DIGITAL SLR ESSENTIALS

View to a thrill

What’s the difference between an optical viewfinder vs an EVF vs Live View?

As you’ll see from this issue’s DSLR vs mirrorless Super Test (page 98), the fundamental difference between Canon’s EOS DSLRs and EOS M and R mirrorless cameras is the mirror – or the obvious lack of it, in the latter’s case… An EOS DSLR has a large mirror in front of the imaging sensor; light rays coming through the lens are reflected by this mirror, up to a pentaprism (a sold block of glass) or a pentamirror (a set of small mirrors), which in turn reflects them into the viewfinder. This is known as an optical viewfinder (OVF).

A mirrorless camera doesn’t have a mirror assembly, and this enables it to be designed smaller than a DSLR would be. The optical viewfinder is replaced by an electronic viewfinder (EVF) which, like the rear Live View screen, shows the photograph being recorded by the imaging sensor.

Of course, all EOS cameras, regardless of whether they have