Live LCD?

[Lisa Strong]

I'm a little confused. I have a GH1 now (yay!). When I think "live lcd" I think that the exposure I am selecting in Manual mode should be what is represented on the live lcd. Instead, I have a plain old fashioned light meter scale at the bottom which indicates whether my exposure is over or under and by how much. I would like to see the actual exposure before I expose. My powershots do this. I was thinking a "live lcd" on the GH1 would also do this. Is there a switch in the menu I am missing?

Thanks.
~ ~ Lisa

[David W. Jones]

Yes, I don't have it in front of me, So I will try to go from memory, but turn off power monitor, and turn on histogram.

[Lisa Strong]

Hmm. Tried that, the lcd still auto exposes for my viewing pleasure. I'd love to hear more once you get the camera in front of you! Thanks

~ ~ L

[Todd Norris]

I assume you are talking about taking stills. When shooting video in full manual mode, the LCD represents the actual exposure.
With stills, yes, you get the "auto exposure" image that you mentioned. The trick to seeing how your still will look before you expose is to press the trashcan icon button and then the Display button. These two activate the Shutter Preview and the Aperture preview, thus displaying the image at proper exposure.
There's also another way that I use; When shooting stills on the "M" setting on the dial, I quickly spin the dial one notch up to Movie Mode, which I have on full manual. That shows the actual exposure. I adjust my shutter and aperture to taste, then I quickly spin it back down to "M" and take the shot.

[Lisa Strong]

Thanks Todd. Indeed shooting stills for a change. Having fun with full moon stills at sunrise and sunset. It's really the first serious shooting I've done with it, and it just seemed so ridiculous I couldn't figure out the lcd thing. It's actually part of the reason I bought it! dSLRs don't have a live lcd either for structural reasons. Remove the prism, and we shouldn't have a problem, or so I thought. I haven't started shooting video, but the quick flick of the scroll wheel will probably be my M.O. too. Kind of tedious going the trashcan/display button sequence. It should be live on the lcd w/o that, though having the depth of field preview thing is good, but "shutter speed effect" is currently defaulted; I am wading through both the menu and the manual. Ugh. Thanks for your help!

~ ~ Lisa

[Lisa Strong]

Just to note, there is a limitation I discovered flicking over to video mode to expose on the lcd screen for a still. Shutter speed only goes down to 1/30th! Not idea for night photography. It's kind of funny live lcd exposure isn't available in M for stills.

~ ~ L

[Paulo Teixeira]

I guess you havn't seen a lot of my recent videos on Vimeo.
You can set the shutter to much lower than 30.

First things first, make sure you have the latest firmware update.

"Shutter speed slower than 1/30 sec. (up to 1/2 sec.) has now become available in the Creative Motion Picture mode.
Only when the [EXPOSURE MODE] in the [MOTION PICTURE] mode menu is set to [M], and the focus mode dial is set to [MF].
Please note that the shutter speed slower than 1/30 sec. can not be set, when the [REC MODE] in the [MOTION PICTURE] mode menu is set to [AVCHD], and [REC QUALITY] is set to [FHD]."
Joint update service for Four Thirds lenses | Digital Camera | Digital AV | Consumer Products | Support | Panasonic Global

Here's one of my multiple scenery shutter changing videos in which it starts at 60 and around every 5 seconds, I lower it once until it reaches 2.

ISO 100 - Shutter Changing 60 to 2 - October 31 - Native file #5 on Vimeo

The Camera is on a dock.

Here's one with a shutter of 15.

f/1.7 + ISO of 100 - Oct 26 #27 Native File* on Vimeo

The camera is completely hand-held.

[Lisa Strong]

Nope; I hadn't seen your recent Vimeo vids, but I have now. Thanks! Making a mental note for when I start shooting more video with the GH1.

In the meantime, while I am playing with the still side of things, it makes for a more complex work-around. I would have to change my video preferences in order to shoot stills this way. Why they have the live exposure lcd available for video and not for stills is baffling me. I do both. I don't want to be menu surfing every time I switch back and forth. The point for me is this is a convergence device, available to shoot whatever I want in short order. I have a video camera and a still camera. I can switch them out of the bag, but this device seems like the answer to fast transitions. But having different working methods on the same device seems more complex than necessary. Sorry I always seem to complain when I get on the boards. I did take this photo two nights ago using the shoot a still, review a still, adjust the exposure, shoot another still method.... It works.

~ ~ L

[Lisa Strong]

Paulo,
I used what I remembered from reading your post. Haven't figured out how to deal with the video, but the stills came out great! But this situation is the very reason I'd like to have an easy and seamless workflow between the stills and the video. It was tedious, especially in the dark in a crowd to switch back and forth.

Here Dr. MegaVolt was rocking a Telsa Coil under the rotunda at the Exploratorium for a Science After Dark program.

~ ~ L