When I made the switch to mirrorless, I’ve rarely glanced back – but if there’s one feature that I miss, it’s the old optical viewfinder. But one photography accessory company has unveiled an optical viewfinder that can be used on nearly any camera – and it lists for just $49 / £49.
The TTArtisan 35mm viewfinder, announced on September 05, is an optical viewfinder with a universal cold shoe mount. That allows the viewfinder to work with nearly any camera that has a shoe mount at the top.
That cold shoe mount, however, indicates that it doesn’t have any communication with the camera at all, so how does the viewfinder see what the camera is seeing? The answer is simple – the viewfinder uses optics and 35mm frame lines to aid photographers in framing the shots.
The 35mm frame lines mean the viewfinder is meant to be used with 35mm lenses (or focal lengths equivalent to those on APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras). Anything framed within the 35mm grid lines on the viewfinder will be part of the composition.
Framing an image by seeing the frame lines for your lens and not exactly what the lens sees is a feature that reminds me of retro rangefinder cameras. The optical viewfinder mode on the Fujifilm X100VI and X-Pro3 works similarly, showing photographers a wider view than what the camera is about to capture and using simple corner marks to aid in composition.
There are some disadvantages to using an optical viewfinder with frame marks rather than an electronic viewfinder. The location of the hot shoe on cameras will vary a bit from model to model, so the lines on the viewfinder may not match up exactly, and photographers are limited to the focal lengths with the hatch marks inside the viewfinder – in this case, 35mm. Unlike an electronic viewfinder, photographers won’t be able to see the exposure preview or whether or not the shot is in focus. Seeing what’s essentially a zoomed-out view can also make it harder to see details.
But there are some perks to such an old-school viewfinder design. Optical viewfinders can be easier to frame shots taken in low light and those that will be lit primarily with flash. I miss my DSLR’s optical viewfinder every time I try to photograph night landscapes, where I have to go into the settings and turn off exposure preview if I want to see anything at all through the electronic viewfinder.
That zoomed-out view will also allow photographers to see the surrounding area, unlike a viewfinder that shows exactly what the lens sees. Of course, there’s also the retro feel that comes with using a true optical viewfinder rather than an electronic one.
Thanks to the popularity of compact cameras, several smaller cameras have no viewfinder at all and rely exclusively on an LCD screen. I can see TTArtisan’s new optical viewfinder accessory being a popular hack for these viewfinder-less cameras as well, like on the Fujifilm X-M5, the Ricoh GR IV, or the Panasonic Lumix S9.
The TTArtisan 35mm viewfinder is available on Amazon noq, where it lists for $49 in the US and £49 in the UK.
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