[LRflex] Re: My .02 worth - Live View???
- From: David Young <telyt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 10:32:23 -0700
Aram pondered:
>I must be confused. What is the big deal about "live view"? Doesn't an SLR
>have "live view" as we look through the viewfinder. True, the viewfinder
>goes black when we take the photo but I challenge anyone to determine if a
>perso blinked a fraction of a sceond before you took the photo, or during
>the expousre, or a fraction of a second after? With my TLR Rollei, it has
>live view and I can not make that determination. Hey, with digital I can
>chimp and see if they blinked.
>
>So, what am I missing about this live view thing? Seems like a bunch of
>hype to me with my present understanding.
>
>Aram
Hi Aram!
Yes, I agree with you. However, Howard Cummer is a big fan of "live
view". I'm not sure where Xavier and Philippe stand, on the issue.
Good photographic practice dictates we hold our cameras braced
against our cheeks and foreheads, with our arms tucked in, to
minimize camera shake. What we should never do is hold our cameras
at arms length, while shooting. Yet, this is what the users of small
P&S models do. Such cameras have/had such poor finders that people
adopted this method of "Live View" framing, as the camera back LCDs
are much larger/clearer than their camera's finders.
When the P&S makers discovered this, they solved the problem, in many
cases, by no longer making finders, at all! (It is this "at arms
length" practice which forced the makers to adopt some sort of IS in
their P&S cameras, as well!)
"Live View" simply makes the image available on the LCD for
framing. This is possible in two ways....
1) You can open the shutter, and use the camera's sensor to provide
the image. This means the mirror is up, and thus AF is not available
in this mode. To take the shot, the shutter is closed, the sensor
cleared and then the shutter is opened, once more. When the shutter
closes, the mirror is lowered, as normal.
2) the maker can place a second sensor in the finder, thus allowing
"live view" on the LCD with the mirror down and enabling AF at the
same time. However, this requires siphoning more light from the
finder to the sensor, making the finder that much dimmer.
Harold maintains that he can neither see nor measure any difference
in brightness of the finders of his PanaLeica L1 (method 1) and his
Oly (method 2). Still, I am, like Doug, a huge fan of bright
finders, and would not want any feature which dims the finder - even
if only marginally.
I can see having "live view" via method 1, as it does not affect the
finder, and could be useful for macro and other tripod work, where
you can watch the screen and perform manual focusing. To me, LV, via
method 2 only encourages bad photographic practice.
The PanaLeica L1 and Leica D3 have LV via mode 1, as does (it is
rumoured) the coming Canon 40d. In fact, mode 1 LV could be easily
implemented on just about any dSLR (even the R8/9 + DMR) via a
programming update (though any DMR update is looking like a faint
hope, at this point), as the mirror's are fired and held up under
software control. The only drawback is that holding the mirror up
consumes a disproportionate amount of batter power. But, for the odd
time you'd use it, I can see it being very handy.
A final thought...
I've been taking some photos on a borrowed Kodak (Oh, how the mighty
have fallen!) Easy-Share, which, like most P&S cameras, has LV and a
lousy finder. Indoors, on a tripod, LV was a delight for framing the
shots seen at http://www3.telus.net/~telyt/Minolta.htm . In fact the
little 6mp Kodak acquitted itself very well. (It's terrible shutter
lag is not important on the tripod, where I use the ST as it has no
cable release.)
Yesterday, I tried to use the same camera, to photograph Rose's "new"
1992 truck, now on the road. Using LV in bright sunlight was an
almost impossibility... though the photos themselves were OK.
Does it make more sense, now?
Cheers!
---
David Young,
Logan Lake, CANADA
Wildlife Photographs: http://www.telyt.com/
Personal Web-pages: http://www3.telus.net/~telyt
Stock Photography at: http://tinyurl.com/2amll4
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