EVF Preferences

[ski542002]

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Hello:  I apologize in-advance if this topic is live.  Could not find in a search.  Last week, took delivery of my SL, using exclusively with M and R optics for now.  Fantastic camera.  Shot 56GB of images yesterday and only had one minor hiccup.  

 

I do have 2 questions about the EVF that I can't seem to locate the answer for in the manual...

-After I take a shot, I would like the option to have NO image preview appear on the large LCD, only a 1 second preview appear in the viewfinder image. The only way to get close to that is to use the eye-detect function and I really don't want/need the excessive battery drain.  I just need to see a quick preview right after the shot in the viewfinder.  IS that available somehow?

-When I'm viewing a scene that is strongly backlit, my subject in-camera is almost completely silhouetted, making it very very difficult to get a quick and accurate focus confirmation even when magnified. I don't want the in-camera EVF to automatically adjust.  Can I control this manually for a given situation?

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[ramarren]

Hello:  I apologize in-advance if this topic is live.  Could not find in a search.  Last week, took delivery of my SL, using exclusively with M and R optics for now.  Fantastic camera.  Shot 56GB of images yesterday and only had one minor hiccup.  

 

I do have 2 questions about the EVF that I can't seem to locate the answer for in the manual...

-After I take a shot, I would like the option to have NO image preview appear on the large LCD, only a 1 second preview appear in the viewfinder image. The only way to get close to that is to use the eye-detect function and I really don't want/need the excessive battery drain.  I just need to see a quick preview right after the shot in the viewfinder.  IS that available somehow?

-When I'm viewing a scene that is strongly backlit, my subject in-camera is almost completely silhouetted, making it very very difficult to get a quick and accurate focus confirmation even when magnified. I don't want the in-camera EVF to automatically adjust.  Can I control this manually for a given situation?

 

 

I don't have my camera with me to check your first question. I generally have autoreview turned off and do not recall what it does with different viewfinder/LCD settings. 

 

Note: The eye-detect function hardly influences power consumption at all, in my experience. I have observed no difference in the number of exposures I can achieve on a fully charged battery when in a busy shooting session whether I have it turned on vs turned off. How I'm using the camera influences battery drain much more (a few shots with lots of fiddling menu controls consumes power much much faster than a lot of shots being made without dropping into the menus very often). 

 

Regards the second question, if you switch to Spot metering pattern (usually the best choice when working with heavily backlit subjects anyway) and put the spot on the subject, the viewfinder's brightness will track the exposure setting for the subject being metered. I do this with Aperture priority exposure mode. 

[ski542002]

I don't have my camera with me to check your first question. I generally have autoreview turned off and do not recall what it does with different viewfinder/LCD settings. 

 

Note: The eye-detect function hardly influences power consumption at all, in my experience. I have observed no difference in the number of exposures I can achieve on a fully charged battery when in a busy shooting session whether I have it turned on vs turned off. How I'm using the camera influences battery drain much more (a few shots with lots of fiddling menu controls consumes power much much faster than a lot of shots being made without dropping into the menus very often). 

 

Regards the second question, if you switch to Spot metering pattern (usually the best choice when working with heavily backlit subjects anyway) and put the spot on the subject, the viewfinder's brightness will track the exposure setting for the subject being metered. I do this with Aperture priority exposure mode. 

 

Thanks for the reply!   Just to continue the conversation.

 

My auto-review is off, and I always use manual exposure. Any of the 3 metering patterns have the same result. Even if I don't have my finger on the shutter release, simply moving the camera into or out of the backlit scene, the EVF, both in viewfinder and the large LCD, change independent of any of my settings. Heavy backlighting, silhouetted subject.  Evenly lit scene, subject is correctly shown.  You suggested "Select spot metering pattern (usually the best choice when working with heavily backlit subjects anyway) and put the spot on the subject, the viewfinder's brightness will track the exposure setting for the subject being metered."  My SL does not do this.  IF I take an exposure it's correct, but the viewfinder has a mind of it's own, as I indicated earlier.

 

My only concern about battery drain using eye-detect is, if my eye is not up  to the viewfinder, the  rear LCD is always on.  IF the camera is resting at my side, my fat waist will keep the LCD turned off.

[ramarren]

Thanks for the reply!   Just to continue the conversation.

