of makes all
that extra money I paid for it something of a waste, especially when the
85mm focal length is considered a common portrait focal length on the
format.
Most of the time these days I'm using a Fuji X-T5, a camera that isn't
renowned for having the best AF out there. Sony and Nikon apparently are
significantly better, but the Fuji is still pretty darned good.
I can tell the camera which eye I want it focused on and it locks onto
that eye and holds focus no matter where it moves in the frame. I can
set my focus spot on a single person in a group and it will hold that
person in focus even as the person moves through a crowd.
And no, Alan, an EVF isn't AI, it's a direct representation of what the
sensor sees with no potential alignment issues causing the viewfinder to
see things the sensor isn't.
So yes, EVFs have some tremendous advantages over OVFs in some situations.
The disadvantages are that some people are sensitive to EVF flicker. I
know I am, but the manufacturers seem to have overcome this. My X-T1
gave me a blinding headache if I looked through the viewfinder for more
than half a minute at a time. My X-T5 doesn't, and it isn't even the
best viewfinder that Fuji makes. Those are reserved for the X-H# series.
Battery life suffers with an EVF, but much of this can be mitigated via
not having the viewfinder turn itself on until the viewfinder is looked
through. And obviously, carrying spare batteries
And the biggest disadvantage that I see to EVFs is religion. People have
made OVF vs EVF into some sort of God fearing issue where one or the
other is the one true way and a pox on anyone who thinks differently.
And yes, that is a two way street with zealotry on both sides.
bill
On 1/10/2026 11:26 PM, Alan Cole wrote:
On 11/01/2026 00:43, Larry Colen wrote:
there are times that there are distinct advantages of EVF over OVF.
Such as? OVF is the real thing, EVF is AI.
My K5 (ex Mark Cassino) & a few lenses up to 500mm suit me just fine.
Alan C
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