5d III and liveview for photography

kostas

kostas

Well-known member
I did some initial tests with my newly acquired 5d mark III, and what striked me the most initially is that the exposure level of the liveview for photography and for video are completely different. Exposure on the lcd liveview for video is accurate (you see what you will record, and even what you can photograph (with crop bars in video mode)), whereas exposure on the lcd in photo mode is 2-3 stops darker!
This is really a pain, and makes shooting stills with manual focus in lowlight pretty impossible.
This was not the case on the mkII. I have read the manual regarding this issue but don't seem to find how to make the liveview look the same for the same given settings between video mode and stills mode.
Please advise!
 
Samuel H said:
is that with a manual lens? http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...-550D-when-using-vintage-manual-lenses-SOLVED
Click to expand...

Yes with a manual lens. Thanks,
I have tried your solution and it improved things a bit. However, my fastest AF lens is f2.8, and it is still more than one stop of difference with a manual lens of, say, f=1.2... So the problem still persists.
Shooting stills in video mode doesn't exhibit the same problem, but then stills are cropped...

HDR mode is off.
 
then you just have to hope for magic lantern on the 5D3 to be released soon: recent versions fix this issue perfectly
 
I would rather hope that this is going to be sorted soon by official firmware update.
Anyway, this is another important issue with the mark III, the mark II didn't have. The other is the position of the zoom button. I am using manual lenses all the time, so this is almost critical for me for photography...
 
kostas said:
I would rather hope that this is going to be sorted soon by official firmware update.
Anyway, this is another important issue with the mark III, the mark II didn't have. The other is the position of the zoom button. I am using manual lenses all the time, so this is almost critical for me for photography...
Click to expand...

You can reprogramme the focus assist to SET button
 
and this issue has been in the T2i since release: no idea if the 5D2 had it or not, but it's not anything new, and I doubt they'll solve it in firmware
 
You don't have chips on your adapters, right?
I've never seen this happen with a chipped adapter on the t2i.
 
indeed, I use dumb lenses and dumb adapters, no chips anywhere but on the body - but I think A1ex was having issues on his T2i with chipped adapters too, that's why he started working on that fix in ML
 
I do not use any chip adapters either. A chip on an M42 to EOS adapter on the t2i caused exposure flickering in video mode, so I threw it away, and never reconsidered chips anymore.

To be honest I didn't notice the dark lcd issue on the t2i so far. Maybe did I shoot stills in video mode.
However, this exposure issue on the mark III is really annoying. I don't know how many people shoot stills on the mkiii with manual lenses, but now it becomes even more tedious (dark lcd, zoom button on the set button) than before (markii) and the whole "retrograde" is unacceptable for a $3.500 camera :(.
 
5D2 has the same issue.

With chipped adapter, you can dial the aperture back and forth - and the problem gets fixed. Without chip, you can't do that...

Sometimes you can get away by setting the aperture wide-open on the Canon lens before you remove it. Or, shoot in movie mode.
 
I haven't noticed this on the mk Ii because in M mode settings are the same for video and photo.
Please do something in firmware about this. And the zoom button at the right place (not only at the set button)!
 
Still waiting for magic lantern to resolve this issue... :beer:
I have to report however that Samuel's workaround provides a temporary solution. Before shooting stills with any of my old school manual lenses, I have to put the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens on the body, set aperture to f1.8, and then exposure is fine with manual lenses.
Not always the easiest thing to do, but I have started calling the EF 50 1.8 "the medicine" or "the magic potion" for the Mark III.... :grin:
 
(I think a1ex also found some similar issues with chipped manual lenses, but they were easier to solve with ML)
 
If you ever used a 7D the same thing would happen. Exposure simulation doesn't work with old manual lenses! You can shoot stills in live-view video mode, however, as long as you don't go under 1/30 shutter.
 
Kellar42 said:
If you ever used a 7D the same thing would happen. Exposure simulation doesn't work with old manual lenses! You can shoot stills in live-view video mode, however, as long as you don't go under 1/30 shutter.
Click to expand...

I have the 550d and this is also true,
but my initial point is that in the 5dII there was no distinct dedicated live view for stills & for video, so shooting liveview stills gave the correct aspect ratio.
But on the 5dIII if you shoot stills on the video live view mode you get the right exposure simulation, but the format of the picture is 16:9 (you get two horizontal blue crop bars). Hence, for a photo aspect ratio you have to shoot in stills live view with all the workarounds mentioned above...
 
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