Anyone using the EVF-DC1 Electronic Viewfinder on M3???

[Mr_Canuck]

I'm looking for the ideal hiking setup, and the M3 with 11-22mm seems like the jig. But I'm a viewfinder kinda guy and wondering how the DC1 works in real life. Sounds like the quality is there, but having that appendage on top of the camera seems dodgy. Any personal experience you can tell me about?

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

I'm looking for the ideal hiking setup, and the M3 with 11-22mm seems like the jig. But I'm a viewfinder kinda guy and wondering how the DC1 works in real life. Sounds like the quality is there, but having that appendage on top of the camera seems dodgy. Any personal experience you can tell me about?

The actual EV-F functions well, although frankly I don't know if its necessary with the 11-22mm. I find it most beneficial in two situations:

1) Using a telephoto (I don't find using the LCD particularly efficient with telephoto focal lengths).
2) Using a manual focus lens (seeing true DOF, being able to use focus peaking, and being able to magnify within the EV-F are huge helps in accurately focusing).

I'm very glad to have it, but don't keep it mounted on the M3 all the time.

 

[sunnyVan]

I had the evf for a couple of weeks, then sold it. Didn't find it particularly helpful. The 11-22 efm stays on most of the time and i don't use tele on m3.

 

[Mr_Canuck]

Interesting comments about the EVF being more of a lens-specific benefit. I'm not too jazzed about the 55-200, and I can't see there being lots of benefit in an adapter and my 70-200/f4 vs my dslr. So I'm thinking likely that the M3 and 11-22 with the flexible LCD might suffice. I will say that using a tilting LCD at belly button height is quite effective for me.

 

[dcm]

I settled on the M and 11-22 as my standard hiking set when they first came out. I acquired the remaining EFM lenses since then and sometimes pair my EF lenses with the M. I now have the M3 and EVF. The M3/11-22 is my basic carry for hiking. I add the EVF and 55-200 to shoot distant peaks, wildlife, etc. when I'm on the trail.

I find the EVF is not really required for the 11-22 or 22 which I often shoot waist level with the LCD on the M3 tilted for increased stability and foreground in the image.

I use the EVF with any telephoto lens mounted on the M3. I even find the EVF useful with the EF 50 1.8 STM or FD 50 1.8 (MF/peaking). You might find it useful with your 40 STM. I find it extremely useful with the EFM 55-200, Tamron 150-600, other long lenses or MF lens.

 

[smozes]

I find it useful when going somewhere specifically to shoot, and the camera is hanging off my hand or on a tripod. The EVF doesn't fit neatly in a pouch so you either mount it as needed, or you carry it in a camera bag. It's not really a spontaneous shot while hiking type of usage.

 

[AlanF]

I use it for 600mm on the G3 X, where it is excellent. Like the others, I use the EOS M without it.

 

[ninjapeps]

You probably won't need it unless you have a hard time seeing what's on the lcd screen.

 

[Ivan Muller]

I am old school and one of the main reasons I bought the M3 was the possibility of adding the EVF. In fact if it didn't have that capability I would not have bought it.

Having said that I used the M3 extensively as a travel camera in Europe over three weeks without the EVF because I couldn't get one before my trip and it worked well especially as a'street' camera where I used it hanging at my waist and using the tilt screen at horizontal position. People didn't actually realize that I was taking a pic because I was looking down instead of at them...

But I think the EVF transforms the slightly disappointing M3 into something much better. I have found that my EF tele lenses are just so much easier to use with the EVF, especially when using MF which I surprisingly use a lot because the AF is so iffy. There is just something very 'wrong' in using a tele lens at arms length imo!

This is my first experience in using a EVF and visually it was a seamless transition and I am actually quite impressed at how clear and 'optical' it looks. And personally the EVF on top looks kind of cool to me and I carry it with me everyday and it just works well. It is very light yet feels well build with a lock mechanism so it cant fall of...it would have been nice if the tilt mechanism was a bit stiffer but I cant say it has been a bother so far...

so yes I feel it is a must have, I use it all the time even with wider lenses and with my tele lenses it is just perfect!

Enclosed a shot from my kitchen window of a Grey go away bird eating a plum blossom using the EVF. Manual focus on my 70-300L at Iso 800 and about a 50% crop....now I am not a birder at all but I was quite impressed how easy it was to get this shot with the M3 and how good the quality of the sensor is...makes it easier to forget the negatives of the camera...

http://thelazytravelphotographer.blogspot.co.za/2015/09/canon-eos-m3-review-third-time-lucky.html

 

[axtstern]

I upgraded from the M to the M3 simply for the viewfinder, believing this would solve most of M issues.
While it does what it should doin regards helping with Tele llenses it is still disapointing in many ways.

My biggest worry in the beginning was that it might become crowded on the hotshoe did not materilize as the crappy M3 does no longer support the Canon GPS reciever (the M did) and the build in Flash together with high ISO does not require me to carry an external Flash anymore.

