OM SYSTEM Olympus VF-3 Electronic Viewfinder (Silver)

I really wanted the Olympus OM-D E-M5. Cost was, however, a major impediment (don't you just hate that?). Through a lot of research, I decided that the E-PL5 would fill the bill for me as an alternative. Smaller, lighter, very similar innards (and, on sale!) - the biggest difference was the lack of an electronic viewfinder on the E-PL5.So I bought my E-PL5. I'm extremely happy with it, but... I found that I really missed the EVF in some shooting situations. The tilting LCD view screen on the back of the camera is excellent and very easy to use most of the time, but to me the camera feels more like a cheaper point-and-shoot without a viewfinder. It has the capability to be much more.So, I bit the bullet and bought this VF-3 EVF. I got it for a really good price here on Amazon. I wondered if it would really make a difference, or if I had made a mistake not buying the OMD in the first place.Well, as far as I am concerned, this VF-3 EVF is a required piece of hardware for any Olympus PEN camera. Snapping this small gadget onto the accessory port brings this camera to a much more serious level. Manual focussing is now very easy. Bright sunlight? No problem. It's easier for me to adjust depth-of-field and myriad other manual settings by looking through the viewfinder rather than trying to hold the camera and adjust settings with only the LCD. The view through the eyepiece is exactly the same as the LCD screen - all the shooting info, histograms, menus, etc. are there if you want them. The VF-3 is very compact and clicks securely to the hotshoe on top, no worries about it falling off and getting lost. I often leave it attached even when I'm not using it, it's very unobtrusive.So, should you buy this one (VF-3) or the larger, brighter, more expensive VF-4? The VF-4 has a couple of advantages - - it has a larger and higher resolution screen inside, it is also brighter. One other advantage of the VF-4 is the eye-sensing feature - look through it and it turns on automatically. Is the VF-4 worth more than twice the price of the VF-3? Well, not to me. The VF-3's screen is perfectly adequate - not too small and plenty bright enough for anything I have tried. The larger size of the VF-4 is, to me, a drawback - the PEN cameras are all extremely compact, this is one of the virtues of my E-PL5. The VF-4 looks kind of clunky and clumsy when mounted, and takes away from the sleek size of the PEN camera. The eye-sensing is about the only thing that I wish the VF-3 had - you have to push the little black button below the eyepiece to turn the EVF on and the LCD off. It's not really a big deal when in use, but it would be nice if it was automatic.Summing up - - if you own an Olympus PEN camera and you want to use it for more than simple snap shots - - you need this.

The VF3 was better than nothing. It's good enough to frame and compose your images when the sun is too bright to use the LCD. I did appreciate the locking function over the VF2. My issues with the VF3 was the poor quality of the output. Colors seemed washed out and was not very accurate. The resolution was too low to accurately use for manual focusing. If you are just looking for a way to easier compose your pictures while in the sun then this is good for you. If you expect to judge the color, focus, exposure, etc of the image through the VF then this isn't the VF for you. The image quality through the VF3 just isn't good enough to do that.

I have an Oly Pen ePL1, and made mistake of buying the optical viewfinder which is of no help focusing. Next, I considered the more expensive VF-2, but then opted for the cheaper and slightly less detailed display of the VF-3 electronic viewfinder. First, though, one has to get firmware upgrade 1.2 from Olympus site in order to use this viewfinder on the ePL1. The VF3 attaches easily to the slot for it atop the camera, and the display can be switched between the VF3 and LCD screen by pressing an oval button. Another little button allows one to tilt the VF3 to a fully vertical position for shots taken close to the ground. The display is not bad at all, and I have none of the problems with image clarity or color reported by a few other users of ePL1.For those of you familiar with the EVF on Sony Nex cameras, this one for Oly is not all that different, with one major exception...no focus peaking, although image magnification to aid focusing works quite well. Other reasons for getting an EVF to focus, rather than depending solely on the LCD display is that the EVF works in bright light, and the image itself can be stabilized by holding firmly to one's face; it is very hard to get a clear image to focus manual lenses on the LCD display when the camera must be held at considerable distance away from one's face to be visible.

As a camera viewfinder as designed. Useful in sunlight on a Pen camera.

Very helpful kit.

Hi there,My first review only meant it would have been nice to know this view finder needed special software to work with view finder. To be able to down load software to camera you needed a special cable. Had to buy cable get software to computer and download it to camera. Not a 5 minute job.RegardsMrs K Church

I bought this to add on to my E-PL5. Works great!

So useful. Converts a four thirds camera with screen into (almost) an SLR!