EVF – What is a Camera EVF

EVF or Electronic Viewfinder is a small electronic monitor of about half an inch built at the top of the backside of the camera.

It’s probably not the first element you would pay attention to when buying a new camera, but an EVF is key in photography. It’s what you use to compose your pictures when using a mirrorless camera. I believe, if you are just learning how to use a camera, having an EVF is key to grasp many concepts of light and composition in photography.

Without further ado, let’s see more in detail what is an EVF and how it can help you improve your photos.

EVF What it is And How it Works

An Electronic Viewfinder is literally a small LCD screen that you use to look through and see the scene you want to capture.

It comes as a built-in feature on most mirrorless cameras and in some compact cameras as well.

It works by allowing you to look into the tiny monitor through the eyepiece and view the entire scene you want to capture in real-time. The scene you see it’s not exactly what the camera is seeing optically, but it’s a digital projection.

Light passes through the lens, hits the sensor and the EVF shows you the final image.

In modern mirrorless cameras, an EVF can take your photography experience at another level.

Apart from assisting you to compose the pictures, a few EVFs work well as motion blur by directing your camera to the areas where it should focus on. Some also work pretty amazingly in low light conditions because they increase the brightness automatically in the dark. Thereby, allowing you to view the entire scene on the EVF.

Benefits Of Camera With an EVF

Accurate Framing

Since an EVF shows you the exact scene captured by the sensor and also the settings, it helps in precise framing. Basically, whatever you see on this electronic display is what you’re going to capture. It helps you to solely focus on framing the shot without moving your eyes away from the camera for checking the settings and framing on the LCD.

Better Performance Under Bright Lights

Due to higher glare, it becomes hard to shoot in bright lights and sun and view the frame on LCD. However, EVF is shaded enough to give a good view of the scene and helps you to compose photos very efficiently under the bright environment.

Suitable For Low Light Conditions

The EVF offers a brighter screen under poor lighting.

This means you can see a much brighter image even though the lighting is dim.

EVF Offers Better Camera Grip

By incorporating an EVF, you will be able to shoot on eye-level which is far better than composing a shot using the LCD monitor. Moreover, you can hold your camera closer to your body that provides a better grip and stabilization. It becomes difficult using the LCD monitor.

Live Display

EVF works as a live display for rendering the images. In absence of it, a camera single-handedly can not show all the brightest and darkest parts of the image. At this juncture, the electronic viewfinder plays a crucial role by showing all the dark as well as brighter areas of an image so you can adjust the composition in a better and efficient way.

Better Shooting Experience

The biggest advantage of EVF, it is extremely continent to use. You don’t have to look for the preview by going back to the LCD every single time. You can have the preview right before your eyes without having to take your face off the camera.

EVF Works as Histogram Display

The preview you see is reflected via an imaging sensor. Therefore, the camera can use this preview to project a histogram of brightness tiers in the image.

It helps in providing the proper exposure to the photograph even in the extreme light conditions.

Works as Focus Distance Display

Focus distance display becomes important at the time of calculating the aperture of the wide landscape. It becomes much easier while using an EVF.

EVF Allows Focus Peaking

Evfs help you to acquire quick and precise critical focus.

No Mirror Assembly Required

Because EVF is a mirrorless display, you are free from the stress of assembling the mirrors. It also saves a lot of time which you can utilize in focusing on the detailing.

Drawbacks of an EVF

Battery Drains Quickly – Because you’re powering a display, the battery drains down very quickly. One and only solution to handle this issue is to keep more batteries handy!

Too Much Brightness – Excessive brightness can irritate your eyes. Keeping your eyes into this tiny display causes blackouts when you look outside it.

Shutter Lags – When you don’t use it with an electronic front curtain, it imposes slightly lengthy shutter lag.

Learn more about EVF here.