Originally posted by bdery The grass is always greener somewhere else...
As others have said, no current DSLR is great for live view, though one of the best is supposed to be the K7.
If you don't use your DSLR, maybe it's because a DSLR is not right for your style of shooting. Using a compact is quite fine, though you have to keep in mind that you'll be loosing DOF control, high ISO that's usable, flexibility, lens quality, speed of operation and AF, battery life, etc.
I will suggest you actually try to use the viewfinder for a short while, maybe during non "important" shooting situations. It might just grow unto you. It takes some time to learn how to adapt and use the viewfinder when you learned with an LCD, but it's better in many respects.
also, others have said that Canon cameras are better, on paper, for some specific specifications. That might be true or not, but there's more to a camera than noise figures. I recently walked in a colleague's office, looked at a picture of his daughter, and rightly guessed that it was shot with a Pentax camera and lens. the texture, the colours were just special enough. You might like the Canon finish more, as I like the Pentax finish better, but remember that each brand has their own "special something" an that you will loose it if you walk away. Plus your lenses will be larger, more expensive, you will loose image stabilization, etc.
I'd think twice about switching just because of live view If you decide to switch, do it knowing what the cost are.
Thats some very good advice, and advice I would probably give someone starting out, or relatively new to photography
Myself, I put bacon on the table with that big view camera above, and a 4x5, and thats not going to change.I've been doing it this way for 30+ years
Color for me is not an issue as I'm a fine art b&w photographer.DSLR wise I started with a D70, then went with a Canon 5D when they first came out, but was not satisfied with the output compared to my drum scanned 4x5 and 8x10 film.So I sold off all the dslr gear and continued with my large format film.
A year later Pentax came out with the K20D at less than half of what I paid for the 5D, and on an emotional whim I bought it thinking I could use the live view like a mini ground glass.Well things were feeling better, but I new the only way I could get the files I needed was to start stitching.Well the problem with that is if you want to do intimate landscape/closer fine art work, you need more dof, not less, and the only way to achieve this is with focus blending, shooting anywhere from 10-20 manually focused shots per image.I use Helicon software for focus blending now and it works quite well.
Using this technique with stitching in Autopano Giga has resulted in files that now compete with my Tango drum scans, but the whole process is more time consuming than just setting up the 8x10, applying a tilt, and running the neg through a Jobo.However, a little camera can go places obviously an 8x10 can't.I've tried using the viewfinder on the K20, but after a while my neck gets sore, and its a pain taking my glasses on and off.With my G10 I've been able to do some successful stitches using my technique with its LCD and magnified MF mode.Neck doesn't get sore, glasses stay on
But I need the reach of a 200mm or 300mm for a lot of stuff I want to do, so a dslr with a good live view implementation seems in order.
I almost bought the K-X, it would have been perfect for this, but the deal killer was you can't move the zoom area like you can on the Canons.So I'm going to give the 550D a try, and if it doesn't work out I won't loose as much in resale as its a brand new eos, and everyone thinks eos cameras are best, even though we better.Right tool for the right job eh