Exposure preview doesn't work as it should? Leica Q3.

[Steven_nl]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Sorry Jaap. I disagree. The histogram is indeed meant to judge exposure,  but the one in camera is far to small to realy use it. Plus you can not see what part of the image is overexposed. The blinkies help with that. The viewfinder should addapt to the ambient light unless you select that option in the set-up menu.....usefull with flash photography so you can see what you focus on.

[odpr]

19 hours ago, jaapv said:

The exposure tool in your viewfinder is the histogram. Nothing else. Learn to read it properly. The EVF itself is useless for judging exact exposure, nor is it meant to be. For one thing it will adjust its brightness according to the ambient light, and the camera will always attempt to present an image that is useful for framing. It does not even have the dynamic range to show exposure correctly. Trying to use it for exposure is a basic error. Read the manual and pay attention to your PASM setting. 

While the histogram might present the accurate information it is certinaly not a great tool in "realtime", when your eyes are on the subject and you want to compose, the last thing you want to do is to remove your attention to the upper left corner and start to read the histogram. 

What can be more simpler than just see the correct image as it suppose to look like instead of reading graphs? (even if the color isn't supper accurate)

Also while the histogram might tell you : over or under expose, it can't tell you what the image 'feel' or really look like, as histograms by defintion doesn't contain spatial information.

 

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[jaapv]

There is no problem there - it is projected in the EVF and it is a matter of a bit of practice and skill to use your camera properly. As is most of photography. Reading a histogram will tell you an awful lot, far more than just over or under, in fact all you need to know about exposure. As I said, the EVF brightness is variable and its dynamic range limited so it will never be “correct”. The histogram is objective, but requires a bit of skill. 
https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-read-and-use-histograms/

[beewee]

8 hours ago, jaapv said:

The histogram should indeed reflect the real exposure. 

And that’s what I expected too but it doesn’t and that’s a bug.

[jaapv]

That is the bug. 

[M11 for me]

vor 54 Minuten schrieb jaapv:

That is the bug. 

Thank you.

There is no discussion about that.

[Bryan Goh]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Are you using AFc or AFs. I have previously contacted Leica Support regarding this. It is supposed to be "normal" when using AFc for the exposure preview to be different in low light. 

[beewee]

12 hours ago, Bryan Goh said:

Are you using AFc or AFs. I have previously contacted Leica Support regarding this. It is supposed to be "normal" when using AFc for the exposure preview to be different in low light. 

I was using iAF which can be AFc or AFs depending on the focus point and subject movement. However, I was definitely not shooting in low light. It was a bright sunny day and I was using ISO 100, f/8, 1/500s exposures.

[BobsFirstLeica]

I was going to start a new thread basically asking people what settings they use that seem to get the exposure in a variety settings close to what it should be.  My Q2, which has now given way to a Q3, would be within a 1/3, or at worst 2/3 stop from an accurate exposure "which was fairly accurately reflected in the EVF and/or LCD."  I always use the histogram for exposure so the Q2 was just fine.  The Q3 with a similar style yields images that are generally underexposed in interiors.  I'm generally a RAW shooter so bringing up the exposure in RAW is not such a big issue.  

However the Q3 is, for me, a pleasure camera.  If I'm out and about and wish to transfer an image or 2 to my phone for the purpose of sending, it would be nice to have a system in place where I can be reasonably assured very little editing, if any, needs to be done to the Jpeg.  At this point I take the extra step of using the iPhone's "edit" feature to bring the downloaded image to proper exposure before sending it on.  Not much trouble, but reading through this thread leads me to believe Leica will be posting some sort if fix in the near future.  And that is something that needs to be done.

My question for long time Leica owners of the Q-series is how long has it taken in the past for Leica to respond to these kinds of issues?  I am patient because I am a first adopter.  I expect issues and am resigned to FW updates. But I would be lying if I said the shooting experience, currently, with the Q3, is equal to or better than the Q2.

Bob

[Lyonnesse]

On 6/24/2023 at 10:39 AM, Marc B-C said:

In the manual there will be instructions as to how to set the Clipping tool, that will highlight too bright or too dark areas. You can also use the histogram to read exposure, again the manual will tell you how to set it. Alternatively, use the highlight weighted metering, per the manual, that will reduce the chances of overexposure too.

I do not have a Q3, so cannot tell you which pages. I have the Q2 just use the histogram. 

I'm just worked out how to get exposures of more than 1 second on the Q3, but I'm not happy with what I can see.  In a brightly lit room on a sunny day my exposure is set to 48 seconds, aperture F8.0 and ISO100.  On my display the only evidence I am over exposed is the grid at the bottom, which shows everything to the right of 0 as red, off the scale.  The histogram is perfectly balanced and the display itself is also apparently properly exposed.  I have the blinkies off, but I'd really expect the histogram to be pushed over to the right and don't understand why it isn't.  I've been a Canon shooter up till now and used to relying on the histogram.  As it stands, I can't see what use the histogram is.  What am I missing?

[andybarton]

48 seconds at f8 and ISO 100?

In bright conditions? And you wonder why it’s overexposed?

Something is very wrong there. 

[jaapv]

2 hours ago, Lyonnesse said:

I'm just worked out how to get exposures of more than 1 second on the Q3, but I'm not happy with what I can see.  In a brightly lit room on a sunny day my exposure is set to 48 seconds, aperture F8.0 and ISO100.  On my display the only evidence I am over exposed is the grid at the bottom, which shows everything to the right of 0 as red, off the scale.  The histogram is perfectly balanced and the display itself is also apparently properly exposed.  I have the blinkies off, but I'd really expect the histogram to be pushed over to the right and don't understand why it isn't.  I've been a Canon shooter up till now and used to relying on the histogram.  As it stands, I can't see what use the histogram is.  What am I missing?

Maybe you have your EV compensation pushed over all the way to the right? Have you checked your PASM settings? 

[SrMi]

2 hours ago, Lyonnesse said:

I'm just worked out how to get exposures of more than 1 second on the Q3, but I'm not happy with what I can see.  In a brightly lit room on a sunny day my exposure is set to 48 seconds, aperture F8.0 and ISO100.  On my display the only evidence I am over exposed is the grid at the bottom, which shows everything to the right of 0 as red, off the scale.  The histogram is perfectly balanced and the display itself is also apparently properly exposed.  I have the blinkies off, but I'd really expect the histogram to be pushed over to the right and don't understand why it isn't.  I've been a Canon shooter up till now and used to relying on the histogram.  As it stands, I can't see what use the histogram is.  What am I missing?

I assume you are in M mode. Did you set Exposure Preview to P-A-S-M? In M mode, with Exposure Preview set at P-A-S-M, the EVF is completely white, and the histogram shows clipping.

 

[Steve Babuljak]

I’ve had this issue in my Q2 (which I sold because of) and also seen it in my friend’s Q3 and SL2. I shoot commercial advertising with Sony and Fuji and have never seen any other camera system do this. Regardless of what “proper exposure” should be, exposure preview should show you what your current settings look like. I found that when in manual ss/aper/iso (with PASM) the half press on the shutter, especially in backlit environments, will display what the camera thinks is proper exposure. The capture image will in fact look like the image with my manual settings, but this half press preview image is really distracting and I can’t see my subject face at the time of capture because the screen will darken. The opposite will happen too when trying to under expose the image intentionally, the preview will flash brighter. 
 

I’ve also discovered the LUMIX cameras do this too. 

It’s not a bug it’s just bad engineering. 

My fingers are crossed the SL3 has this fixed as I’d love to switch over having loved the image quality from my M11.