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Photography Culture

The Feature Missing from Modern Cameras We All Forgot About

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 01/21/2026
01/20/2026
2 Mins read
Gloved hands holding a vintage camera on a black surface with a red circular logo in the corner.
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Last Updated on 01/21/2026 by Chris Gampat

The staff and I at the Phoblographer can get pretty bored playing with what feels like the same camera over and over again. It feels like when you peer into the viewfinder, we’re all just getting the same experience over and over again. What’s more, they’re all getting really boring because none of these cameras stand out. With that said, I wish that we brought back a missing feature: the optical viewfinder.

Currently on the market, the Leica M11 and the options from Pixi are the only optical viewfinder cameras around. That’s not if you’re counting all the new screenless digital cameras that have launched recently. But the truth is that relying on electronic viewfinders has limited the imagination of photographers. If the camera is showing you what you’re getting, it’s taking away the magic of happy accidents being more common and us being happy with the effect.

I think the bigger problem, though, is that photographers are also looking at screens too much and not using their imagination enough. This is resulting in everyone making the same work over and over again. It partially makes me want to go buy a DSLR again just to see what kind of results I’d get from just shooting with a camera like that again. Sometimes I even am tempted to buy a medium format digital back for my Hasselblad 501C series camera because I enjoyed shooting with it so much. Sure, sometimes the focus wasn’t perfect because I was doing it manually. But the images were absolutely stunning and I slowed down to make those photos. That’s what was important to me.

The best option was the Fujifilm X Pro 3 and that entire line. But it doesn’t truly seem like Fujifilm cares much about it.

If you’re thinking this is crazy: then I challenge you to go out there and make one images a day that no one has probably ever made. Use lens filters, use in-camera trickery, flash, etc. Make something that a generative AI can’t do.

And yes, it starts with using an optical viewfinder. This is an integral path that splits into so many other options.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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