What is Live View?

<p>I had to go to Wikipedia to get this definition of 'live view'.<br>

In <a title="Digital photography" href="http://www.photo.net/wiki/Digital_photography">digital photography</a>, <strong>live preview</strong> is the feature that allows a <a title="Digital camera" href="http://www.photo.net/wiki/Digital_camera">digital camera</a>'s electronic display to be used as a <a title="Viewfinder" href="http://www.photo.net/wiki/Viewfinder">viewfinder</a>, that is, as a means of <a title="Framing (visual arts)" href="http://www.photo.net/wiki/Framing_(visual_arts)">framing</a> and previewing before taking the photograph. In most such cameras, the preview is generated by means of continuously and directly projecting the image formed by the objective lens onto the main <a title="Image sensor" href="http://www.photo.net/wiki/Image_sensor">image sensor</a>, which in turn feeds the electronic screen with the live preview image. The electronic screen can be either a <a title="Liquid crystal display" href="http://www.photo.net/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display">liquid crystal display</a> (LCD ) or an <a title="Electronic viewfinder" href="http://www.photo.net/wiki/Electronic_viewfinder">electronic viewfinder</a> (EVF).<br>

I went looking becuase in a Dpreview spec page I found a camera, forget which now, which had an EVF and LCD yet didn't apparently have 'live view'<br>

Surely this is plain silly on the part of dpreview because for longtime the principle fault of the DSLR has been the lack of accurate 98<100% viewfinding and the lack of what we have with pro-sumer and P&S cameras .. . 'live view' .... not that we called it that becuase we had it and didn't need a fancy name for it ... it was simply a proper way to do things instead of the archaic DSLR system designed back in the fifties or earlier ... I once had a reflex Korelle., [a MF camera using 120 film] back in the fifties and I guess it was made prior WWII.<br>

But it seems to dpreview that only some of the more advanced DSLR's have Live View and pro-sumers don't ... what a giggle :-)</p>

 

<p><em>the archaic DSLR system <br /><br /></em>You mean, the system where you actually are seeing, with your own eyes, the light that's coming in through the camera's lens... and are doing so with your own eye's wildly more sensitive dynamic range, color accuracy, and sense of natural light? The system where, in a darker room, you're not using the back of your camera like a lighthouse beacon, lighting up your face and contracting your pupils, and distracting everyone else in the room? The system where you're not required to hold the camera out at arm's length to compose on a small screen, thereby losing all of the stability that's gained by pulling the camera in close and instead waiving it about, and inducing blur?<br /><br />"Live View" is a feature that <em>complements, </em>for certain circumstances, the generally far more useful actual SLR way of doing things.</p>

<p>Hey JC! :-)</p>

<p>In the live view mode, the mirror flips up, the shutter is opened, and the sensor "sees" through the lens. A live image is seen on the LCD (or EVF, I presume, if the camera has one). At least with Canon's, you can do a high magnification for focusing (which is done manually), or you can have the camera configured to focus with a half-press of the shutter release or the * button, achieved by dropping the mirror, focusing with the AF sensors, and then returning to live view. (The AF seems silly in live view -- better to focus manually.) To take the photo, the camera closes the shutter briefly, takes the exposure as though with mirror lockup, and then returns to liveview.</p>

<p>I didn't really see the usefulness of liveview before getting my 40D, but now I realize it is very quiet. (Most of the noise from an SLR is from the mirror slap.) At one time I had considered buying a p&s with electronic shutter for situations in which I had to be really quiet (e.g. for a wedding ceremony). However, the shutter is quiet enough with liveview to meet this need. It's not a feature I would use for anything other than *quiet* photography, but it's nice it's there when I need it.</p>

<p>Oh, I suppose it would also be useful for taking a shot with the camera held high over your head -- e.g. for shooting over a crowd. I don't do any of that, but I can see how a press photog might find this useful.</p>

<p><em>the archaic DSLR system designed back in the fifties or earlier</em><br>

Kind of like the archaic auto focus systems of the 1800s?<br /><em></em><br /><em>it seems to dpreview that only some of the more advanced DSLR's have Live View and pro-sumers don't ... what a giggle :-)</em><br /><em></em><br />These type of site reviews do not waste time and space referencing live view type functions on non DSLR cameras because there is no need while there is a need to reference live view functions on DSLR's because only some DSLR's have such functions. This practice may be an unusual means of providing you with amusement and entertainment but I am happy that it brings some joy to your life.</p>

<p>.</p>

<p>Live view is like the large format cameras with ground glass where you looked at the camera rather than at your sugject, and is excellent for stable subjects like Ansel Adams and his mountains. </p>

<p>But even Ansel Adams saw the alternative advantages of direct view in the (then) miniature 35mm cameras. I have both direct and indirect live view available in my DSL/EVF, in my revolutionary Minolta DiMage A1. </p>

<p>There's cameras for everybody out there, and not all features and benefits are appropriate for everyone's photographic preferences. Direct view would be unnecessary and prohibitively expensive on large format, just as live view is a struggle to put into reflex cameras, hence it's in the "cheap" Sony Alpha DSLR-A300/A350 as a hybrid system where the DSLR parts keep working as DSLR parts, and live view is a separate system. Sony did NOT incorporate this in their "expensive" A900 ... for a variety of reasons (who wants to tackle this one?).</p>

<p>To each their own. All cameras are appropriate for some photographers, and some cameras are inappropriate for some photographers, but ...</p>

<p>Anyway, I like having everything on one camera, but I use only one competitive feature at a time.</p>

<p>.</p>