Originally posted by Uluru Users more familiar with photography concepts, f-stops, aperture, shutter speed, etc. are dependant on upper LCD. I hope that LCD on top evolves too; Leica's S camera has a rather nicest top LCD of all the cameras in the market. Maybe Pentax will borrow a page from Leica's book.
Back LCD, I seldom use it personally. Actually, I'd like back LCD to be an accessory, not a requirement. But it's impossible these days. It's a battery hog, and more it stays turned off, the better. I wish there is way to physically and literally turn it off completely — no kidding.
Yeah, I'm sure glad my Arca view camera has that upper LCD, otherwise how would I know what f-stop, aperture, and shutter speed I was set to? The top LCD is especially convenient when I set my f-stop and aperture to two different values, because they are totally different things!
The top LCD shows VITAL information that is displayed NOWHERE ELSE. When I look through a DSLR viewfinder, and I'm wondering "hmmm, I don't remember the two values I dialed in JUST THREE SECONDS AGO, where could I possibly go to find this information?", I don't want to have to move my eyeballs and look down to see those glowing values in the viewfinder. No, I'd MUCH rather take the camera away from my face, ruin my framing and focus, and look at that ALL-IMPORTANT top LCD.
Also, the top LCD has important tools like histogram and magnified live view for critical focusing that you can't get anywhere else.
All in all, I ONLY buy cameras with a top LCD. Sometimes I JUST buy a top LCD so I can look at it. I also put top LCDs on other things, like toasters and umbrellas.