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EVF only mode - how could it work?


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I have read a number of comments/reviews about the delay it takes for the EVF to switch on when you bring the camera up to your eye. Some people say it is up to 5 seconds, which I would believe.

 

A great solution would be to have an EVF only mode. This would serve a few purposes being EVF already live when the camera is raised to shoot and also better battery life by not having to constantly power the massive rear LCD.

 

Now the problem is, how would you implement this on the T?

The M240 EVF has a button, so that is easy to cancel.

Due to the minimalist design of the T, it is not that clear what Leica can do.

 

I would like to open it up for discussion what might be a way to have EVF only mode.

So if this was implemented, EVF only would be turned on using the touch screen, but then, how do you cancel it?

 

Possibilities to cancel the EVF only mode:

1. By sliding out the EVF out of the hot shoe. (bad)

 

2. After turning EVF only on the touch screen, that it gets cancelled when you switch off the camera. (not bad, but not that elegant)

 

3. If the touch component (layer) of the touch screen can still be 'live' while the rear LCD is off, then maybe in the absence of something in the proximity sensor in the EVF, a swipe upwards on the screen could turn it back on again.

(Incidentally, if there is the ability to still have the touch screen live while the LCD is off, then that could open the possibility to still use touch to focus with your thumb while using the EVF, or something I would use more is touch to select a part of the screen to use as a spot meter with M lenses.)

 

4. If touch can't be used without the LCD being on, then maybe the movie button can cancel the EVF only input. So this button could work in 2 ways in this mode. If the EVF is up to your eye, the camera knows and turns on the movie mode and starts recording video.

If then in the absence of the EVF being close to your face, the movie button switches the screen back on.

 

Just thinking about it for a minute, to me 4 above is probably the best solution, but it is probably not great to have a duel purpose button.

And also no 2 (switching the camera off) to cancel EVF mode could work.

However maybe wake from sleep mode would keep the EVF mode enabled.

 

What do you think?

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While your solution #4 is probably the better of these solutions, the better solution is to just improve the switching performance. It makes no sense to buy a touch screen operated camera then try to make it operate without the touch screen. Even using the dials requires the LCD as you can't change the dial function without the touch screen. Does it shorten battery life? Absolutely! So you carry a second or third expensive battery.

 

I think it is fair to criticize its slow performance in switching between LCD & EVF, or its poor wake up or start up performance, or its slow playback performance and its slow AF performance but criticizing its inability to operate with the LCD off when the camera design/function depends on the LCD seems wrong to me. This would call for a different camera with manual controls in addition to the LCD controls.

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Personally I don't think improving switching performance would cover off what I am proposing. You would still experience a delay, and also take the constant drain on battery life.

 

Once I have selected my setting, I do not need the touch screen as the 2 dials adjust all I need.

 

The M240, X2 and X Vario all have this mode available, so I would also like to have it on this camera.

 

Should also note, I am not proposing trying to turn a touch camera into a non touch one at all. I own 5 other Leica's and I really enjoy the T but it has a few limitations with the current firmware that has drawn a bit of criticism in a few reviews online. I believe with a few tweaks the T can be a really great camera system.

Edited by haydenc
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The problem is the delay ...... and the solution is to speed the switch up dramatically .... or provide an option to have LCD and EVF working simultaneously and disable/switch off the touchscreen when the EVF senses you are using it.

 

I have a manual solution .... a rubber eyecup from a binocular microscope that luckily fits exactly (33mm) .... and any clear plastic in it (this is a piece of LCD protector) activates the EVF permanently .... I will probably get my local optician to cut some proper antireflective glass as a permanent solution .....

 

For times when you have the mode set you want and aren't intent on constantly fiddling it is an excellent solution.....

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Edited by thighslapper
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All this makes me even more glad I decided to stick with my Olympus EP-5 as a smaller back up camera to my various M’s, rather than changing to a T, which I seriously considered. I just tried the EP-5 to see what the delay was in auto-switching on the EVF, by putting your eye to it and I would estimate it at around 0.5 seconds. As I believe the core electronics for both EVF’s come from Epson, there must be something odd about the way Leica has implemented theirs. I hope for the sake of all you T owners, that this is something that can be fixed in firmware.

