As much as we love the LCD screen, we don't use it as a viewfinder. This eats up battery power like there's no tomorrow. Also, it can increase the likelihood of taking blurry pictures, since holding the camera away from your face tends to make it less stable. We know what you're thinking . . . squinting through the tiny viewfinder can be a pain. But using the optical viewfinder will keep you shooting a lot longer before you need to recharge and will increase your chances of getting tack-sharp photos.

If you're using a digicam, however, there are two exceptions to this. First, when the lens is zoomed out, part of the lens may interfere with the view in the optical viewfinder, necessitating use of the LCD screen as the viewfinder. And second, when doing macro (close-up) photography, you may encounter the parallax problem. Parallax is when you see one thing and your lens sees another (so what you see in your viewfinder does not match the final image exactly). This problem becomes worse the closer you get to your subject. To help you get the composition you want, many cameras will automatically force the LCD to come on when you turn the macro mode on. In these two instances, digicam users might opt to use the LCD screen as the viewfinder.

For those of you with digital SLR cameras, on the other hand, what you see through the viewfinder is what you get. You look though the picture-taking lens and see exactly what the sensor "sees." With these types of cameras, you never need to use the LCD screen as a viewfinder, even when doing macro photography.