Alright, it’s a promotional video by Sony Australia further below. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be ignored. Why shouldn’t the electronic viewfinder be the future. Mainly Olympus and Fujifilm were early betters on the technology, but I guess Sony’s new full-frame flagship, the A99, has the best implementation of EVF. What are its advantages? Many. Most impressive is that you see the result of the photo even before pressing the shutter.

Reality is that EVFs show a closer depiction of your “final image” than optical viewfinders. Both EVF and OVF have their pros and cons. Obviously, an OVF’s biggest advantage is that it doesn’t require any battery power. Or try panning. But there are also a lot of things outlined in the Sony video that an OVF can’t do. An EVF’s super-imposed information is just one of the goodies. Or focus peaking or live histogram.

And the abolished mirror lock-up removes some of the capture speed restrictions and all visual blackout that occurs in a traditional SLR.

OVF boils down to more loose composition and framing whereas EVF allows a more final prediction of the image you’re after. Looking through an OVF gives you the same rendering of an image seen with the naked eye and produced by the brain. EVF, however, previews an image as rendered by the digital camera. Sounds brutal, but EVF is just more honest.

OK, you’re used to optical viewfinders, you’re interested in producing what you really see. But isn’t digital technology already an interpretation of what you see? Add post-processing. EVF therefore is just the logical consequence of digital imaging as opposed to good old film. Pressing the shutter button is merely the starting point of an image.

Time to open up your eyes and mind.

Or the technology is just not yet there? Concludes Luminous Landscape in its Sony A99 field test report on EVF vs. OVF:

One of the big selling points of full-frame DSLRs is that they have larger, full-sized (usually 100%) viewfinders, and they are bright and with natural clarity, contrast and dynamic range; essentially the same as what the human eye sees unaided.

When I first picked up the A99 my very first impression was that there was something wrong. What it turned out to be was the outcome of virtually a lifetime of using full-frame film and digital cameras with their large and bright viewfinders. Holding up the A99 side by side with a camera like the D800, or new Nikon D600 or Canon 6D, brings the matter to light — so to speak. As good as it is, the Sony EVF just can’t compete in terms of realistic contrast, brightness and overall clarity to a full-frame glass prism viewfinder.