Histogram in Live View?

[T44ISKN]

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Hi guys,

I was trying out a Q at Red Dot Cameras (London) today, while I wait for mine to be delivered.

I wanted to try using the histogram to set the correct exposure whilst taking a shot.

I noticed that, in full manual mode, the histogram did not shift as I changed shutter speed or aperture and disappeared when I half-press the shutter release button.

This means that the histogram cannot be used to judge exposure before taking the shot, which seems kind of useless.

Did I do something wrong?

Thanks! T

[thighslapper]

The histogram represents the image in the viewfinder with the aperture wide open in liveview ....... which for compositional purposes has its exposure optimised for viewing ...... it only registers the true values when you half depress the shutter and the camera stops down to whatever aperture/settings  chosen  ...... (like on the M240) but then rather unhelpfully blanks it .... although if you jiggle the shutter a few times you do see the histogram shifting and get a view of the 'correct one'..... albeit momentarily.

 

I get the impression Leica assume you will use the exposure scale at the bottom rather than the histogram .... although the behaviour as you describe (correctly) does make the histogram in photo live view very limited in its usefulness...... but there again as you have an actual view of the image with the settings applied you don't really need the histogram to tell you the obvious .... and if you have clipping on it will highlight overexposure, which is the main concern anyway. 

 

I'm not sure if there are technical reasons why the screen blanks all the other data out except the focus confirmation box ...... or whether this is an oversight by Leica...... I suspect it is mostly the former. 

Edited July 22, 2015 by thighslapper

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[T44ISKN]

Thanks for sharing your findings. I understand them keeping the viewfinder bright for composition purposes. I just hope they will fix the histogram problem in a future firmware release.

[T44ISKN]

The X1 appears to exhibit the same behaviour, so I'm not holding out much hope. Advantage to the Fuji X-T1 which handles this beautifully. I suppose I'll just have to revert to using the exposure meter when shooting. No big deal I suppose!

[Dominique1952]

Hi,

 

I may be stupid, but I can't display the histogram on my Q. What ever the mode is. I mean there is no way to display it in my menus. The firmware is the 2.0.

Did somebody get the same issue ?

[HighlandK]

Hi,

 

I may be stupid, but I can't display the histogram on my Q. What ever the mode is. I mean there is no way to display it in my menus. The firmware is the 2.0.

Did somebody get the same issue ?

Not stupid some things in the menu are not quite so obvious. Go to photo live view setup in the menu and select what you want to be visible, it includes histogram. It is about three quarters of the way down the menu. Using the centre button in the 4 way pad you can cycle through different EVF arrangements.

[Dominique1952]

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Not stupid some things in the menu are not quite so obvious. Go to photo live view setup in the menu and select what you want to be visible, it includes histogram. It is about three quarters of the way down the menu. Using the centre button in the 4 way pad you can cycle through different EVF arrangements.

 

Hi HighlandK,

Thanks for the answer.

The problem is : there is no "histogram" choice in my "Live view" setup menu ! I join a picture of my menu (in french, sorry, but it's the same word than in english). 

[lucerne]

Dominique

I wonder whether the histogram would appear if you switched that “auto” from “arret” to “marche” ?

 

HighlandK has correctly pointed you to the menu option which should control the histogram appearance. I doubt you could do any harm to the camera by giving this a try!

 

Good luck.

[HighlandK]

Hi Dominique

 

Where you have auto I have histogram! The other choices are identical. What does auto do if you set it to Marche? Do you have firmware 2.0?

 

Beyond that I am adrift for ideas. Others to contribute?

[Dominique1952]

Hi Dominique

 

Where you have auto I have histogram! The other choices are identical. What does auto do if you set it to Marche? Do you have firmware 2.0?

 

Beyond that I am adrift for ideas. Others to contribute?

 

Hi Andy (is it Andy ?),

 

Thanks for your help. You pointed out the fact that this was the only try I didn't make. That's a great help because "Auto" displays Histogram wen you set it on "Marche".

I think "Histogram" has been lost in the translation.

 

Thanks again.

 

Dominique

Edited October 21, 2017 by Dominique1952

[HighlandK]

Dominique

 

Great news. Glad we got there in the end. Auto is certainly a bizarre translation for histogram, the more so since the original German is Histogramm and the French is histogramme. Worth mailing Leica?

 

Best

 

Andy

[Herve5]

I think "Histogram" has been lost in the translation.

 

Indeed it was never properly translated, and I had a hard time finding it myself (being french too ;-)

Sorry for not having reacted faster!

I did try to send advice to Leica in order to have this issue corrected in the last formware update, but I didn't succeed...

Hervé

[Dominique1952]

I tried to contact Leica too. No success and no answer. A little bit frustrating.

Edited November 5, 2017 by Dominique1952