This one missing feature is ruining the best new mirrorless cameras

The newish class of ‘content creator’ mirrorless cameras has seen a return to the bad old days of models without eye-level viewfinders. The main rationale seems to be that vloggers or online video presenters don’t use them, so there’s no need to find space for them on these cameras.

It’s probably also true that it saves a bit on the manufacturing costs.

But – with absolutely no pun intended – this all seems a bit short-sighted, especially as it’s limiting the appeal of cameras that would have the potential to sell more widely if they had an eye-level or electronic viewfinder (EVF).

The recently-released Fujifilm X-E5 is a prime example. It’s very appealing because of its small size and the many classical elements of its styling. You get pretty much all the goodies of cameras such as the X-T50, X-T5 and X100VI, but with the fourth-gen 26.1MP X-Trans sensor (as in the X-T4 and X-T30 II), which is no bad thing.

Yet the X-M5 is unique in the X-mount system in that it’s truly compact, but still has interchangeable lenses. And I’ve seen several online reviewers commenting to the effect that they’d be queueing up to buy the X-M5 if only it had a viewfinder.

I agree, it’s a very desirable little package with plenty of appeal for existing X users – and others – who want something that’s essentially pocket-sized but still has the character and capabilities of the rest of the clan.

If you can’t build in an EVF, then why not a plug-in accessory? I’m currently revisiting the Ricoh GXR for a future article – and the add-on EVF works brilliantly here. It clips onto the hotshoe and plugs into the camera body via a separate connection just behind.

Others have used this solution at one time or another, of course, but it would be even easier to do with the likes of Sony’s ZV-E10 II, which has the Multi Interface Shoe with power and data connections built into the hotshoe.

Frankly, though, if Canon could build a perfectly good EVF into, for example, the PowerShot G5 X Mark II – which is way smaller than any of the vlogging cameras we’ve seen so far – then there’s really no excuse and you have to wonder what’s behind it.

Would an EVF-equipped X-M5 cannibalize sales from other models? Hard to see, given that they’re now mostly all trading on their higher-res 40MP sensors.

And it’s the same when you look at Sony’s ZV series models or the Panasonic Lumix S9 – which, as a full-frame L-mount body, would surely sell many times more if it had an EVF. Even if you weren’t invested in the Lumix S system, it’d have to be up there as a handy take-anywhere camera for travel or street photography.

So what’s the big deal about an eye-level viewfinder? Well, for starters, it really connects you with the camera and in a way that’s more intimate than simply hanging onto the handgrip. You become fully concentrated on what’s happening within the imagining area to the absolute benefit, I believe, of both framing and composition.

With everything in your face, as it were, rather than at arm’s length, you’re fully and totally involved in the processes of creating and capturing a photograph. The old waist-level finder is just as involving if you’re using the eyepiece, and only marginally less so with the camera pressed to your tummy.

Of course, the EVF also isolates you from the effects of ambient light – often problematic when shooting in bright conditions – and you are very much up close and personal with all your camera’s settings.

Better still, modern-era EVFs show you exactly what’s happening when you make adjustments – which can be much harder to discern in a monitor screen.

But either optical or electronic, the viewfinder is an integral and essential part of the camera experience for photographers – which is why something deeply fundamental is definitely missing from the cameras that don’t have one.

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In fairness, most of the best Fujifilm cameras do have a finder (some, like the Fujifilm X100VI, arguably have two – one electronic and one optical!). Still, if your camera lacks one, check out this cheap gadget that gives nearly any camera a retro waist level viewfinder.