Canon hybrid viewfinder

BigAl007 wrote in post #18470274
But then you would need to use a pellicle reflex mirror so that you had something to back illuminate the LCD panel, and like Wilt said, nothing with a pellicle mirror has ever done well in the marketplace, the reduced VF brightness, coupled with the exposure hit has usually been too much of a hit over "traditional" designs.

Front illuminating the thing when the mirror is raised is also going to be really difficult, since you will still need the same design of pentaprism, limiting the lightpath available for mounting the illumination. That illumination will need to be pretty even across the whole screen too. I know reflective LCD's have been used for screens on cameras in the past, I recently saw a modern review of the Sony Ruvi "tapeless" camcorder, with the non removeable tape system inside, which also used a reflective LCD screen on the outside, just to make it suck even more.

It's a nice idea, but I really cannot see how you might incorporate one in a DSLR without negatively affecting the use of the straight OVF. I do, unfortunately, see a day when the DSLR is going to be a specialist, and therefore high end only, tool for those who simply cannot afford to introduce any time delay between the subject and the photographers eye. Everyone else will have to have an EVF, and I'm sure that the majority will be fine with that, although Canon seem to be right at the back of that curve.

Alan