If I use another fully-articulated screen on a stills-first camera, I’m going to flip out!

Like megapixels and ‘open gate’, fully-articulated screens have become something of a selling point on modern cameras. A few years ago, content creators and video types were extolling the virtues of spinny, flippy screens, and more than a handful of video-centric cameras were bemoaned for shunning them. I get it. For video, they rock. But for photography, they’re a pain in the butt – at least as far as I’m concerned…

My problem here isn’t the existence of fully-articulated screens, it’s the industry’s need to put them on anything and everything. The Fujifilm X-M5, for example, is a camera for content creators and boasts an unrivaled video spec in its class. Should it wear its fully-articulated screen as a mark of pride? Absolutely!

My gripe comes with the stills-first cameras of the world. Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time capturing street photography with the Nikon Z fc (more on that in a future article). A tried-and-tested candid street photography trick is to hold the camera at waist height and tilt the screen so you can covertly frame your shot, but with a fully-articulated screen, this is much harder, because it’s offset.

And that’s no shade on the over four-year old Z fc; boy, do I adore that little camera! The Nikon Z fc II (hopefully in the works) is my most anticipated camera release right now. And while it certainly won’t be a dealbreaker, I really hope it comes with a tilting rear LCD. My Nikon Z8 has a tilting rear LCD and it’s so much more practical to simply tilt it out – not offset – and frame the shot.

The same goes for the famed Fujifilm X100VI, a camera with a form factor that’s about as stills-first as you can get. It’s got a tilting screen and in my book, is all the better for it. Of course, all of this comes down to personal preference and nobody’s necessarily right or wrong. But in an age where camera manufacturers are making their wares as attractive to videographers as possible, it’s worth remembering that some cameras still are, by and large, the preserve of stills photographers. And we deserve titling screens! Unless of course, you completely disagree, in which case, let me know in the comments below.

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