A710IS - Blurry viewfinder??

[cajoer]

Bought a A710IS the other day and everything seemed to be fine until I tried the optical viewfinder. It's annoyingly blurry! It gets sharper at maximum zoom though, for some reason.

It's not EXTREMELY blurry and it's not distorted or faulty in any other way, so maybe it isn't supposed to be better than this?? How do I know if it's faulty or not? Bought in on-line and I'd hate to send it back just to check if it's faulty or not...

Does anyone have the same problem? If not with the A710IS maybe with another model from the Powershot series?

 

[kayheem]

Hi,

I have never used this before, but some cameras have a viewfinder dioptre adjustment to enable spectacle wearers to get a clear view without spectacles. If yours is adjustable, look for a small dial, knob or lever near the view finder and see if yours is adjustable.

 

[micah4]

I hv the previous model A700 - the ov's fine off or on and at all zoom ranges.

 

[cajoer]

I found a guy on another forum complaining about a blurry viewfinder on his A700. He wrote:

"...Interestingly, I went back to the store to check this out thinking my A700 might be defective, and I found that all of the latest generation of Canon P&S cameras on display have awful quality optical viewfinders..."

The whole thread: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HE91&tag=

So am I just picky or is micah4 blind? )

I'm gonna try and find a few Powershot models in the stores around here to see if they're all as bad as my A710.

 

[micah4]

I found a guy on another forum complaining about a blurry viewfinder on his A700. He wrote:

"...Interestingly, I went back to the store to check this out thinking my A700 might be defective, and I found that all of the latest generation of Canon P&S cameras on display have awful quality optical viewfinders..."

The whole thread: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00HE91&tag=

So am I just picky or is micah4 blind? )

I'm gonna try and find a few Powershot models in the stores around here to see if they're all as bad as my A710.

That depends on who u want to believe. It's after all ur problem, not mine. :embrass:

I think u're not picky, and I'm definitely not blind, just maybe u've one eye off tuned...that's y blurry. :bsmilie: ...or worse like this fellow = :bigeyes:

 

[cajoer]

I went to a few consumer electronic stores tonight to test other Canon models. The A530 and A540 had a slightly blurred optical viewfinder but not nearly as bad as my A710IS. The Ixus 800 was much worse though and was about as bad as my A710IS. I also tried cameras from Sony, HP and Casio and they all had razor sharp, bright viewfinders... of course I just HAD to choose the ONLY brand with bad viewfinders...

So maybe there's nothing wrong with my camera, after all... but I still dont understand why a company even bother to add an optical viewfinder when it sucks so much?? And also how the h**l this problem isn't mentioned in ANY review i've read?!

And this micah4-guy who claims to have a perfect viewfinder makes it even more confusing... I don't know what to believe! Maybe I should return it and get another brand... which models av comparable to the A710IS?

 

[kraterz]

Its not a prob with only the A7xx etc. Your lucky it even has a optical VF. Most P&S only got a big LCD screen at the back and no VF. Just look thru a Oly OM-1 or OM-2 or even your old EOS-3. Now THAT is a VF.

 

[micah4]

PNS OVF are not TTL (thru-the-lens) as in SLR/DSLR, so they r offset a bit from the lens...and A7xx only provide an 80% area of view in relation to the LCD. Some "ov" are not optical but EVF, ie electronics - so they may appear brighter and clear, but physically they look like the optical viewfinders. How does one know whether it's an EVF or OVF: EVF works only when the cam is turned on, whereas for optical ones, even if the cam is off, u can still look thru the glass and see the view. OV tends to be darker.

hope this info helps some...

from "this micah4-guy"

("...what do I gain from lying to u...oh wow, there's all kinds of people...try to help, and u get this kind of response..." - an inspired thot)

 

[azul123]

Looking for a camera to use in low light and ambient light, appreciate it if someone with A710 camera can post an image from low light shoot taken with A710 and IS turned on at 1/25sec and 1/30sec handheld at ISO200 and another ISO400. Wanted to see if image is sharp enough, am comparing this with non IS Fuji camera F30, been looking for a PnS low light use for sometime and looks like A710 IS might be it for me.

../azul123

 

[deanCS]

I found a guy on another forum complaining about a blurry viewfinder on his A700. He wrote:

"...Interestingly, I went back to the store to check this out thinking my A700 might be defective, and I found that all of the latest generation of Canon P&S cameras on display have awful quality optical viewfinders..."

The whole thread: http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetc...id=00HE91&tag=

So am I just picky or is micah4 blind? )

I'm gonna try and find a few Powershot models in the stores around here to see if they're all as bad as my A710.

I have just experienced the same blurry viewfinder problem with the Canon A710-IS that I just received (purchase online).

You're certainly not picky. A viewfinder should NOT BE BLURRY - period. I don't care if the camera is a pointNShoot, a dSLR, or an fSLR for that matter, a camera's viewfinder should be capable of delivering the results it is supposed to give - a view of the scene to be photographed. If it can't do that, then it is defective. It does NOT matter whether only one camera has this problem, or all of them have this problem. If the viewfinder is blurry, it is defective, and the camera(s) is(are) therefore defective.

BTW, I've owned and recently looked at various other PointNShoot cameras with zooms, and none of them had a blurry viewfinder.

I'm going to be returning my defective Canon A710-IS for a full refund including shipping.

Regards,
Dean

 

[megaweb]

You should send it to Canon Service Centre to check the defect.

 

[calebk]

An OVF on a P&S will never give you the same FOV as what you get through the lens or on the LCD.

The only accurate VFs are those on a SLR or those on cameras with EVF (eg S2, S3IS etc.)

Even so, I agree that a viewfinder should not be blurry. Send it in for checking.

Still, I don't suggest using the viewfinder as it's not accurate in terms of framing, especially towards the more zoomed end (and it makes you look weird cos the camera is already so tiny.).

 

[Devilkom]

Hi guys, I have read this article and had personally went down to Harvey Norman to test the viewfinder. Turns out to be quite clear. As i'm intending to get a A710IS, I'll definately check the viewfinder out before I pay for it.

 

[Outlook]

Mine bought on Wed, also has the same problem. Looks to me, the view finder is out of focus. It is prettry small too. As for IS, can take 1/4 w IS in door, the result is OK to me. Manual white balance is very good and easy to use. Video is smooth, only thing, the standrad (640x480, 30f/s) data rate is around 2MB/sec or around 7.2GB/hr. For 1 GB card, it can record up to 8 min.

Other than that, it is a great camera for that prcie. Feature wise, it wins.