What cameras have LED viewfinders where the actual values light up instead of markers next to them?

Sirius Glass · Apr 25, 2018

Nikon N75 and Nikon F100 has the LEDs in the viewfinder and on a screen.

ic-racer · Apr 25, 2018

Blast from the past. Discussion of film camera displays from 1988:

But you still couldn’t see the numerals next to the LEDs in poor light. So the camera engineers put the LEDs behind the numbers and lit the numerals themselves. I find LED numerals excellent except in extremely brilliant out-door shooting conditions then these LEDs tend to be difficult to see. In such conditions needles are better but if I had to choose one or the other system for all shooting, I’d go LED.

Why limit LEDs to little dots or small individual numerals? Why not form whole numerals or letters out of them? And so the Canon A-1 and Fujica AZ-1 were born with extremely bright digital LED numerals which, unfortunately drained even the camera’s small E-volt button batteries too quickly.

What do do? Just as LED digital wristwatches have been replaced by liquid crystal display (LCD) timepieces, so the camera engineers have provided low battery drain LCD information panels for camera finders. Sometimes there’s even a second LCD panel atop the camera body to handle the overflow of information not needed for immediate picture taking: proper film loading, ISO film speed setting, battery condition, frame number, length of film, type of program exposure.

Everyone satisfied? Of course not. Unlike LEDs, LCDs do not emit light; they’re mirrors that can only reflect light or panels that can be transilluminated by a light source. You couldn’t see the LCD finder information in low light. So the engineers often put LEDs or small bulbs in front or behind the LCDs to light up when needed. And, thanks to the new camera designs with built-in winders powered by big AAA or AA batteries which energize all camera functions, there’s enough electrical juice for viewfinder low light illuminators.

Now behold our finders! The LCD and LED variations in information and types of display seem unending. They range from the fairly simple black on-white shutter speed and aperture plus manual metering (as on the Nikon F3) to multi-colored mind blowers like the panel in the Richo XR-M. If you don’t like numerals and yearn for the good old days of scales and meter needles, presto, LCD panels can duplicate the effect of a scale and indicator. Want to make spot meter readings and average them? Some SLR scales show at just what light level the multi-spot meterings were made.

Popular Photography; Keppler’s SLR World, 1988

Sirius Glass · Apr 25, 2018

But now the LED lights are clearly readable in bright sun light as long as my eyes are open.

AgX · Apr 25, 2018

Chan Tran said:
Nope! It has a strip of LED not the type of LED which actually forms the number.
So far only the Canon A1, The Fujica ST901 and the Contax RTS II have it.

Canon T70 and T90

dante · Apr 25, 2018

Fuji GA645 definitely has an 8-segment LED display, as does every Leica after the M7 (M8/M9/MM/M240/M246/M10).

If that's what we're on now. Did the OP not find his camera exclusive enough and thus moved on to some other mountain to climb?

Stencils are fine in the real world - in fact, they are more usable because you can see where you are on the scale with your peripheral vision - as opposed to distracting your conscious thought with reading a number formed by 8-segment digits.

Dante

AgX · Apr 25, 2018

Even bettter than stencils are scales with digits. After all these years cars still have speedometers with a scale and digit.
Two numbers formed by 7segments LEDs can show both aperture and shutter speed at one wink, but still variations can better be indicated by a moving digit.

The T90 for instance has a combination of indicators. The two numbers as above but also a nulling scale as with the Profisix meter.

68degrees · Apr 25, 2018

I will get used to it in low light when I cant see the numbers.

Photoguy365 · Apr 27, 2018

Chan Tran said:
No Nikon has LED digital display. The F2SB and F2AS have + 0 - LED. The FM's are similar but not digital. The F5 or even as old as the F3 has digital display but LCD and not LED.

You are correct. I missed the original post. I was thinking LCD.

68degrees · Apr 28, 2018

but I dont know where the 7 segmen t led requirement came from as that was never part of my inquiry. Im only asking if anybody knows of cameras that have the shutter speed numbers backlit with led instead of just a led light next to the number. I want the actual number to light up with LED light. So just have the stencil backlit with LED is what Im trying to say.

A couple things that could be improved on the XD and one would be to backlight the shutter speeds with LED. The other thing would to allow low light metering in A mode where the shutter stays open as long as needed to make an accurate exposure like the Nikon FE, EL2 and Pentax LX, Olympus OM series. A mirror lock up would be nice too. and remote infrared shutter release like the x700. Then it would be perfect. But as it is now, its pretty close to perfect. Im loving this little camera.

abruzzi · Apr 28, 2018

There are quite a few with backlit LCDs, which admittedly is less visible than a LED, but I’ve used my Nikon F4 and Pentax SuperProgram in dark situations and both work pretty well. The SuperProgram is a little less convenient, but as long as your left hand can find the button to light the backlight, it works well.

AgX · Apr 29, 2018

68degrees said:
but I dont know where the 7 segmen t led requirement came from as that was never part of my inquiry. Im only asking if anybody knows of cameras that have the shutter speed numbers backlit with led instead of just a led light next to the number. I want the actual number to light up with LED light. So just have the stencil backlit with LED is what Im trying to say.

Please be fair to us, as your title and first post say differently, there is no such restriction to backlit stencils only.
You might have not thought of 7segments LEDs as I did not think of backlighting at first.
I just got a textbook from 1983 at hand and it shows in detail a dozen displays. None of it has LED lit stencils. Only swinging needles, open LEDs and 7segment LEDs.

blockend · Apr 29, 2018

The LEDs in the A-1 are bright enough to be intrusive, there's a switch on the top plate to turn them off, which I do. LCD displays are more visually neutral, but early versions seem to have a finite life expectancy and replacements are hard to come by. Preceding LEDs were fully analogue readouts as on the Yashica FR and (I think) later Nikkormats.

AgX · Apr 29, 2018

But you forgot to say that the luminance of the LEDs in the A_1 finder is automatically controlled due to the luminance of the finder image.

68degrees · Apr 29, 2018

AgX said:
Please be fair to us, as your title and first post say differently, there is no such restriction to backlit stencils only.
You might have not thought of 7segments LEDs as I did not think of backlighting at first.
I just got a textbook from 1983 at hand and it shows in detail a dozen displays. None of it has LED lit stencils. Only swinging needles, open LEDs and 7segment LEDs.

my first post does not place a requirement that the leds must be segmented. You are right and I never disagreed that my first post certainly does not exclude segmented leds but does not require them either.

What cameras have LED viewfinders where the actual values light up instead of markers next to them?

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