Using movie mode to preview stills exposure

M

mkeep

Active member
I'm so used to seeing a live preview of the exposure in the movie mode that I'm having some trouble adjusting to stills mode. I know that you can use the aperture/shutter preview button but for some reason I'm finding that to be a hassle and it doesn't work very well. I don't really want to preview the effect of the shutter speed either, although it's a nice feature. I really just want to see my exposure.

So I've started switching between movie mode to preview the exposure and then into manual mode to shoot the stills. Is there a better way to do this though? Why can't I just get a live readout on the LCD in stills mode like it works in movie mode?
 
exposure meter? i mean, viewing in movie mode is the same as viewing the effect of the shutter speed. it's a real time preview of your picture. maybe use the histogram too?
 
Car3o said:
i mean, viewing in movie mode is the same as viewing the effect of the shutter speed.
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Except that the shutter preview requires two button presses and goes away when you take a picture. Plus it makes the motion look all stuttery on slower shutter speeds.

What's really strange is that the live preview is just applying some kind of auto gain. When I adjust the Fader ND I can see the picture get darker or brighter for a second, and then the LCD changes the gain to adjust to some kind of medium setting. Very annoying.
 
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Yeah, I haven't figured out a way around that either, I take all my stills by getting ready in movie mode and switching quickly. If anyone knows a better way, I'm all ears...
 
mkeep said:
Except that the shutter preview requires two button presses and goes away when you take a picture. Plus it makes the motion look all stuttery on slower shutter speeds.

What's really strange is that the live preview is just applying some kind of auto gain. When I adjust the Fader ND I can see the picture get darker or brighter for a second, and then the LCD changes the gain to adjust to some kind of medium setting. Very annoying.
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then what are you trying to achieve? are you against pushing 2 buttons to get real time preview, which is what you want?

yes in picture mode the lcd adjusts the gain so you can see your photo, because there isn't a mirror like most other cameras. the slow shutter effect is exactly that, it's going to have a long delay because you're using a slow shutter.
 
i just tried this tonight cause it never occurred to me and i gotta say for some reason adjusting and setup is so much easier. Sure clicking too and from video is the same number of steps as pressing the other two buttons but for me it just feels more natural. I think i will be adopting this method alot more but hey, each to their own really.
 
Nice tip that.

I too get annoyed at pressing both buttons to get an actual preview. It wouldn't be so bad if it stayed on!

Obviously you've got to make sure you match your movie mode settings with your still settings.
 
Well I see the points here but I gotta say that I am completely fine with how it is. First of all if it could preview like that then it would be able to shoot video like that. It can't happen but would be cool. But one thing is that part of knowing your camera, how light falls onto a subject, what 1 f-stop can do, yadda yadda, is part of being a good photographer. So I think what it does, for me, is help me to be a better photographer. I will look at a shot, go through it in my head what I think it should look like in camera and adjust the settings. Then after that I can see my results instantly, because it is digital. So there is always that... taking your photograph and looking at it instantly.
 
Nitsuj said:
So there is always that... taking your photograph and looking at it instantly.
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This is what I do, I think this is the fastest way. You've got a meter and a histogram, you should be able to roughly dial in exposure, snap a shot or two, and then tweak.
 
Car3o said:
then what are you trying to achieve?
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I would like an option to turn off the automatic gain on the LCD preview when in the photo modes. Either that and/or the option to turn the shutter preview mode on and leave it on. I guess I posted this thread hoping somebody would know about some option buried deep in the menus that accomplished one of these two things, but I guess not.
 
mkeep said:
I would like an option to turn off the automatic gain on the LCD preview when in the photo modes. Either that and/or the option to turn the shutter preview mode on and leave it on. I guess I posted this thread hoping somebody would know about some option buried deep in the menus that accomplished one of these two things, but I guess not.
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I think the trouble is that traditional cameras just don't work that way and are actually more similar to the way the GH1 is presenting the image to you with the automatic gain, all you can do is see through the lens, you can't see what it's going to look like until you've developed the photo.

It would get pretty tricky and maddening if you were shooting very slow shutter speeds (say, 1 second or longer exposures) to have the camera responding and refreshing so slowly - and you probably wouldn't be able to focus and/or compose very well if it were giving you this sort of preview.

With a traditional camera you meter and take the photo, maybe you bracket just to be on the safe side (moreso with film but it also applies to digital).

In your defense, I guess I don't see why Panasonic couldn't add the option to give you a preview without the auto-gain, but my guess is that it would actually be a bigger pain to work with than the way it works now, and it would confuse the hell out of most consumers if they made it a default setting. Again, the big problem would be focus and composition if it were refreshing at slow shutter speeds - especially really long ones.

