One of the remaining BIG advantages of DSLR camera over Mirrorless cameras is that you can frame your images through an optical viewfinder. It’s simply more “connecting” than watching through an electronic viewfinder. Well, it looks like Panasonic will soon eliminate that last DSLR advantage!

The image on top is quite complex but the idea behind it is simple: Panasonic patented an optical viewfinder which actually changes focal length in sync with any Micro Four Thirds lens! For example the optical viewfinder shows an 20mm focal length when you sue it along the 20mm pancake or 42,5mm focal length when you use the Leica Nocticron. And it obvisouly would also sync with any zoom lens too! It would become the first universal useable and variable optical viewfinder for any current digital mirrorless system. And it basically woudl do a similar job of an Optical viewfinder you usually have on a DSLR:

Like you see th optical viewfinder zooms into the subject just like a real zoom lens. The official technical presentation from Panasonic says:

An optical viewfinder is configured to be attached to a camera body with an interchangeable lens. The optical viewfinder includes: a Keplerian viewfinder optical system 301 including a scalable objective lens group 330; a stepping motor 305 configured to drive the objective lens group 330 along an optical axis; and a control circuit configured to control driving of the stepping motor 305 based on a result of detection by a PI 306. When a variable focal length lens (an interchangeable lens) is attached to a camera body, the control circuit controls driving of the stepping motor 305 in accordance with a focal length of the variable focal length lens and displays at least a photographing frame on an EVF panel 307.

I love that!

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Note: Please be nice and link back to 43rumors if you repost that news. I spent half a day to find that patent :)