A viewfinder is a small window on a camera that a photographer looks through to see what a photo will look like before they capture it. It is the device that shows the photographer what is in the frame, alongside the camera settings and other helpful information. There are two types of viewfinders: optical and electronic.
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Optical Viewfinder: This type of viewfinder is found in DSLRs and works by light passing through the lens and bouncing off the reflex mirror and prism in the camera. What the photographer sees comes from the image that the camera sees.
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Electronic Viewfinder: This type of viewfinder is a real-time view of what the cameras imaging sensor is seeing. It is found in some compact and mirrorless cameras and is essentially the same as what the LCD Live View screen shows.
Viewfinders are used in many cameras of different types: still and movie, film, analog, and digital. Some cameras, such as camera phones and mirrorless cameras, do not have viewfinders and display the image preview on a larger screen. Looking through the viewfinder helps photographers stabilize the camera better and take sharper images.