 

Wilson

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The delay is probably just over 0.5 seconds ...... but just long enough to be noticeable and irritating ...... the A7r by contrast is almost instantaneous.

 

The problem with all these things is that once you have used something that is quicker you are loath to go back to something slower ....... and find what is in reality perfectly adequate performance for 95% of the time irritatingly sluggish .....:rolleyes:

 

Leica is always one step behind in processing power....... they really need to put this at the TOP of the development list for any new products or upgrades of what are otherwise very fine products.

Edited by thighslapper
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In the Setup menu, The Sony NEX 6 allows you to choose one (Screen) or the other (EVF) or Auto (there's a sensor in the eyecup that switches instantaneously to EVF when your eye or anything else blacks out the eye cup area). I shoot with mine on Auto 95% of the time, the rest of the time EVF only.

 

reviewing and make menu changes in EVF only, not great, but it is a bit more stealth.

 

No T lenses of course but I'm adapting M's.

Edited by Jaybob
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Personally I don't think improving switching performance would cover off what I am proposing. You would still experience a delay' date=' and also take the constant drain on battery life. Once I have selected my setting, I do not need the touch screen as the 2 dials adjust all I need. The M240, X2 and X Vario all have this mode available, so I would also like to have it on this camera. Should also note, I am not proposing trying to turn a touch camera into a non touch one at all. I own 5 other Leica's and I really enjoy the T but it has a few limitations with the current firmware that has drawn a bit of criticism in a few reviews online. I believe with a few tweaks the T can be a really great camera system.[/quote']

 

I agree, once I set I'm ready to go. The other two radials handle everything I need.

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Personally I don't think improving switching performance would cover off what I am proposing. You would still experience a delay' date=' and also take the constant drain on battery life. Once I have selected my setting, I do not need the touch screen as the 2 dials adjust all I need. The M240, X2 and X Vario all have this mode available, so I would also like to have it on this camera. Should also note, I am not proposing trying to turn a touch camera into a non touch one at all. I own 5 other Leica's and I really enjoy the T but it has a few limitations with the current firmware that has drawn a bit of criticism in a few reviews online. I believe with a few tweaks the T can be a really great camera system.[/quote']

 

I agree set it, and forget it. Once I get my settings the two dials handle everything going forward.

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In the Setup menu, The Sony NEX 6 allows you to choose one (Screen) or the other (EVF) or Auto (there's a sensor in the eyecup that switches instantaneously to EVF when your eye or anything else blacks out the eye cup area). I shoot with mine on Auto 95% of the time, the rest of the time EVF only.

 

reviewing and make menu changes in EVF only, not great, but it is a bit more stealth.

 

No T lenses of course but I'm adapting M's.

 

Jaybob, out of interest, how do you cancel the EVF only mode on the NEX 6?

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The problem is the delay ...... and the solution is to speed the switch up dramatically .... or provide an option to have LCD and EVF working simultaneously and disable/switch off the touchscreen when the EVF senses you are using it.

 

I have a manual solution .... a rubber eyecup from a binocular microscope that luckily fits exactly (33mm) .... and any clear plastic in it (this is a piece of LCD protector) activates the EVF permanently .... I will probably get my local optician to cut some proper antireflective glass as a permanent solution .....

 

For times when you have the mode set you want and aren't intent on constantly fiddling it is an excellent solution.....

 

Great Idea!

However it is not an elegant solution but at least it does exactly what I want!

 

Another thought I had was maybe if there was a delay added (yes added) to the switch back from EVF to LCD. It would only need to be 1 or 2 seconds, so if you see a shot, you touch the EVF with your hand, then the delay would give you enough time to bring the camera up to your eye by which time the EVF would be live.

I have read about people doing this already, but if you lose connection it switches back, or as someone described, moving the camera very close to their body to activate the EVF, and keeping the camera very close to them as they raise it to their eye.