 

My auto-review is off, and I always use manual exposure. Any of the 3 metering patterns have the same result. Even if I don't have my finger on the shutter release, simply moving the camera into or out of the backlit scene, the EVF, both in viewfinder and the large LCD, change independent of any of my settings. Heavy backlighting, silhouetted subject.  Evenly lit scene, subject is correctly shown.  You suggested "Select spot metering pattern (usually the best choice when working with heavily backlit subjects anyway) and put the spot on the subject, the viewfinder's brightness will track the exposure setting for the subject being metered."  My SL does not do this.  IF I take an exposure it's correct, but the viewfinder has a mind of it's own, as I indicated earlier.

 

My only concern about battery drain using eye-detect is, if my eye is not up  to the viewfinder, the  rear LCD is always on.  IF the camera is resting at my side, my fat waist will keep the LCD turned off.

 

 

I'll have to check behaviors with my SL when I get home this evening. I've become so accustomed to how it works, arranged my expectations, and so adapted my working methodology to suit, that exactly what it does I sometimes forget—it just does what I want and expect now. For some reason, I don't experience the "silhouetted backlit figure makes it difficult to focus" behavior that others have reported (you're not the first) but I'll have to look at my camera specifically to see what all the settings I created for it are (I haven't touched my setups since last November other than to add some of the new functionality in fw 2.0). 

 

You're going to have to have autoreview on to get a 1 second quick-check image to appear, I'm sure of that. Whether can appear on the EVF only or not is the only question. 

 

If you turn on Power Saving for the LCD, it will power itself off after your set number of minutes of no switching to the EVF and save the battery. 

Go to menu SETUP > POWER SAVING > AUTO LCD and related submenu. 

 

One of these days I'll have the time to write a better Leica SL instruction manual. I hope. 

[ski542002]

I'll have to check behaviors with my SL when I get home this evening. I've become so accustomed to how it works, arranged my expectations, and so adapted my working methodology to suit, that exactly what it does I sometimes forget—it just does what I want and expect now. For some reason, I don't experience the "silhouetted backlit figure makes it difficult to focus" behavior that others have reported (you're not the first) but I'll have to look at my camera specifically to see what all the settings I created for it are (I haven't touched my setups since last November other than to add some of the new functionality in fw 2.0). 

 

If you turn on Power Saving for the LCD, it will power itself off after your set number of minutes of no switching to the EVF and save the battery. 

Go to menu SETUP > POWER SAVING > AUTO LCD and related submenu. 

 

One of these days I'll have the time to write a better Leica SL instruction manual. I hope. 

 

Hello:  It will be great to get further updates from you. I checked and in power saving, "auto power off" is set to 2 min.  All displays off, 30 sec.

 

Thanks.

[Peter Walker]

I recommend that you dont let concerns about battery drainage influence your modus operandi.  The SL has great battery performance.  if I'm out shooting, I keep the camera on and let the sleep mode manage the battery.  I usually carry two spare batteries but I've never used the 3rd one, even on the busiest days.

 

Cant help you on the auto review as I don't use it.  The SL is so reliable with its exposure and focus, very little chimping is required.  If you do need to check (e.g. in a complex lighting situation), a quick tap of the TR button brings up the last image.

 

Regards

Peter

[FlashGordonPhotography]

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1. The only way to get the image review in the EVF only is to set the view to EVF only. Personally I prefer to have no review and just hit the play button.

 

2. You can adjust the EVF brightness in M mode by using the exposure compensation function. This will adjust the brightness of the EVF without adjusting the exposure UNLESS you set auto ISO. So use this with manual ISO. This will not work in A, T or P modes as the exposure will change. It's also a really stupid way of adjusting the EVF brightness and I hope Leica get rid of it and introduce a proper EVF adjustment function like every other mirrorless camera on the market.

 

Gordon

[wildlightphoto]

-When I'm viewing a scene that is strongly backlit, my subject in-camera is almost completely silhouetted, making it very very difficult to get a quick and accurate focus confirmation even when magnified. I don't want the in-camera EVF to automatically adjust.  Can I control this manually for a given situation?