Where the view finder is a complete Desaster is any Situation with something moving fast. There is a delay and once you misfire (shoot to fast) the blackouts drive you insane. My Canon DSLR allow me to follow with clear view as fast as the sutter allows while the M without viefinder is anyway not in front of your eyes. With the eye on the viefinder however you are missing seconds out of reality (or worse if you have not realized that you are looking at your last Picture rather than the real Scene unfolding). You learn how to deal with this but if a DSLR is your main tool and you only occasionaly switch to the M3 than you might get disapointed by the Limits of the Technology.

(As always please forgive the starnge spelling, forced German spellchecker on English typing)

 

[Ivan Muller]

Agreed, its not a optical viewfinder and a lot of the issues you mention I think is just part and parcel of an EVF...for wildlife or 'action' i use it on continuous shooting and fire off bursts - The blackout decreases a lot...but remember the EVF just mimics whats happening on the rear LCD anyway...it doesn't give you 'more'..

Just to be sure, the M3 is not an action camera, especially re the AF but I have had good success using longer lenses on MF shooting wildlife birds etc. Of course trying to capture very fast action is futile and i cant even capture my dogs running around on the lawn...but that's not the fault of the EVF

the EVF is also good in the studio and I use the build in flash to trigger my main flashes. For me it makes the M3 much more usable - not perfect, which it isn't.....

I think this camera would have been a lot more responsive with the 70D/7D2 sensor technology....

My EVF stays on the camera all the time....

 

[jolyonralph]

Well, I love the EVF with the M3, for me it's one of the best features of the camera. I especially like that it can be angled. I find it works well, but I do often disable image review after shoot so that I can shoot more rapidly.

It's absolutely essential with any lens if you're shooting on a bright sunny day.

 

[kel1ng]

I use it for 600mm on the G3 X, where it is excellent. Like the others, I use the EOS M without it.

I am also using the evf on g3x. Does anyone know if the evf dc1 weather sealed?

 

[Random Orbits]

Pulled the trigger on the M3 + EVF for < 450. I wasn't expecting much from the EVF, but I find that I like shooting the M3 with the EVF better than without it. It gives me more stability because I'm not holding it away from the body.

On a separate note, have others noticed that pics played back on the LCD are not sharp when magnified? I shoot RAW only, and all my pics were blurry at the pixel level. I thought it might be high ISO noise because I was testing it indoors at night, but then I looked at the pics in LR, it was pixel-level sharp. It's not a deal-breaker but knowing that now, I won't make decisions on toss away/keepers if it is "close".

 

[koenkooi]

On a separate note, have others noticed that pics played back on the LCD are not sharp when magnified? I shoot RAW only, and all my pics were blurry at the pixel level.

All the EOS cameras I've worked with so far seem to have that problem when shooting exclusively in RAW.

 

[Random Orbits]

On a separate note, have others noticed that pics played back on the LCD are not sharp when magnified? I shoot RAW only, and all my pics were blurry at the pixel level.

All the EOS cameras I've worked with so far seem to have that problem when shooting exclusively in RAW.

Interesting. I never noticed it as much on the 5DIII. The effect is a lot less at lower ISOs, but it's still more than the 5DIII.

 

[koenkooi]

On a separate note, have others noticed that pics played back on the LCD are not sharp when magnified? I shoot RAW only, and all my pics were blurry at the pixel level.

All the EOS cameras I've worked with so far seem to have that problem when shooting exclusively in RAW.

Interesting. I never noticed it as much on the 5DIII. The effect is a lot less at lower ISOs, but it's still more than the 5DIII.

I suspect it's not doing any sharpening or denoise on the RAW data during playback. But that's just a suspicion, I haven't bothered to verify that

 

[tan oak]

A friend let me experience the tiltable built-in EVF on his new $1200 Panasonic GX8 MFT camera before I bought my M3+EVF. His EVF image quality deteriorated severely as I panned his camera slowly around the room. His EVF image lagged behind camera position and parts of the image degraded into noise pixels. A panning pause allowed the EVF image to recover. He is delighted in his camera's EVF technology and considers it "good enough". In contrast the Canon EVF-DC1 maintains image quality and does not appear to lag when panned similarly. I have not shown him how the Canon EVF performs...it would ruin his day!

 

[jypfoto]

A friend let me experience the tiltable built-in EVF on his new $1200 Panasonic GX8 MFT camera before I bought my M3+EVF. His EVF image quality deteriorated severely as I panned his camera slowly around the room. His EVF image lagged behind camera position and parts of the image degraded into noise pixels. A panning pause allowed the EVF image to recover. He is delighted in his camera's EVF technology and considers it "good enough". In contrast the Canon EVF-DC1 maintains image quality and does not appear to lag when panned similarly. I have not shown him how the Canon EVF performs...it would ruin his day!

The Panasonic camera use a different type of EVF technology that induces 'tearing' in the corners and when panning, which is probably what you noticed. A simple google search of GX7 and tearing will explain it much better than I could. Most EVFs (Sony, Canon, Fuji) don't use this technology

 

[tan oak]

Yes jypfoto, "tearing" seems apprropriate to describe how the GX8 EVF image breaks down if the camera moves. I would be very annoyed if the Canon EVF did that.