So, it's Monday & the Weather Channel was right on the button...Bright sunny skies & 43 degrees as of 12 noon, perfect conditions for my HIGHLY unscientific test of point & shoot LCD screens. Right outside our doors, angled slightly to the left, I found the sun to be perfectly positioned to offer considerable glare to any camera's rear screen. At high noon & under ideal conditions, I still needed the perfect subjects, ones that wouldn't mind continuous commands and no need for model releases at the end...
Done! With Blu's squinting eyes evidence of bright sunlight (or boredom with the photographer), I used the Canon Sx200IS' 3 inch screen to compose and with the sun directly at my back, I took a picture of the screen with a Canon SD780IS and the results show...
That while there was obvious glare on the screen, both Blu & Indy could both be easily seen. I found afterwards that the screen was not even set to it's brightest setting, but on it's default 50% setting . Setting it to it's highest setting would pretty much insure that you could can compose the photograph, no matter what outdoor setting you encounter. Considering that I do not have the best eyesight and I use eyeglasses, I was actually surprised at how easy it was to take the shot! And the clarity of LCD screens from 3-5 year old cameras would not have worked as well as current cameras such as the SX200IS, thanks to built in glare resistence and increased pixels & brightness on the screen.
Taking comfort that that I won't be sending these findings to the New England Journal of Medicine, I do feel confident that it does show that camera manufacturers have listened to their customers by improving the quality and brightness of their LCD screens. However, by also increasing the size of these screens, they've found that there's no room for the viewfinder as well. For folks that insist that they need a viewfinder, there are still some options remaining, and we'll cover those in our next post.
Done! With Blu's squinting eyes evidence of bright sunlight (or boredom with the photographer), I used the Canon Sx200IS' 3 inch screen to compose and with the sun directly at my back, I took a picture of the screen with a Canon SD780IS and the results show...
That while there was obvious glare on the screen, both Blu & Indy could both be easily seen. I found afterwards that the screen was not even set to it's brightest setting, but on it's default 50% setting . Setting it to it's highest setting would pretty much insure that you could can compose the photograph, no matter what outdoor setting you encounter. Considering that I do not have the best eyesight and I use eyeglasses, I was actually surprised at how easy it was to take the shot! And the clarity of LCD screens from 3-5 year old cameras would not have worked as well as current cameras such as the SX200IS, thanks to built in glare resistence and increased pixels & brightness on the screen.
Taking comfort that that I won't be sending these findings to the New England Journal of Medicine, I do feel confident that it does show that camera manufacturers have listened to their customers by improving the quality and brightness of their LCD screens. However, by also increasing the size of these screens, they've found that there's no room for the viewfinder as well. For folks that insist that they need a viewfinder, there are still some options remaining, and we'll cover those in our next post.