Optical view finder or not?

[drakemo]

I'm in the process of buying my wife a compact digital for her birthday. I've narrowed it down to the Canon Powershot SD870 IS vs the SD800 IS. The size of LCD screen and small increase in megapixels of the 870 don't concern me a whole lot. The biggest difference for my decision is that the 870 does not have an optical view finder while the 800 does. That seems to be the ONLY knock I can find on the DS870. So what would the verdict be as far as how important you all think the optical viewfinder feature is?

 

[Patrice]

IMHO the optical viewfinder is a necessity. Holding a camera out at arms lenght is not the best way to hold a camera steady for a shot. With the optical viewfinder you can compose your shot while holding the camera in a more traditional manner.

 

[Garbz]

On an SLR it is of the upmost importance. I allows you to perfectly compose the image while holding the camera optimally close to your body.

On a P&S less so. There's no guarantee that what you see in the viewfinder is even the same as what's going through the lens.

 

[Groupcaptainbonzo]

It depends what you are/ she is doing with it. For a serious hobby, optical is the only way to go. But for family snaps it is not needed. My wife takes great photos with a Canon S40. and I don't think she even knows where the optical bit is..( actually that could be grounds for divorce .. servere mental cruelty)

 

[WolfSpring]

I got an onlder pentax that only has LCD it even has a movable LCD that can rotate around for self portrait i can go to 90 degrees for ground shots, but I hated not having a viewfinder especially when something in the sky was going on and I couldn't see the lcd screen due to reflections or other problems, it was that camera's only down side, but I'd have traded it for a viewfinder.