Originally posted by nanok
- a hinged/articulated screen is mechanically more complex, hence more prone to mechanical failure (how many fixed panels have you seen fail to.. ahem.. stay fixed, as opposed to damaged/worn off hinges on a car door?); yes, it can be well built, i admit, but you can't help thinking that "all else being equal(...) the fixed design will be sturdier"
- a fixed (burried/built into the body) screen will not catch on things, cloathing, etc, this means it is unlikely to incurr any un-intentional shock, and it is also less likely to cause loosing grip on the whole camera and potentially causing the camera to take a flying start to the bottom of the valley. silly? paranoid? perhaps, but some people shoot in rather extreme conditions, and apart from equipment cost, the loss of a camera will basically spoil an entire trip (especially a photo trip)
If you flip it out, then yes, the joint becomes exposed to stresses that a fixed screen would not. But if you never flip it out, then it doesn't, especially since this 645D2014's screen appears to be recessed into the body, meaning it is protected on every side except the bottom. If I'm right, and the bottom edge does not actually extend past the edge of the body, it is virtually impossible to hit it.
Now that I think of it, a recessed articulated screen that is not attached to the frame along its edges would be extremely hard to damage with anything but a direct hit on the glass. It is protected on the sides by the frame, but at the same time is not attached to it, so energy absorbed by the frame doesn't pass into the screen itself. It is also virtually impossible to flip it out accidentally, unless you manage to slide a very small, flat object under the bottom edge.
Believe me, my bodies (and lenses) have it quite rough on my hikes and everyday outings. My K-5 has taken many falls, enough to noticeably dent the magnesium alloy, and scratch up the paint all over, not to mention the (sometimes major) damage my lenses have suffered over the years. The most common cause has been the neck strap catching on things when I go to pick it up, ripping it out of my hand, so I am well aware of the danger of such incidents. But in almost 2 years of using, and dropping, cameras with articulated screens (first the E-M5 and then the E-M1), I have never managed to get the screen to flip out when I didn't intend to or catch on anything, even though the screens on those bodies are not recessed at all, and make up the outer left and bottom edges of the cameras.
As for weather sealing, it hasn't been a problem for Olympus dating all the way back to the E-3 in 2007, and no one seriously questions the weather sealing capabilities of their cameras, which are easily on par with Pentax's. Adding a few rubber gaskets to the joints is a simple matter compared to sealing the sheer number of exposed areas on a lens for example. If Oly can do it, Pentax can, easily.
Last edited by Cannikin; 02-10-2014 at 05:16 PM.