Using movie mode to preview stills exposure

laugh, ohh man. the movie mode is recording 24/30/60 frames a second at it's shutter speed. that's why it doesn't strobe or stutter in movie mode. in "still mode" it's showing you 1 frame a second at it's current shutter speed. are you confusing shutter speed with fps? they boost the gain on the lcd because if you're shooting at a high shutter speed you couldn't see the screen. whereas on traditional dslr's you simply look through a mirror to see your composition.
 
Car3o said:
laugh, ohh man. the movie mode is recording 24/30/60 frames a second at it's shutter speed. that's why it doesn't strobe or stutter in movie mode. in "still mode" it's showing you 1 frame a second at it's current shutter speed.
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Nope. First of all, the shutter preview mode refreshes much faster than 1fps, so I'm not sure what you're talking about. It also shows you the actual motion blur you will get at that shutter speed, and to do so probably requires a bit more processing power, hence the delay.

In movie mode you do not see motion blur on the live preview. There is no "shutter preview" function when in movie mode. Again, try setting your shutter speed to 1/30th in manual mode, turn on shutter preview and wave the camera around wildly and you'll see motion blur. Switch to movie mode, and notice that you no longer see any motion blur.

Car3o said:
they boost the gain on the lcd because if you're shooting at a high shutter speed you couldn't see the screen.
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Right, so why not boost the gain proportionally to the shutter speed to give you an accurate preview of exposure? Just like the camera does in movie mode. ;)
 
if you are viewing a single frame from 24p you have the same amount motion blur in 1 single still frame. they're just stitched together hence why you don't see the blur.

i'm giving up explaining this so someone else is gonna chime in. good luck.
 
No, you've explained yourself fine. I understand what you're saying. You're just wrong. ;)

Have you tried the test I mentioned? The motion blur is clearly different between 1/30th in shutter preview mode and 1/30th in movie mode. You can also clearly see the difference in motion blur when you switch between shutter speeds in shutter preview mode, while movie mode gives you the exact same motion blur characteristics on the display no matter which shutter speed you choose.

Movie mode does no real "shutter preview", it simply adjusts the gain of the LCD display to simulate the exposure. It has nothing to do with frame rates. I think you would see this pretty clearly if you just mess with it for a few minutes and test it as I described.
 
mkeep said:
No, you've explained yourself fine. I understand what you're saying. You're just wrong. ;)

Have you tried the test I mentioned? The motion blur is clearly different between 1/30th in shutter preview mode and 1/30th in movie mode. You can also clearly see the difference in motion blur when you switch between shutter speeds in shutter preview mode, while movie mode gives you the exact same motion blur characteristics on the display no matter which shutter speed you choose.

Movie mode does no real "shutter preview", it simply adjusts the gain of the LCD display to simulate the exposure. It has nothing to do with frame rates. I think you would see this pretty clearly if you just mess with it for a few minutes and test it as I described.
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okay. plain and simple. i'm going to disagree with you and let you carry on with your opinion. *wink*
 
Car3o said:
if you are viewing a single frame from 24p you have the same amount motion blur in 1 single still frame. they're just stitched together hence why you don't see the blur.
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that make sense to me. so in photo mode you see true shutter speed but in movie mode your seeing the same thing but multiples stitched together be it 50fps or 25fps PAL land hence why it is smoother.
 
Yes, preview hold is on. I guess that's what he meant by it staying on? "Just don't hit the shutter button" LOL.
 
ha yeah the obvious..lol i can understand why you may be hitting shutter half way with the stock lens to re-adjust focus and that takes you out of preview. It doesn't take you out of preview though when using a manual lens. You probably know that already though =)
 
MR Fanny said:
It doesn't take you out of preview though when using a manual lens.
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Yes, it certainly does. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here and you guys have a different camera than I do. I have a Canon 50mm 1.4 on the camera right now. If I put it into shutter preview mode and take a picture, the preview goes away. If I do a half shutter press (not that it actually does anything with this lens obv.) the preview goes away.

The suggestions here to just not press the shutter button or "use the histogram" are frankly pretty idiotic. But thanks anyway for the help.
 
well when I said do not press the shutter i meant do not press half way if you haven't set up exposure yet. there was no sarcasm implied.

your camera operates exactly the same as mine and everyone else. when you take a photo the preview goes away. maybe its panasonic's assumption that you have set exposure to your liking so you don't need to see it anymore and keep on shooting unless you need to change it again. otherwise you wouldn't be able to track properly because of the shutter speed effect/preview.