I guess I still don't understand why it's not adequate to just meter, take the photo, and look at it, it's sort of an "on demand" preview of what you are doing that way.
 
mkeep said:
I would like an option to turn off the automatic gain on the LCD preview when in the photo modes. Either that and/or the option to turn the shutter preview mode on and leave it on. I guess I posted this thread hoping somebody would know about some option buried deep in the menus that accomplished one of these two things, but I guess not.
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okay. well the shutter preview doesn't shut off for me. i'll have to find the settings why it doesn't. don't rely on your preview to take properly exposed pictures. meter it correctly first. you shouldn't rely on it. but that last part is subjective.
 
thisisapocalypse said:
I think the trouble is that traditional cameras just don't work that way and are actually more similar to the way the GH1 is presenting the image to you with the automatic gain, all you can do is see through the lens, you can't see what it's going to look like until you've developed the photo.
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Yes, I've shot on film and I've used DSLRs. This is not an SLR. That was part of the appeal to me. There is no mirror, so there's no reason to be stuck in this DSLR paradigm where the LCD doesn't really tell us what's going on.

thisisapocalypse said:
It would get pretty tricky and maddening if you were shooting very slow shutter speeds (say, 1 second or longer exposures) to have the camera responding and refreshing so slowly - and you probably wouldn't be able to focus and/or compose very well if it were giving you this sort of preview.
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Yes, as I said, I'm not actually crazy about the shutter preview. I just want a preview of the exposure. Essentially exactly what we see in movie mode, but for shooting stills. If you set the camera to a one second exposure, you should see roughly what the exposure will look like and the shutter speed simulation should be an additional option.

thisisapocalypse said:
In your defense, I guess I don't see why Panasonic couldn't add the option to give you a preview without the auto-gain, ...I guess I still don't understand why it's not adequate to just meter, take the photo, and look at it, it's sort of an "on demand" preview of what you are doing that way.
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If there were some kind of technical limitation preventing this (such as on a DSLR with a mirror) then it would be understandable, but the movie mode shows us that an actual live preview of the exposure is possible so it seems silly not to allow that functionality in any of the many stills modes.
 
what do you mean preview of the exposure? shutter preview is exactly the same as movie mode!!!!
an one second exposure is dependent on the shutter. so it can't fake simulate something if it's actually previewing 1 second of exposure.
do you have your dial on m?
 
Car3o said:
don't rely on your preview to take properly exposed pictures. meter it correctly first. you shouldn't rely on it. but that last part is subjective.
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I'm not talking about a replacement for metering. I'm talking about the difficulty of using a device like the Fader ND when you adjust the filter and see no change in the exposure because the LCD is arbitrarily adding or removing gain to make the preview look "correct". Now admittedly this is more a problem with the Fader ND for not having f stop markings, but given that a live preview is technically possible, it seems like an oversight not to allow it as an option.

Car3o said:
okay. well the shutter preview doesn't shut off for me. i'll have to find the settings why it doesn't.
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OK, that's interesting. On mine it goes away with a half shutter press. I'll have to look through the menu settings and see if there's a fix.
 
why are you having to pressing anything if you're previewing?

dude i give up. press trash button then display and if that's not what you want, then you don't know what you want. if you want a real time preview of your pictures before taking a picture....use the shutter preview. it's that simple.
 
Car3o said:
what do you mean preview of the exposure? shutter preview is exactly the same as movie mode!!!!
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Huh? Set your shutter to 1/30th in "M" mode. Hit the little aperture/trash button, and then "display" and you're in shutter preview mode. If you move the camera around, the motion is all jerky right? It actually simulates the shutter and motion blur effects. Now switch into movie mode. The exposure looks identical, but you see a full 60p live preview with no motion blur. Right?
 
because it's exaclty that you are shooting 1 fps vs 60/30fps....wouldn't film stutter if it were shooting 1 FRAME per Second vs 60 or 30???
 
Car3o said:
exposure is dependent on the shutter.
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We have a winner!

Further, this issue has nothing to do with the fact that this camera doesn't have a mirror. You can't preview a long exposure without giving the sensor the same amount of exposure time or at least simulating it with using a much higher ISO than you're going to shoot at so that it can get back into the shutter speed range that it can show without gain.

I understand that it is probably frustrating with a Fader ND and fighting the auto gain every time you try to use it to cut light - that's certainly annoying and a problem you wouldn't have with a typical SLR since you are looking straight through the lens, but in fairness without the autogain, for a number of exposure settings you wouldn't be able to see anything at all.
 
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