Display options for an electronic viewfinder?

There are two types of EVF solutions. Either it's a LCD screen with a bit of magnification or it's solved by using much more compact LCOS imaging element often found in digital projection systems and in some cases in high end personal 3D glasses.


Advantages of LCD based electronic viewfinder:

• Can be used as an external monitor, albeit small but at 3" it can be used for akward angles, on sliders etc.
• Magnification factor of 2X to 3X will not introduce major optical distortions like pincushioning and CA.

Disadvantages:

• Relatively high power consumption (half a day, maybe even less on built in batteries)
• 300+ pixels per inch with 24 bit colors under 3.4" are quite pricey. Most manufacturers won't consider a QTY under 100K pieces as the affordable ones are mostly designed for mobile/consumer applications.

Advantages of LCOS based system:

• Low power consumption
• High resolution, statistically
• Compact* size, less than 1" diagonal, often even less than 0.5"

Disadvantages:

• *Requires high magnification which introduces image degradation, 10X or more to achieve the relative image size comparable to LCD based viewfinders like the 2.7" Sony HDVFC30WR
• Can't be used as "monitor" for low or high angle shots.