Paul Furman wrote:
schizoid_man wrote:

I'm new to DSLR photography, but have owned compact digital cameras
over the years.

I don't quite understand what the big deal is about LiveView, as this
technology has been available in compacts for at least 6-7 years now,
right?

I just recently got a live view SLR and it's not as useful as I thought it
would be. I missed it when moving up to a DSLR but haven't really embraced
it's return. One case where it was sort of usable was in macros, you can
frame the shot then quickly zoom in to the detail to refine focus before
snapping... but for the most part having a bigger, clearer optical view to
compose and frame is a lot more powerful way to visualize. In theory it
would be ideal for tripod work too but in practice it's still nicer to set
up with the viewfinder and you can snap a test shot and check it quicker
than changing modes, etc. Really annoying to accidentally leave it in live
view mode too.

I would like to see a studio setup with live view ported to a laptop sized
screen.

Do you mean remote LiveView (tethered) shooting, like with Canon's EOS
Utility?