Canon Patents Viewfinder That Can Switch From Optical To Electronic

One of the joys of using an electronic viewfinder (EVF) is that what you see is basically what you get. Adjustments you make to ISO and exposure are more or less reflected instantly in the EVF, so there are pretty much almost no surprises once the shutter has been released and the image has been captured.

The only downside is that sometimes there can be a slight lag when you’re trying to pan, but if you’re looking to capture landscape and architecture, we guess this is less of an issue. However it seems that Canon has an idea in which a camera could have a viewfinder that can switch between optical and electronic. Now wouldn’t that be interesting?

This is according to a recently discovered patent that was being shared on the Canon Rumors forums. Based on the translation of the patent, it describes a hybrid viewfinder system that can switch from optical to electronic when it detects that a moving subject the photographer is tracking moves out of the standard AF sensor’s range, which supposedly this offers the best of both worlds.

However as PetaPixel points out, the switch would have to be seamless for this to work properly. This means that during the switch there has to be no delay as sometimes the best photos are taken on the fly, and even a second’s worth of delay could alter the way an image looks. Unfortunately there’s no telling how Canon plans to achieve this, or more importantly if they actually plan on making it a reality or if it’s just an idea they’re toying with.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Photo-Video
Tags: Canon, Digital Cameras, Patent