The viewfinder is the part of the camera that indicates, either optically or electronically, what will appear in the field of view of the lens. In most cases this is a glass window you look through when composing, but in some cases in can be as simple as one or more wire frames you use to approximate your field of view. Many of today's point-and-shoot digicams have omitted the optical viewfinder and use an LCD screen on the back of the camera as its viewfinder.
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