Patent ID: 7424219

Claim:
A viewfinder system for a digital camera that comprises a main optical path for projecting an outside scene image onto a light sensitive area facility, which facility determines a user field, and an optical extraction path for through mirror-operation extracting a fraction of said outside scene image onto a viewer optical path, wherein said viewer optical path comprises a first mask for inserting a negative delineating outline into a viewer field and a second mask for inserting a positive delineating outline into the viewer field, both said first and second masks corresponding to said user field, wherein at least one of said first and second masks is realized by an electronic device that has its mask size variably controlled by an electronic facility on the basis of pixel-wise driving, wherein the other of said first and second masks includes a surface upon which is attached a code facility operable to express a digital electronic code defined by a size of the other of said first and second masks, and wherein said electronic device is controlled by a sensor facility coupled to the code facility operable for sensing the digital electronic code.