K10D/K-7 viewfinders comparison

*Ivan Glisin* · 05-27-2009, 08:22 PM

Here is the difference between K10D and K-7 viewfinders. I took K-7 viewfinder picture at Pentax booth at Henry's show in Toronto with my Finepix F20 at identical focal length to what I did at home with my K10D, which should realistically represent apparent viewfinder sizes.

This is the confirmation of my initial side-by-side test at the first day of the show using Mike's K20D and K-7 where I have noticed that K-7 viewfinder appeared a bit larger. Here is what to expect:

Name: K10D-K7-viewfinders.jpg
Views: 2691
Size: 19.2 KB

Name: K10D-K7-viewfinders.jpg
Views: 2691
Size: 19.2 KB

PentaxPoke · 05-27-2009, 09:16 PM

Very nice. Thanks for posting this. The k10d/k20d had probably the best APS-C viewfinder of any camera brand, and it is nice to see confirmed the K-7 will be even larger.

*Ash* · 05-27-2009, 10:13 PM

That's a nice improvement, although the OME53 loupe makes an even better improvement!

jfsavage · 05-28-2009, 04:41 AM

Just to confirm, this is how big the viewfinder itself appears to the eye, rather than the coverage of the viewfinder, right?

*Ivan Glisin* · 05-28-2009, 08:36 PM

Originally Posted by jfsavage

Just to confirm, this is how big the viewfinder itself appears to the eye, rather than the coverage of the viewfinder, right?

Correct. This is the "visible" difference: by shooting through both viewfinders with the same camera at identical focal length positioned in the same way at the eyepiece it is possible to show the difference in the apparent sizes, which very closely approximates what our eye would see.

Edvinas · 05-28-2009, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by PentaxPoke

The k10d/k20d had probably the best APS-C viewfinder of any camera brand, and it is nice to see confirmed the K-7 will be even larger.

Nikon D300 viewfinder is still better. 100% coverage and 0.94× magnification.

soccerjoe5 · 05-28-2009, 10:33 PM

Originally Posted by PentaxPoke

Very nice. Thanks for posting this. The k10d/k20d had probably the best APS-C viewfinder of any camera brand, and it is nice to see confirmed the K-7 will be even larger.

Actually the D300 has a larger and brighter viewfinder

code4code5 · 05-31-2009, 09:32 PM

This ain't really the place, but I put my K1000 to my eye a couple days ago and was amazed at how big and bright it was. I know it's apples and oranges, but you would think that they could tweak the pentaprism to give us a larger field of view on APS.

jfsavage · 06-01-2009, 04:36 AM

Full Frame will give a bigger magnification - the Canon 5D has a great viewfinder. On the other hand the four thirds system is like looking through a key hole ;{

*pingflood* · 06-01-2009, 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by code4code5

This ain't really the place, but I put my K1000 to my eye a couple days ago and was amazed at how big and bright it was. I know it's apples and oranges, but you would think that they could tweak the pentaprism to give us a larger field of view on APS.

You could, but it'd make the image darker.

IsaacEastgate · 06-01-2009, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by jfsavage

Full Frame will give a bigger magnification - the Canon 5D has a great viewfinder. On the other hand the four thirds system is like looking through a key hole ;{

Theres so many problems with the four thirds system its hard to work out how olympus manage to sell a "profesional" DSLR and charge so much for all their lenses.
An olympus was my first DSLR and even then i knew something wasnt right.
Their marketing team must be legendary

*pingflood* · 06-01-2009, 08:09 AM

Originally Posted by IsaacEastgate

Theres so many problems with the four thirds system its hard to work out how olympus manage to sell a "profesional" DSLR and charge so much for all their lenses.
An olympus was my first DSLR and even then i knew something wasnt right.
Their marketing team must be legendary

Marketing team must be good enough to pull the wool over the eyes of the dpreview guys too, since they rate the Olympus DSLRs quite high.

I've shot a bit with an E-3 and it's an extremely well built camera, with very fast autofocus and some great lenses available. Sure, high ISO isn't great, but you can't have it all.

soccerjoe5 · 06-02-2009, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by pingflood

You could, but it'd make the image darker.

I wonder how Olympus managed to do this on the E-3. It's got a big and bright VF and it's magnification is more than 1x.

*pingflood* · 06-02-2009, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by soccerjoe5

I wonder how Olympus managed to do this on the E-3. It's got a big and bright VF and it's magnification is more than 1x.

I should have qualified that with "all else being equal". Changes to the pentaprism/mirror and focusing screen would definitely affect the output.. but in the end, you only have X amount of light coming in and if everything else remains the same spreading it out across a bigger area makes it dimmer.

jfsavage · 06-04-2009, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by soccerjoe5

I wonder how Olympus managed to do this on the E-3. It's got a big and bright VF and it's magnification is more than 1x.

I only ever looked at the lower end Olympus cameras, and they were 'keyhole viewfinders', which removed Olympus from my consideration immediately. How does the E-3 compare with the K20 - have they managed to make it as big and bright? If they have, then bigger viewfinders should be possible for APS-C cameras as well. One of the things I loved about the Canon 5D was the viewfinder.