The electronic viewfinder is one of the greatest advantages of mirrorless cameras, offering the ability to preview your exposure in real-time, leaving behind the days of miscalculated shots. However, as this informative video details, it can easily mislead you and cause you to mess up important photos.
Coming to you from Katelyn James, this helpful video details a subtle problem with real-time exposure previews in electronic viewfinders. The problem is that the exposure preview in an electronic viewfinder is correct in the sense that it shows you the relative brightness of the overall exposure, but not necessarily in the individual contributions of each exposure parameter. In other words, your shutter speed might be far too slow for the action at hand, and you might not even realize this because the total exposure is still correct. What is worse is that a lot of photographers check their shots less with a mirrorless camera because of the confidence they get from the exposure preview. So, while that real-time exposure preview can be tremendously useful and can help you stay more engaged with things like posing and composition, make sure you are checking the actual shots every once in a while to ensure the individual settings are where they should be. Check out the video above for the full rundown from James.
Something can be dangerous or subtle, but "dangerously subtle"? That makes no sense.
I usually set the aperture and the speed I feel comfortable handholding and just change ISO so problem solved
Dangerous and dangerously are not the same words. So, yes, something can be "dangerously subtle". Brush up on your adverbs and adjectives.
This is true. Exposure of the actual scene is very rarely reproduced correctly on the EVF. Depending on the camera band, it could be way off. When I shot with Sony, everything on the EVF appeared a little brighter than the exposure taken. Colors were not accurate either. Now that I shoot with Fujifilm, the screen is far more accurate. Since I only shoot in RAW, it isn't a big deal since it can be fixed in post production. If I shot Jpeg only, I'd probably be screwed LoL! Nice video that bring attention to a problem that most people have, but never notice.
I see where she's getting at, but don't you guys use the histogram preview in the EVF? To me that's the best part of an EVF. My Z6II has a great one, and I could probably rely on it, but why would I, the histogram is a much better way to get an idea of the exposure.
That's exactly the point of the article. Your exposure may be correct, but, if your shutter speed is too slow for the scenario, your images may be blurry or not as sharp.
Well, yeah. Of course, but that's not a mirrorless-only thing. That's photography as a whole.
It is a mirrorless thing because it's an EVF thing. Read your initial post.
Panasonic Lumix S (full frame) series have a great setting for that. They show you real time shutter speed. Meaning if you have a 1/30 you can actually see the camera shake in live view. If you have a 1" shutter speed you can see the light streaks produced by the long shutter speed setting. Great for creative options but also to prevent wrong settings. Not sponsored by the way ;-)
Dear Kate, you might be better served shooting in M mode or at a minimum set parameters on your Tv using auto ISO. Alternatively, in your style of shooting auto bracketing could assist you as well. While one can easily obsess and chimp every image, at least you should be doing test shots or periodic review. Sorry, blaming the equipment is a poor excuse.
Absolutely correct. She is shooting fully manual but clearly is not up for that. I use exactly the solution that you use. Auto ISO then adjust shutter and aperture as required. Unless it is pitch black the mid level iso output is now so good that it doesn’t matter if you creep above base iso for fast paced work
I actually made the same mistake recently with my R5 while shooting portraits. My solution was to set a minimum shutter speed in my settings to prevent too long exposures and problem solved.
PS. I have programmed one of my custom functions just for portraits and it was only within this C mode that I made this change.
Careless photographer relies solely on the gear to get the shot then complains when it doesn’t.
Mirrorless cameras are amazing at what they do, but you should still check your results and at the very least use the histogram as a guide.
Oh boy, take the shot and then check it in the viewfinder if you have to.
Ride the ISO not the shutter :-)
Confession: I know my camera inside and out. Every function, every dial, knob and button. I can shoot photos with the best of them. I also make a good living because of my photography work. However... I am a serial chimper! No matter how perfect the shot is, I have to see it afterwards. There's just something about that final review that keeps me alive! Looking at that screen, I feel like Shang Tsung after stealing a few fresh souls! DON'T JUDGE ME TOO HARSHLY
Who delivers images without even slightly touching them up? If it’s off one or two stops, isn’t that easily fixable?
There is a reason for the histogram.
Nostalgia moment: I remember shooting high school and college basketball games for the newspaper in gyms with terrible lighting back in the 90's. My Nikon F100 viewfinder showed me nothing other than framing, and my exposure settings. Everyone else had cameras that operated like that, and yet we STILL managed to get correct images for the newspaper. And we couldn't chimp to confirm exposure. But yeah, I get it... tools have changed, and so have photographer expectations.
... and skill sets.
That's kind of a rookie mistake... rule of thumb; shutter speed is double your focal length. But it's not dangerous...