In a digital camera with an electronic viewfinder or EVF, the viewfinder image is projected electronically. The sensor records the view through the lens, the view is processed, and finally projected on a miniature display which is viewable through the eyepiece. Electronic viewfinders in digital still cameras are very similar to those in video cameras.

Electronic viewfinders in still photography

Electronic viewfinder has the following advantages over opticals viewfinders:

• Lack of parallax, without the need of bulky reflex mirror. Cameras with a separate optical viewfinder show the scene from a different viewpoint from that of the camera lens.
• Information about the scene, such as a histogram, can be overlaid with the scene.

Electronic viewfinder has the following liabilities (2005):

• There is a noticeable lag between the changes in the scene and the electronic viewfinder display.
• The resolution of the display is too low to allow accurate manual focusing.
• The electronic viewfinder has a high power consumption.

Due to the limitations of electronic viewfinders in current digital still cameras, many professional photographers and advanced amateurs prefer digital single-lens reflex cameras.

See also

• digital photography