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From: Geoff <geoff@geoffwood.org>
Newsgroups: rec.photo.digital
Subject: Re: No DSLRs have Removable Pentaprisms
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2024 18:23:34 +1200
Organization: Dis
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On 14/09/2024 5:38 am, quadibloc wrote:
> As the title says, as far as I know, there are no DSLRs that let one
> remove the pentaprism, so as to change the focusing screen. Why is that
> a problem?
> Well, on my web site
> http://www.quadibloc.com/
> I recently added a page about the history of some cameras, mainly 35mm
> SLRs;
> http://www.quadibloc.com/other/camint.htm
> 
> And I asked the question... why are DSLRs even a thing? After all, with
> a digital sensor, you can see exactly what you're shooting on a digital
> display on the back of your camera. So why bother with a moving mirror
> and a heavy pentaprism?
> My answer was that given the resolution of the screen was lower than
> that of a ground glass finder, manual focusing would be better on a
> DSLR. Plus, the focusing screen can have split-image prisms and
> microprisms as aids to focusing. That was the technical reason that made
> the DSLR superior.
> But if the DSLR is all about the finder screen... wouldn't the ability
> to change the finder screen for one's use case be important?
> 
> John Savard

A few reasonss are :
1 - Was you see through the viewfinder is real (colours etc). On my 
mirrorless I find it a constant distracting needing to change the 
colour-balance so as to not be distracted by the difference between TTL 
and TTE (through the eyes !).
2 - You can play around to your heart's content (focusing, composition, 
etc) without even needing to turn the camera on.

And you don't need to change focus screens - you can assign all sorts of 
  aids (grids, virtual-horizon etc) to display in the viewfinder.

On my D800 at least . Lesser DSLRs may vary ...

geoff