The manual focus was accidentally activated. Everything appears grainy, dim and washed out. You're shooting in poor lighting conditions. Or you accidentally activated the high-speed shutter, thereby reducing the exposure level. Time and date keep flashing in viewfinder.
Viewfinder shuts off when viewscreen is opened.
Some camcorders will let you override this feature, and some will turn the viewfinder back on if the viewscreen is swiveled all the way around to face forward. Digital Filmmaking Discussions Talk about it in the ZDNet forums Email this story to a friend or get a printer-friendly version . 2000 ZD Inc. All rights reserved. ZDNet and the ZDNet logo are trademarks of ZD Inc.