The Balancing Act - Or Why The Screen Swings Out

Over the last few years the swinging LCD screen has become popular. Like other forms of swinging it has its hazards - my wife discovered this with a video camera that featured a screen that swivelled out to the side. When she rounded a corner suddenly with the camera and the screen hit the wall...it proved an expensive replacement job. Not the fault of the camera, but if it had not been out there it would not have hit the wall.

The ones that do not swing to the side are a bit less fraught - the Fujifilm. Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony companies have all made models of compact and mirror-less cameras that have an articulated screen that drops down or folds up in a straight line.

Those of you who do studio work, macro, wildflowers or food photography with a camera that does not feature one of these screens are shortchanging yourselves - this feature lets you look at what you are getting without doing contortions. You can even do selfies with accuracy - and with the added advantage that as you take them you can see just how bad a duckface makes you look.

If you do not have one on your camera it is time to change.