 

 

I've been complaining about this "feature" of the SL for many months.  You can use the 'exposure preview' function to temporarily disable the automatic EVF brightness but the camera reverts to automatic EVF brightness after each exposure.  This is something Leica needs to fix and my hope is that it can be done with firmware.

[ramarren]

Regards the autoreview, I could not get the SL to autoreview into the EVF even with the display locked to the EVF only. The only way I can make that happen is to make and exposure and review manually with the EVF enabled. 

 

With camera in hand, I tested setting the metering pattern to spot with both A and M exposure modes. A window against the bright outdoors was my target. If I place the metering spot on the 'black' silhouetted portion of the window frame, the EVF brightens to render that as viewably bright. Of course, the metering spot is an approximation of the metering area so it has to be well within the 'black' zone for this to work. If you have Exposure Preview enabled (CAMERA menu, the last page), half-pressing the shutter release will display the effect of your exposure settings in the viewfinder, the same as going to Exposure Simulation with the FN button. 

[FlashGordonPhotography]

I've been complaining about this "feature" of the SL for many months.  You can use the 'exposure preview' function to temporarily disable the automatic EVF brightness but the camera reverts to automatic EVF brightness after each exposure.  This is something Leica needs to fix and my hope is that it can be done with firmware.

 

 

You can turn exposure preview on and off in the menus. Isn't that what you want? With it on you get full time exposure preview in T, A and P modes and in M mode it's on a half press of the shutter. When it's off the EVF gains up or down automatically and independently of exposure.

 

BTW. The M system has better EVF functionality than the SL which is sad.

 

Gordon

[wildlightphoto]

You can turn exposure preview on and off in the menus. Isn't that what you want? 

 

 

I want it in M mode, without having to push a button to re-enable it after each exposure.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

So you set "exposure preview" to "ON" in the menu. Then in M mode you'll get an exposure preview by half pressing the shutter button***.

 

*** unless you have aTTL flash on the hotshoe. Then the stupid stupid camera disables the exposure preview function on half press [/facepalm] and you're stuck with what you're doing.

 

Gordon

[ramarren]

BTW. The M system has better EVF functionality than the SL which is sad.

 

Not for my uses. The SL EVF works exactly the way I want an EVF to work. 

[FlashGordonPhotography]

Even with the new M firmware?

 

You can set how the EVF simulates exposure (ON, OFF, Half press) and it doesn't change behaviour when you add a TTL flash. It doesn't change behaviour when you move between full manual and aperture priority. And it's adjustable in brightness. The SL currently has none of these options.

 

For me, the M is the poster child of how an EVF should function, despite it's hardware limitations.

 

Gordon

[ramarren]

Even with the new M firmware?

 

You can set how the EVF simulates exposure (ON, OFF, Half press) and it doesn't change behaviour when you add a TTL flash. It doesn't change behaviour when you move between full manual and aperture priority. And it's adjustable in brightness. The SL currently has none of these options.

 

For me, the M is the poster child of how an EVF should function, despite it's hardware limitations.

 

Gordon

 

 

I almost never use flash, and then almost exclusively manual flash for tabletop work or flash units on light stands with bounce, RF triggers, and in-flash automation for parties. The only time TTL flash automation might be useful to me is for macro work, but even there ... this is digital, I just make a few test shots and set the exposure correctly. I'm not wasting film and am not in a rush. 

 

How the SL manages the EVF suits what I want/need almost perfectly: it adjusts automatically to ambient brightness needs, it tracks my exposure settings and shows me what I'm going to get on the half press or with the aperture, exposure simulation modes. The viewfinder stays bright for focusing and framing. And it's big, clear, and sharp enough that I can focus a 15mm lens to critical accuracy easily. The SL EVF doesn't offer a lot of options, but it works perfectly for me because I don't need a lot of options: its standard behavior is just about exactly what I need. 

 

I only use the M-P's EVF when I have something that I cannot do with the M-P using its optical viewfinder, which is rare. I mostly use the M-P with 35 or 75 mm lenses and the optical viewfinder is perfect for those. I think I've used it to fire a flash unit twice in 18 months and 13,000 exposures, and both times it was with a 50mm lens fitted and the optical finder. I very occasionally choose to use the EVF with the WATE on the M-P when I'm looking for precise framing—otherwise, I fit a 21mm optical finder and wing it, or just use the SL.