Canon T3 Viewfinder

Canon T3 Viewfinder

The Canon T3 features a digital SLR design, so the optical viewfinder offers a true, through-the-lens (TTL) display. A dioptric adjustment dial accommodates eyeglass wearers, letting them adjust the viewfinder optics between -2.5 to +0.5 diopters, a rather shorter range than with most of Canon's DSLRs. Coverage is rated the same as the preceding Rebel XS model at 95%, but magnification is just a touch lower, at 0.8x for a 50mm lens and -1 diopter, versus the XS's 0.81x magnification. The viewfinder eyepiece has an eyepoint of approximately 21mm from the eyepiece lens center, unchanged from the XS.

Like the Canon XS, the T3 viewfinder uses a pentamirror design. The advantage of a pentamirror is that it is lighter and less expensive; however, it also delivers less light to the viewfinder eyepiece, thanks to less efficient internal reflection than can be achieved with an all-glass pentaprism design. As a result, the Canon T3's viewfinder image is not as bright as the EOS 50D, which at around $1,100 is Canon's lowest-priced model to use a true pentaprism.

The illustration below (courtesy Canon USA) shows all the elements in the Canon T3's viewfinder. The extensive information available appears beneath the image area in a small strip, and reports all of the major camera settings, such as shutter speed, aperture, flash mode, EV compensation, etc. The information display is similar to that of the Rebel XS, with the exception of the addition of indicators for highlight tone priority and white balance correction.