That sounds extremely fiddly to me.

 

I don't think a switch back delay would cause an issue when you want to review images on the LCD. So you would take a shot and by the time you move the camera away far enough away to comfortably see the screen, the LCD would be on.

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Jaybob, out of interest, how do you cancel the EVF only mode on the NEX 6?

 

You have to menu it.

 

Setup menu/Finder-LCD Setting, and select either auto or LCD Monitor cancels EVF only. If you have Viewfinder selected and you shut the camera off, when you turn it back on, it's still on viewfinder (same with LCD or Auto).

 

The Sony has a touch screen as well, but I have that function turned off.

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I don't have the T (yet), but can't you while raising the camera put your left thumb against the EVF? That way it would have time to switch before it reaches the eye. It's still a workaround but might work.

 

You can do that but as soon as you release your thumb from the EVF it switches back to LCD, so either you are very quick or have to do some weird movement to hold your thumb over the EVF until it is right up to your eye.

I just tried a relatively fast move of putting my thumb over the EVF, then bringing the camera up to be ready to shoot.

It went from LCD to EVF (with thumb) then back to LCD to EVF again when I got it up to eye level.

(This is why I mentioned it might be benefitical to add a slight delay when the camera goes from EVF to LCD, so you could do exactly as you mention and the EVF would be ready when the camera reaches eye level.)

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  • 10 months later...

Almost one year later as possible T owner I would like to know from the user if there has been any improvement on this, which is important if you are a street shooter. I had opportunity to try the camera only a couple of minutes in a shop and still notice this delay, the shop employee told me probably the camera was not updated to the last firmware (which is not very good if you want to demonstrate a camera in order to sell it, but this is another story!).

I would appreciate any comment, thanks in advance

robert

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Guest Alxndr

I have read a number of comments/reviews about the delay it takes for the EVF to switch on when you bring the camera up to your eye. Some people say it is up to 5 seconds, 

 

This is nonsense.

 

The delay is probably just over 0.5 seconds ...... .

This might be adequate.

 

 the shop employee told me probably the camera was not updated to the last firmware (which is not very good if you want to demonstrate a camera in order to sell it, but this is another story!).

 

You're quite right. This happens a lot (irrespective of brand) and it's a bit stupid.

 

Anyway, with the latest firmware the 'problem' is a matter of tenths of a second.

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Hi, I recently got my Leica T and am currently considering getting the EVF. I tried the EVF at the boutique and while there is a lag, I don't think it is as long as 5 seconds. I don't even think that it is a second. It is rather immediate in my opinion. Anyway, I could not get one as it was out of stock. 

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Guest Alxndr

Hi, I recently got my Leica T and am currently considering getting the EVF. I tried the EVF at the boutique and while there is a lag, I don't think it is as long as 5 seconds. I don't even think that it is a second. It is rather immediate in my opinion. Anyway, I could not get one as it was out of stock. 

 

You should have bought your T in the Netherlands, cause when you buy the body and a T-lens you'll the get the EVF for free (at least, until 31 July).  :D

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You should have bought your T in the Netherlands, cause when you buy the body and a T-lens you'll the get the EVF for free (at least, until 31 July).  :D

Hi Alxndr,

 

Great at to hear that. Indeed a good offer. I got mine in Hong Kong because of the great Summer Promotion Leica was having. If not for the promotion, I would not have gotten it. 

 

Not it sure if it is allowed here, but if not, Mods, please delete. 

 

The Summer Promotion was 25% off the body and 50% off on the lens (chose one between the 23mm of the 18-56mm zoom). 

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Guest Alxndr

Hi Alxndr,

 

Great at to hear that. Indeed a good offer. I got mine in Hong Kong because of the great Summer Promotion Leica was having.

 

The Summer Promotion was 25% off the body and 50% off on the lens (chose one between the 23mm of the 18-56mm zoom). 

 

OK, Dutch folks definitely need to move to Hong Kong  :D

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