viewfinder - What are the benefits of EVFs over the rear LCD?

I have had many cameras, both Digital and Film.

Yet I am still to find a situation where using the EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) is of benefit.

With a DSLR I use the optical viewfinder, it is accurate and natural. Sometimes I use the Back LCD in Live View, but not very often for stills. With Mirrorless / Point & Shoots I use the back LCD, even if it has an EVF.

When would I use the EVF over the rear LCD?

Answer

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  Pushing the camera towards your head will significantly stabilize the framing; I, for one, need a faster shutter speed when shooting without looking through the VF. Also, it is less strenuous to use the camera close to the body. I also like that the distance between my eye and the EVF does not change (that much) compared to the rear LCD, so I can be fairly sure that my eye is well-adapted to the screen at any moment.

  
  


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  Another situation where it might come in handy is when shooting against the light - with the backside LCD, you might be blinded by the light. Looking through the EVF will effectively block your eye from surrounding light. _{Mind you: pointing your camera directly at the sun is still a bad idea - with EVF, it will not hurt your eyes, but the sensor (it's a bit less bad - but bad enough ;-) ).}

  
  



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  Also, a quick googlelin'¹ turned up a blog entry called "Sony a7rII current draw — EVF vs LCD" that states:

  
  

  
  

  The EVF does draw more current. However, because it drops down to rougly 250ma when your eye isn’t at the finder, you may indeed find your batteries lasting longer with the EVF.

  
  

  
  

_{1: Thanks to aaaaaa for the inspiration!}

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However, I would not think that there is a "always use EVF if..."-rule. If you don't like it and you don't need it, then there's nothing wrong with that.