How many actually use Live View

<p>I've had my D300 almost a year now and love it. However, I have never used Live View--one of the features that was really pushed in D300 advertising. Actually I used it once just to see if it worked but the procedure seemed rather Rube Goldberg to me. Maybe it's because I shot with a film SLR for so many years. But I just don't need the live view feature. In fact, I won't buy a Digital P&S that doesn't have a viewfinder as well as an LCD (and they are getting hard to find).<br>

I was just windering how many Nikon DSLR shooters use the Live View feature?</p>

<p>In the few occasions when I photographed parties and weddings, live view comes in handy when I just hold the camera above everybody's head. You may find it more useful if you shoot a lot of events and news stuffs.<br>

Additionally, it is supposed to be very helpful if you shoot macro, but I haven't done much macro of late.</p>

<p>I use it almost continuously with my Olympus 5060 P&S because it has a fold out/up rear screen. I tried it a few time with my D300 and consider it a useless feature without the fold out screen. Maybe tripod users find it useful. </p>

<p>For the same reasons as other posters, I haven't used it as much either. The problem being at odd angles it's hard to get a good view of the back of the screen, unlike other DSLR's that have a pull-out/pivoting screen (with a cost of screen size) and the clunky AF system. This goes for both Canon/Nikon iterations. I'm a relative newcomer to photography, but nothing beats a precision matte or ground glass screen.</p>

<p>I use it all the time in macro and critical tripod shots. The viewfinder and screen just aren't accurate enough for really careful focusing. Great feature, I don't want to be without it.</p>

<p>Have never used it with a D300 I've had since January.</p>

<p>It's also useful (but not ideal for critical focusing) in astrophotography. Some cameras offer amplified live view for low light conditions; Sony goes a step further on their IR equipped P/S with a feature called Night Framing to compose shots in near complete darkness in Infrared. </p>

<p>I use it as said above for critical focusing of MF lenses, almost all the times macro work with the 55/2.8AiS. I use it for testing MF lenses, too.</p>

<p>I have tried it but in real shooting situations. I find it so inconvenient. Not like in P&S cameras where you just click once.</p>

I have never used Live View , maybe it's because, I also shot with a film SLR for over 30 years. I only try it once just to see if it worked on my Canon 50D. I also own D300, 40D and 1DmkIII (Canon)

<p>I used it once with a HDMI conncetion to my TV, that works nice, seeing everything on a big screen. But never in the field, the camera is too heavy for it.</p>

<p>I use it when depth of field is shallow and I'm working with a tripod. Makes a big difference in focusing accuracy (and not just for manual focus lenses).</p>

<p>I mostly shoot from a tripod and have never once used live view. I just don't see what good it will do me, and I'm also afraid it will run down the batteries in the cold weather I photo in.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>Just one time to see if i could focus macro better with it using a loupe or without ( D700).</p>

<p>I can`t. </p>

<p>It would be useful if you needed to get around the 95 % viewfinder. LV is 100%. Other than that, it just eats batteries.</p>

<p>Sorry, been using slr and RF cameras for 50 years and am stuck in my ways.</p>

 

<p>I've used it several times, but overall it accounts for fewer than 1% of my total number of photos. However, when I need it, I'm glad it's there. Primary use is for shooting over crowds or holding the camera in awkward positions (I don't bend around as easily as I once did).</p>

<p>Have the D300 for a year and never cared to learn how to use live view. Nothing like getting tack sharp focus through the view finder and confirming with play & zoom. Not sure how this would be practical in live view. Not sure what people are talking about with having any focus issues with this camera and needing to look at it on a screen while in the capture process.</p>

<p>I find it essential when using a tilt/shift lens - about 0.1% of my images. But that is reason enough to have it.</p>

<p>I've tried it a couple of times, to see if it worked as intended. I does. That's reassuring. But for my kind of photography, it's useless. IF the camera (D700) had a pivoting LCD, now, that would be a different story. But what you can shoot besides the sky or the ceiling by framing in LV with the camera above your head or down to your knees is beyond me :)</p>

<p>Haven't even tried it on my D3. I get live view through the viewfinder.</p>

<p>I use it occasionally for macro shots with my D3. Actually more and more often I use it when shooting from a tripod.</p>

<p>At work I recently replaced a D200 by a D700 set up as a microscope camera and everybody loves it. Not only useful for focusing and framing but also good for discussions. The Nikon CCP2 software could be better, and the direct use by camera to HDTV monitor could be better. Certainly the potential is not fully used by Nikon.</p>

<p>Perhaps next generation D4 and D800 will have a swivel LCD. That would make LV really a great tool and I would not need a PS camera to use that potential.</p>

 

<p>Here is what the 50mm f/1.4G AF-S did at f/1.4 when autofocused.</p><div></div>

<p>And with manual focus using live view:</p><div></div>

<p>I don't have live view on my SLR, but have tried it on a P&S digital, and I find it useless for me personally, except in the sort of "over your head" manner already described. I would never buy a camera that didn't have a viewfinder in addition to the lcd panel on the back.</p>

<p>Good to know the D700 has 100% view info in Live View mode. That will come in handy for critical work down the road.</p>

<p>I wouldn't be without it for macro or product. As so many others have pointed out, the focus accuracy is so much better. But there are other advantages...</p>

<ul>

<li>It's also an amazing tool for visualizing B&W. So much better than anything we had back in the film days (when I used to alternate between a deep amber monochrome filter and a Wratten 47, because the eye adapterd to one or the other). I shoot B&W raw. The raw file contains all the information I need to try different monochrome conversions back at the shop.</li>

<li>You can also see on the liveview much better than through the viewfinder on a bellows (or coupled lenses) set to high magnifications (like 10x). Through the viewfinder, you see an array of hexagons caused by the cut pattern of the bright screen. </li>

<li>Liveview gives you 100% accurate previewing of DOF with faster lenses (espeically if you've got a small 7 or 8 inch HDMI monitor plugged into it). You can see the DOF for every aperture from f1.2 to f45 (OK, no one lens covers that range). An SLR viewfinder with a modern "bright screen" only gives you a view of the f4 DOF, even with an f1.2 lens, and is near unreadable at f11. </li>

<li>OK, off the wall, but with liveview outdoors on a reasonably bright day, you get a nice, bright view through an f160 pinhole, while the viewfinder is totally dark. </li>

</ul>