Geez just found the holy grail of live view

[Guy Mancuso]

Okay everyone and there brother may know this but I DID NOT. LOL

Been going back and forth between Af operation and Live view just to get the virtual horizon stuff. I just found the answer to that in Live view hit the INFO button and you can get grid lines for alignment and the virtual alignment tool. What a freaking life saver. This is what you get when you DON'T read the manual. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

Okay back to my cave.:bugeyes:

 

[paulraphael]

Ha! liveview artificial horizon has got to be my favorite feature on the camera.

 

[petetsai]

Is it 3D or still 2D Guy? I really liked the 3D view on the Sony nex-7.

 

[woodworth]

Is there a way of getting the histogram to show when using live view? I understand how to get it to work when looking a a picture already taken, but is there a way to display it when using live view (prior to taking the image)?

 

[Shashin]

This is what you get when you DON'T read the manual.

Yeah, all 7,543 pages of it. I wonder if there is an app for that?

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I have it on my phone in a PDF in the bookstore. Lol
Big manual 800 plus. Oh that's just one language too. Lol

 

[paulraphael]

Is it 3D or still 2D Guy? I really liked the 3D view on the Sony nex-7.

3d and beautiful.

Is there a way of getting the histogram to show when using live view? I understand how to get it to work when looking a a picture already taken, but is there a way to display it when using live view (prior to taking the image)?

Yes. You have to press the OK button, and histogram becomes one of the screens that you cycle through with the info button. It's weird; I don't know why you have to do this.

 

[GrahamWelland]

Big improvement with the location and functionality of the LV button on the D800. Unwanted video is now not a problem compared to the prior implementations.

Nikon really need to work on improving the night/low light LV performance though. Try focusing manually on stars at night using LV and you're presented with a noise fest. Canon beat the pants off of Nikon's LV in that respect.

I find that I use LV a lot more than I used to these days. Like the zoom, grid and level modes though. :thumbs:

 

[paulraphael]

Nikon really need to work on improving the night/low light LV performance though. Try focusing manually on stars at night using LV and you're presented with a noise fest. Canon beat the pants of Nikon's LV in that respect.

I assume the problem is that in low light a whole lot of gain needs to applied to the signal coming off the sensor. Live view updates pretty quickly … like what, 15 times a second? So we're looking at 1/15 second exposures, in lighting situations where we need many times that to make a decent photograph. That should account for the ugly noise and lack of detail in the shadows.

On the other hand, I have no idea why 100% pixel view on the d800 appears to be interpolated. That is a shame. Still useable for focussing, but not as nice as it could be (or as nice as it is on many Nikons, including ones that cost half as much).

 

[Antonio Chagin]

Coming from 5D MKII, Nikon Live View has 2 big issues; One, as stated before, the low light rendering and detail is very poor. Second is only works as "Exposure Emulation" which is not good for studio work (at 1/100 F/11 you won't see anything in there) while Canon does have "Stills Display" and "Movie Display" as well.

Other thing, while out of the matter but important, and I wish Nikon would read in this Forum, is the unfriendly Users Settings Recording Function, which I happen to use very much. It is difficult to program and difficult to access.

 

[Jack]

LOLOL! Great find(s) Bud! I would have never thought to punch buttons other than "AF" while in LV

 

[woodworth]

...

Yes. You have to press the OK button, and histogram becomes one of the screens that you cycle through with the info button. It's weird; I don't know why you have to do this.

Thanks! It seems that there are many hidden depths to my D800! I am a recent convert to Nikon and while I admire the lenses and the D800, I find that the menus are enigmatic (to say the least). I am getting to grips with the way the menus work but they kind of remind me of pre-windows days (for those of you old enough to remember dos ... !

 

[danielmoore]

Among the truly useful tips in the manual, on page 15:

"Using the viewfinder diopter adjustment control

When operating the viewfinder diopter adjustment control with your eye to the viewfinder, care should be taken not to put your finger in your eye accidentally."

Don't know how I got by without that.

 

[waynelake]

Hahahaha.....
This is funny. I found that weeks ago... time for me to get out of the cave... Virtual Horizon and the various histograms I needed, a must. Virtual Horizon is especially magic at night. But I must admit the camera is not very intuitive, but got most stuff figured out. Live view at night time is difficult. One way is to get a photo, then zoom in upon a bright star. Perhaps a better way, if only infinity is required is to focus during day time, use a big piece of inch wide tape, putting tape on lens so focus is fixed/taped at infinity. Easy fix.

As you flick through photos on camera, left or right. That same dial, but top/bottom is histogram until the suitable one found.

 

[Tony]

Big improvement with the location and functionality of the LV button on the D800. Unwanted video is now not a problem compared to the prior implementations.

Nikon really need to work on improving the night/low light LV performance though. Try focusing manually on stars at night using LV and you're presented with a noise fest. Canon beat the pants off of Nikon's LV in that respect.

I find that I use LV a lot more than I used to these days. Like the zoom, grid and level modes though. :thumbs:

Hey Graham I don't know if you are aware of this but a useful little trick I learned is to open up the aperture all the way then adjust shutter speed and then zoom in to 100% to focus. This significantly improves live view but adds a few steps to focusing. Also just in case anyone doesn't know you can set the multifunction center button to to do a one click 100% magnification. IT's in the custom menu and can save you a little time.

 

[vjbelle]

The only problem I have found with live view histograms is that with manual lenses the shutter speed cannot be set lower than a 1/30. I use mostly manual lenses..... not a deal killer but I hope they fix that with a firmware upgrade.

Victor

 

[Spiritshooter]

I was shooting an interior project yesterday with the D800 and PC-E 24. The project was a video conferencing center for a large law firm. I decided to use the virtual horizon, big mistake. After getting back to the office and processing I found that the VH is OK but not very accurate, especially for critical architectural work.

None the less, thank goodness for C1 and it's keystone feature.

As far as Live View is concerned, don't even get me started. Nikon really blew that one.
They need to get it together and take a lesson from Canon.

 

[vjbelle]

I was shooting an interior project yesterday with the D800 and PC-E 24. The project was a video conferencing center for a large law firm. I decided to use the virtual horizon, big mistake. After getting back to the office and processing I found that the VH is OK but not very accurate, especially for critical architectural work.

None the less, thank goodness for C1 and it's keystone feature.

As far as Live View is concerned, don't even get me started. Nikon really blew that one.
They need to get it together and take a lesson from Canon.

Dead on the money:thumbup: Couldn't have said it better. Its easy to see how Macro vs Micro the virtual horizon is but I've forgiven Nikon since anything I've seen so far is no better..... but then I've only danced with an IQ180 which is usually way behind the times for stuff like this. I have used live view in my 5DII.... a dream compared to Nikon..... all of this will change soon enough.

Victor