What Viewfinders Tell Us

CAMERA	EXPOSURE	CONTRAST	COLOR BALANCE
Eye/Brain	Exceeds film and Video ability	Use squint test	Automatic and difficult to judge
Film	Nothing	Nothing	Nothing
Consumer Camcorder (On Auto)	Nothing, low resolution	What is recoreded	What is recorded
Consumer Camcorder (On Manual)	F-Stop, DB Gain	What is recoreded	What is recoreded
Professional Video	F-Stop, DB Gain (If requested)	What is recoreded	No indication (Trust white ballance)

What this tells us:

The eye/brain and memory of experience can help judge exposure, and color balance. The squint test can judge contrast quite well.

For all film cameras you are not getting Contrast and Color Balance information in the viewfinder, only framing.

For video you do see exposure, contrast and color balance in the viewfinder.

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