Live View - How does it work?

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nickhills

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Nick Hills
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Can anyone explain to me how live view works on the current line up of cameras...

does it use the sensor, in which case, how does the curtain or the mirror fit in to the equasion, or is there an aditional sensor at the bottom like the af sensors, or is it up near the prism.

if its an additional sensor, what sort of quality do you get on your screen, is there any distortion when compared to the final shot?

can you use the view finder and live view at the same time, or is it one or 'tother?

I know on my pentax optio, what i saw on the screen was never quite the shot i captured (it shifted a bit to the left when i released the shutter) and that used to annoy the heck out of me, are there any such problems with liveview on a dslr.

i'm thinking in particular about the GX20, but i'm not sure if live view is enough to sway the upgrade from my k10

how often do those of you that have it, actually use it. Is it a gimmick or is there a significant benefit that i'm overlooking other than taking pics with your camera in the air, or down in the dirt?
 
hey dude, im no expert but seeing as you have no reply...

basically, when you enable live view the mirror raises up and the viewfinder goes dark while the LCD illuminates with the picture. To AF the mirror has to go back down, get focus, then raise again (the LCD goes dark while it does this) or you simply use MF.

its the same sensor that does the job of taking the picture and most of the time live view won't be used. good for macros occasionally and good for checking how your white balance applies in real time but otherwise its a generally unused feature and far better to use on simple P&S cams.
 
Theory is spot on except I'm sure my 40D autofocuses using Liveview without the mirror dropping down again??

It's only useful for low shots (to avoid getting your tummy wet) and high shots where you're holding the camera above a crowd for eg. Some like to use it for tripod portrait and macro shots as well.
 
On the 450d, it's possible to autofocus in liveview, but it uses some form of contrast variance focusing algorythm instead of the dedicated AF sensor, so it's quite slow. I've used liveview when using my 450d at prime focus on my telescope, the magnification of the screen makes focusing much easier, then of course focusing is done using the scope not the camera :)
 
spannerdude said:
The Sony system is different....

http://www.sony.net/Products/dslr/a300/features.html
Click to expand...

Wow I didn't expect that, but looks quite handy and probably makes it much easier to use as a 'point and shoot' style camera. I'd probably use that a lot more, especially for the crowd style shots. Is it any good for freezing (and focusing on) action?

Just for the record, nikon camera's with live view also use a contrast focus system which isn't very fast.
 
It looks like an elegant solution. I have no idea how well it works as Liveview was low on my list of priorities when I bought my latest body. Hopefully somebody can enlighten us.
 
interesting....

so the sony works the way i thought it would, by using a second sensor and a different angle of light in the body...

anyone know which method pentax/samsung favour?
 
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