Take photos in Liveview mode

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wdaehn
Posts: 38
Joined: October 30th, 2018, 5:44 pm

October 30th, 2018, 7:40 pm

Especially with Timelapse it might be interesting to use the camera in liveview mode to avoid the mirror vibrations. The only reason to use the mirror is to utilize the Phase AF. And that is exactly not what you want during time lapse. The focus point should stay.
I would like to see a control option for that in the app. Something like:
Do you want to use AF during each picture? Actually, wouldn't the answer be No always?
Do you want to use Phase AF or Contrast AF for the initial picture?
Do you want to set the AF first, validate it with preview and then leave it as is?
Samsung Galaxy S8 latest update
Nikon Z6.
Oliver
Posts: 1127
Joined: October 9th, 2018, 4:17 pm

November 1st, 2018, 4:30 pm

Hi,

as long as the camera supports it, and the USB cable is not plugged in, you can take photos in liveview mode. On most Nikons, the shutter curtain still opens, closes and is reset, but there are a few new Nikons where even this movement can be eliminated: I believe that's possible on the D850 and the Z6 and Z7 cameras.

When the USB cable is plugged in, and we actively use USB to communicate with the camera, unfortunately Nikon does not allow the Live-view image to be displayed on the back of the camera, it can only be transferred via USB, but since we can't send a live-view stream to the phone through BLE, we decided to not allow Live-view at all. But yes, this is actually a very good use-case where an invisible Live-view might make sense - even if only to reduce mirror-vibrations.

However, there is another reason to "use the mirror" rather than liveview: to save power! Unfortunately, when Live-view is on, there is a huge battery drain on the camera. So if you want to take a timelapse, but do not have external power, it makes sense to use non-live-view photography for that timelapse. The Unleashed tries to minimise power use wherever it can, so it's easily possible to do a timelapse over several hours on a single battery charge!

I'm not sure if the questions about autofocussing are necessary in the app: We agree: the answer to the first question should (almost) always be no. Thats why we warn the user if AF is on when he wants to start a timelapse. As for the other options: I would expect that the photographer would want to focus along with framing the photo for the timelapse, whether that's in liveview or phase AF is up to the photographer. Once he has that set up, he can then start the timelapse from the app.

Nonetheless, we have planned to allow setting a focus point on a preview image (in Photo mode), so we could also make this an optional first step before starting a timelapse. That might be a good idea! :-)
Founder & CEO of Foolography, Hardware & Firmware developer.
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