I thought that's how all dslr's work? you don't see what your gonna get so you take several test shots to check your settings. Pana thought it a good idea to show us the preview without taking a shot? This is my first dslr I dunno, i may be talking rubbish =)
 
The preview before you take your shot is for framing. You can't expect to see a live view of what the shot will look like in lower light. Think of what would happen. First you have to have the shutter open longer to collect more light. So if it was open like that and you were looking at it all you would see would be a big blur as you slightly move your camera. Secondly the longer you looked at it the brighter it would get until it was completely white.

Instead what we have is a preview that adjusts automatically to the light situation so you can actually frame your shot. If it was low light you couldn't see where you were framing since it is a live viewfinder instead of a mirror system. So it is only for framing, to view the menu, and to view the actual shot you took. Now with the video side of things it is different. You get what you see on there.

The video and still photography modes are two different worlds so you can't have a live view of your photograph you haven't taken yet. It's just a framing tool.
 
MR Fanny said:
I thought that's how all dslr's work?
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Yes, but this isn't a DSLR.

Nitsuj said:
The preview before you take your shot is for framing. You can't expect to see a live view of what the shot will look like in lower light.
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You can if gain is added to the display. With the current setup, if it's too dark to add enough gain to make the scene visible then you're not going to be able to see to frame anyway. In those cases, the camera could flash an icon or something indicating that it's too dark for the exposure preview to be accurate.

MR Fanny said:
The video and still photography modes are two different worlds so you can't have a live view of your photograph you haven't taken yet. It's just a framing tool.
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Right now it's just a framing tool. That makes it less useful than it could be. There's no technical reason why you couldn't have a live preview of the scene you're about to shoot.
 
The reason "Live Preview" works differently in Still Mode vs. Movie Mode is that in Still Mode, the GH1 uses a mechanical shutter. There is actually a shutter mechanism in front of the sensor that activates when you press the Shutter button all the way. When in Movie Mode, the shutter is electronic, hence all the rolling shutter/jello issues.

Here's a video of the Panasonic G1's shutter, which is the same as the GH1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dK6Qa1Iy4Y
 
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That sort of makes sense, but the mechanical shutter isn't actually firing when you go into shutter preview mode is it? It's simulated with the electronic shutter I imagine.
 
mkeep said:
Right now it's just a framing tool. That makes it less useful than it could be. There's no technical reason why you couldn't have a live preview of the scene you're about to shoot.
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mkeep. trash button/display IS A LIVE PREVIEW of what you're about to shoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
It DOES seem possible to create a Live Preview for stills that would show what your exposure/shutter will ACTUALLY look like, a la Movie Mode. Personally, I would welcome it, and I think that's what the original question of this thread was about--"Why can't Still mode work like Movie Mode all the time? Why do I have to press two buttons to see what the image will really look like, etc?"

I think the reason is that still photographers need it to function the way SLRs and DSLRs function. Here's why: In order for Autofocus to work at its best, the aperture of the lens is set to its widest setting. The GH1 keeps the lens aperture wide open for focusing reasons until you press the shutter, at which point it closes down the aperture. This is true even if you stopped your lens down all the way to f22. Hence the whole reason there's a Depth-of-Field Preview button in the first place...pushing the button (with the aperture icon) stops the lens down to the correct aperture to show you your depth-of-field. The problem is this lets in less light which may make your LCD image too dark to see anything. That's why the GH1 pumps up the gain of the image.
Anyway, when in Movie Mode, the aperture stays where you have it set whether you are recording or not. This is why people complain that autofocus doesn't work as well in Movie Mode as it does in Still mode. Plus, the fact that Movie Mode uses the electronic shutter vs. the mechanical shutter that the Still mode uses, means that these really are 2 different modes.
Still photographers who want optimal autofocus need the camera to keep the aperture wide open when previewing. That is why the camera is set up the way it is.
 
dvbrother said:
Here's why: In order for Autofocus to work at its best, the aperture of the lens is set to its widest setting.
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Aha, you nailed it. I forgot about autofocus working through the lens.

Edit: You can see this at work if you go into movie mode, stop down pretty low, and turn on autofocus, but don't actually start recording. When you do a half shutter press, the aperture actually changes for a split second while it focuses, then it changes back when focus is locked. You can see the display get bright for a brief second and hear the click of the aperture changing. Very interesting.
 
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