In my eyes, the role of the viewfinder in the image making process is key. Some time ago, I was looking to buy a high-quality compact camera and having a viewfinder was an important factor to me in deciding which model to buy. For me, the connection with the image is so much greater if it has been captured by looking through the viewfinder than if captured at arms length looking at the rear of the screen.

Personally, I am so much more engaged with an image if I am looking through the viewfinder. Looking at the screen, the image feels much more like a ‘snap’, giving more motivation to grab it and quickly recompose for another of the same thing. Using the viewfinder I am much more inclined to take more time, think more about the composition, look around the edges of the frame to see that it is as it should be, before gently depressing the shutter to fire the shutter with the least amount of shake.

It makes me wonder whether it is the same for those using large format cameras with their head under a black cloth. Does that represent their isolation from the outside, almost as if they are within the camera itself?

Ironically, having decided on the Fujifilm X10 at the time, not least because of its viewfinder, I now find myself rarely using the viewfinder because it is optical rather than electronic, doesnt cover the whole of the scene and has no information within it. Now used to the EVF of the X-E1, I find the optical viewfinder of the X10 a bit worthless and considerably lacking such that I am using it at arms length more (if I use the camera at all!). It still takes lovely images mind, but the image engagement using an EVF is so much more. But that is another story…..