SL2 EVF Settings

[JMac]

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Hi - 

My first post here in the forum.  I just purchased an SL2, and the exposure information inside the EVF only appears once you press the shutter halfway, and as soon as you let go, it turns off.  This makes it all but impossible to watch the effect of changing the the shutter speed/aperture/ISO in order to get a proper exposure.  It's virtually impossible to try to hold the shutter down halfway while moving the other dials to change the exposure.  Am I doing something wrong or is there a setting amiss?  I've looked through the menu and can't find any settings that appear to change this.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!  Thanks

 

Jmac

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[Loop Skywalker]

Welcome to the LF.

As long as this has not been changed from factory settings, the FN button is used to cycle through the different "screens".

[jaapv]

I'm sure that it is carefully explained in the manual - which is a must-read with a camera of this complexity.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

12 hours ago, jaapv said:

I'm sure that it is carefully explained in the manual - which is a must-read with a camera of this complexity.

Unfortunately there are several things explained poorly in the manual. This get worse with each firmware update but wasn't great to start with.

Asking here really is the best manual for the SL2.

Gordon

[tssmith55]

I am having the same problem, and I cannot find the explanation in the manual. If there is an explanation. Maybe this is not adjustable. I know that the default FN button will allow you to select what is displayed. And showing the lower info bar when you half-press the shutter is a great feature. I am set up to show only the histogram all the time, and don't want the info bar on always. What I'd like is an adjustable amount of time that the lower info bar stays on after the shutter is released.

[OleBe]

Even better would be if the camera would show the info bar when you adjust iso, shutter or aperture with the wheels, afterwards turns back off automatically. Other cameras like the Sigma fp do it exactly the same way...

 

[NickT]

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If you go to menu page 5 -> item 5 Camera settings -> capture assistants you can then "play" with the 4 info profiles so that the evf behaves in the way you prefer. This is described on page 80 of the SL2 manual.

[Wurlitzer-1015]

I think you problem is your camera is set on auto iso. In this case the viewfinder will always show a correctly exposed image as the iso will be changing as you change the aperture or speed. To get the effect you want set your iso to a static one, e.g 200 iso, you will then find the image in the view finder lightens and darkens as you change speed or aperture.

[jaapv]

On 7/29/2020 at 3:31 AM, JMac said:

Hi - 

My first post here in the forum.  I just purchased an SL2, and the exposure information inside the EVF only appears once you press the shutter halfway, and as soon as you let go, it turns off.  This makes it all but impossible to watch the effect of changing the the shutter speed/aperture/ISO in order to get a proper exposure.  It's virtually impossible to try to hold the shutter down halfway while moving the other dials to change the exposure.  Am I doing something wrong or is there a setting amiss?  I've looked through the menu and can't find any settings that appear to change this.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated!  Thanks

 

Jmac

I think your problem is that you want to set the exposure by eyeballing the EVF. That is emphatically not the way to go about it. Either you set the camera to some auto function or you activate the histogram in the viewfinder.  The histogram is the appropriate tool for precise exposing.

[hdmesa]

17 hours ago, jaapv said:

...The histogram is the appropriate tool for precise exposing.

If we had an RGB histogram it would be. The current average histogram can still clip a channel while showing "ok". Does the blinking highlight alert also use averaging?

 

[jaapv]

Maybe, but seeing that many struggle to interpret a composite histogram, an RGB one might be a step too far. It is not about clipping, I find that a rather uninteresting bogeyman (if it is just one channel, reconstructing detail and colour) is a simple operation), but about getting as much effective light on the sensor as possible. For general exposure judging the regular histogram is a most useful tool. Yes, the clipping highlight warning is an average from jpg, but itcan be set to a pessimistic setting to avoid all clipping. 

[hdmesa]

3 hours ago, jaapv said:

Maybe, but seeing that many struggle to interpret a composite histogram, an RGB one might be a step too far. It is not about clipping, I find that a rather uninteresting bogeyman (if it is just one channel, reconstructing detail and colour) is a simple operation), but about getting as much effective light on the sensor as possible. For general exposure judging the regular histogram is a most useful tool. Yes, the clipping highlight warning is an average from jpg, but itcan be set to a pessimistic setting to avoid all clipping. 

Yes, once someone learns to not blow the highlights, then can then learn to push the exposure to the right and filling the DNG with more data. Since even RGB histograms are built on JPEG previews (not counting monochrome cameras), the best way to do this is with experience – push the exposure a little and evaluate the DNGs in RawDigger. Eventually one learns to look at the histogram and know what that means relative to what RawDigger will show. But the same experience can be had by sticking to your preferred metering mode and watching the exposure in the EVF. I find that a bit better since watching the histogram can give a false sense of security, as sometimes there is a wayward highlight spike hiding just outside of the view. 

[jaapv]

Well, a little twiddle of EV comp will flush it out. 

[Yellow_78]

I like displaying the camera info but what bothers me is the info on the bottom. When you look at the LCD to take a photo, the bottom info has a really dark background which plays up my composition especially when doing portraits. 

However, when you look through the EVF the bottom info display is not covered by that background and you see all information plus the whole frame for perfect composition.

Is there any way to make no dark background or even a lighter coloured one?

[SrMi]

[deleted]

Edited January 8, 2023 by SrMi

[Photoworks]

11 hours ago, Yellow_78 said:

I like displaying the camera info but what bothers me is the info on the bottom. When you look at the LCD to take a photo, the bottom info has a really dark background which plays up my composition especially when doing portraits. 

However, when you look through the EVF the bottom info display is not covered by that background and you see all information plus the whole frame for perfect composition.

Is there any way to make no dark background or even a lighter coloured one?

agree.

I never understood why the menu element couldn't have been outside the frame!

[Yellow_78]

14 hours ago, Photoworks said:

agree.

I never understood why the menu element couldn't have been outside the frame!

It's really annoying isn't it!

Might have to give them some feedback lol.

What I do now is remove the information and just rely on half pressing to see what the info is currently at. However, this extra small step is very tedious!

[ChrisWilco]

I found this frustrating on the SL2S. The answer is to look through EVF and then press the Fn button. This will cycle through various display options 

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[jaapv]

When you set the EVF/LCD to automatic, it is the simplest thing in the world to cycle through the windows on the LCD. Also you can switch any info layer you don't like off in the menu.

[LBJ2]

On 1/7/2023 at 6:29 PM, Yellow_78 said:

I like displaying the camera info but what bothers me is the info on the bottom. When you look at the LCD to take a photo, the bottom info has a really dark background which plays up my composition especially when doing portraits. 

However, when you look through the EVF the bottom info display is not covered by that background and you see all information plus the whole frame for perfect composition.

Is there any way to make no dark background or even a lighter coloured one?

If I understand your comment correctly, one thing you can do is eliminate both the info and the border for composing on the LCD by toggling the FN button to Full Screen View ("all auxiliary displays off"), applies to both the LCD and the EVF. Half press of the shutter temporarily displays the camera info. 

See page 80 of the SL2 manual:  E.g.: See FN default info profile # 2 in this manual illustration:

 

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