Originally posted by Rondec I think it is really hard for people who aren't bothered by EVFs to understand that there is a solid segment of the population who develops eye strain/headaches when they use them for any length of time. I don't know what it is. I use a computer screen all day long and it doesn't bother me. I can use live view without a problem. But stick my eye ball close to an EVF and within five minutes I am feeling eye strain. As a result, I tend to avoid those cameras.
And honestly, focus peaking in the viewfinder isn't that important if you are mainly shooting auto focus lenses. My experience, as well, is that focus peaking is overly optimistic when you are shooting wide aperture lenses and tends to look like more is in focus than really is. I suppose that is where you can zoom and adjust focus at 100 percent. Anyway, I like to have a clean viewfinder without a lot of cluttery display stop popping up and I would tend to turn all that stuff off if I had to use an EVF. If you've been shooting awhile you really don't need it and it distracts from the business of composing your images.
You already know I shoot both DSLR and mirrorless / SLT cameras with EVF. I'm one of the fortunate ones (not sure whether I'm in the majority or minority) that has no problem with EVFs, even older ones with lower resolution and/or lag (aside from the technical limitations, of course). But I totally get why, for someone who is sensitive to an EVF - for whatever reason, be it close viewing of a refreshing display, or motion lag, cameras using that technology aren't an attractive or perhaps even a practical option.
Regarding focus peaking with MF lenses, it's very useful once you get used to it, in my experience. Yes, it's overly optimistic, but you learn to find the mid-point where focus is most accurate - in much the same way as with an optical viewfinder, only easier to judge (for me, that is). It's also a useful indicator, believe it or not, for when AF has badly missed - a rare occurrence, but it happens. Going back to MF lenses, though, I find magnified view more useful and more consistently accurate than focus peaking, and it's one reason I use an EVF mirrorless camera with MF vintage lenses.
As for overlaid information, it has its uses, but I tend to keep it to a minimum. Real-time histogram is very useful in certain situations.
For all the uses I get from an EVF, I still far prefer the view through an optical viewfinder...