I found out that with a waist finder, I look and compose the scene in my mind, then, only, frame it... While with a reflex, I move a frame on a subject till I find a composition I like ! With a rangefinder it's a little of both worlds, but you still have to raise the camera to eye level !
Some high level reflex allowed for the changing of the viewfinder, and the use of a "semi-waist" level sort ! But now they've sealed the damn thing! "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
You hold the camera at "waist" height (usually a bit higher) and look down to frame, focus, etc. Not to confuse with "sport finders" which were just a wire crisscrossed frame still used in underwater shoots !
Some P&S like the "twisting" coolpix series (900, 4500, SQ), allows for shooting at the "waist" while looking down to he LCD (and give the photographer shooting in between parked cars, the look of someone who's doing something else :-) )!
From the Nikon F to the F4 (dunno for the F5, but the F6 is definitely sealed) those reflex with prism cameras could have the prism taken off and replaced by a "waist loupe" that would allow a different way of shooting! "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
So much for the incessant change of lenses or zooming that we do today, as those were with a fixed lens (on one model though, you could change the dual lens for another set)! It's the Vietnam war that brought in many people's mind the multi-purposedness of the SLR or "single" lens reflex with changeable lenses...
So we'll get to see them next Friday ? :-) "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
