[rbefly]

Hello David,
Chimping is one of those nifty features that seems great when you first start using it, but eventually (as you've seen) begins to lose the luster when you find the limitations. Then, you begin to work within the limits and don't let it rule your photo decision-making process.
As you gain experience, you won't be checking every shot, perhaps only a few per photo session. It's good for spotting blown highlights (the blinkies), general framing and composition corrections and the histogram can be a valuable tool, again, understanding the limits.
But it can also slow you down and lead to over-thinking the natural flow of image-making. I can only remember a very few shots that were 'saved' by chimping and re-taking, but understanding exposure, judicious bracketing (1/3 stop each way) and/or EV comp have saved many more.
It took quite a bit of trial and error before I was able to loose the chimp-every-shot habit. It can be addicting!
Use it when you need it, otherwise, keep clicking.
JMO,
Ron

[TaoMaas]

I dislike the term "chimping" because it implies there's something wrong with using one of the primary benefits of digital..and that is, the ability to get instant feedback. I think it's of limited use for gauging exposure, particularly when shooting raw, but it can be a life-saver when checking for focus.

[DeadJohn]

I use the "blinkies" to check for clipping shadows and highlights. If I am shooting a scene with a lot of dynamic range I will use exposure compensation to underexpose by one stop; the K5 sensor provides a lot of leeway recovering shadows during postprocessing.

[mrNewt]

I like how people find a way to put syndromes on anything... they should make a pill for this "chimping"
I think is a natural thing that comes with digital camera territory... some look at the colors rendered, some look to confirm focus, other for the histogram or to check composition, etc... why not take advantage of this to make sure your shots are right!?

Grab your film camera if you want to cure the "chimping syndrome"

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Last edited by mrNewt; 12-17-2013 at 08:16 AM.

[steve1307]

Grab your film camera if you want to cure the "chimping syndrome"

That wont stop you "chimping" and it will be even more embarrassing.

A couple of months ago I shot a roll of film through a 55 year old Agfa Silette, my first roll since 2003. I still "chimped" at least 4 times out of 24. DOH!



In my K-5 i have the histogram on image review for 1 second only, and just glance at it to make sure exposure is not way off.
The composition should be the same as in the VF so no point actually looking at the image itself as it display on the LCD.

Occasionally I'll review a shot to check if the focus is nailed if its more critical but this takes more than just a couple of seconds.

[mrNewt]

That wont stop you "chimping" and it will be even more embarrassing.

A couple of months ago I shot a roll of film through a 55 year old Agfa Silette, my first roll since 2003. I still "chimped" at least 4 times out of 24. DOH!

Yea but for the rest 20 you were cured

[JimJohnson]

I chimp for composition, focus (although that often requires the extra time to magnify the captured image), and gross exposure and white balance. I use the camera's histogram on occasion. I never try to make a final determination from the camera's LCD about fine exposure or final white balance. The little 3 inch / 8cm screen simply isn't up to that task.

I have hardware calibrated monitors on my desk at home - and hardware calibrated includes the room's ambient lighting. The camera's LCD is used under a wide variety of ambient lighting and frankly doesn't have a sufficient contrast ratio to tell me how my final image will look.

[johnyates]

I'm a raw shooter. I make my exposure judgement by looking at the histogram--I ignore how the image looks on the monitor. The histogram tells me when I've captured all the information in the scene. I can massage brightness levels later in PP.

I've set my initial review magnification for 8x so I can quickly assess that I haven't missed focus.

[Just1MoreDave]

In addition to what others suggest, I use the RGB histogram to see if individual colors are overexposed. The "blinkies" will only show when an area is overexposed in all three channels. If just red is overexposed, you might miss it. The most common shot for this is a flower surrounded by green foliage. I look at the general scene at night because I often disagree with the metering. Unlike K-5 users, I can't just pull up shadows later. JPG shooters should be checking to see if the white balance is at least close. When I use the DA 10-17 fisheye, I make sure my feet aren't in the shot.

[FrankC]

I rarely chimp at all because I went from a film SLR to a DSLR I'm just used to not looking at the back of the camera after each shot. I use the DOF preview to close the lens down and use the exposure scale in the viewfinder to ensure whites are white and blacks are black. However when I do chimp, it's to check focus, camera shake, DOF and overall exposure. As mentioned before, the LCD shows a JPEG and so I only use the LCD to make sure I'm in the ballpark with my exposure. This has come in handy since I almost always shoot in manual and sometimes I get lazy and forget to change settings as the light changes.

[zekewhipper]

So I recently found out what "chimping" is and it turns out I'm a chimper and have been one for quite some time.


Embarassment? I dunno!


But anyway, in this case it is what it is! And if I'm gonna be chimping, let's talk about effective chimping.


Because K-5 chimping for some reason isn't working out so accurately for me. It appears that many photos I take which don't look properly exposed on the LCD are often turning out to be looking just fine on the big screen.


And I am taking additional shots with various exposure adjustments that turn out to be looking not so great at all on the big screen. The additional shots are unnecessary. The first shot was okay after all! It's happened a number of times now.


Is my LCD possibly poorly adjusted or something? It should be on default setting. I've never gone into the menus and changed anything.


So that's one chimping thing that I'm reckoning with right now.


Or should I just resist the screaming urge to chimp? LOL

Chimping is not bad. As a matter of fact, it is one blessing that has come along because of digital photography.

With that said, the image that you see on your LCD is what the camera thinks will be best picture after it has done a bunch of processing on its own BEYOND simply creating a JPEG image. Ergo, you need to learn to not trust the exposure of the image as you see it on the LCD. What is on the LCD, to put it bluntly, is a lie. You need to learn how to use, interpret, and adjust based on exposure histograms. They give you the real "picture" of what the exposure is. Once you do that, your exposure problems will pretty much go away.