Thank you Doug. I've used Live View in the studio a couple times (P65), mostly just to try it out. It was fine under the modeling lights from the moonlights. Today I took the laptop into the field and the "Live View" window in C1 was totally blown out. Today isn't bright - metering was F2.8, 1/640 and ISO50. The purpose of this was to compare the bokeh of two lenses, outdoors. I needed to have the same focus with both lenses at F2.8.
Playing around with the DF & Live View, by aiming the camera in some dark shadows, it looked like it needed 8 or 9 stops of ND reduction for Live View to be viable outdoors. I feel like I must be missing something really basic here...