[pentaxmz]

some other people here might be thinking "but why doesnt pentax do it the same way?" - well.. they cant, it'd be called patent infringment (most, if not all, companies patent their live view implementations),

Who is saying that?

But as far as I know, one cannot patent ideas such as, on screen information display, histogram, using the full resolution of the sensor for zooming in, or any of the other information you see after you take the picture. If so, someone is make a lot in royalties already!

canon seems to have thought up of something interesting - a semi transparent mirror which means light goes through to the viewfinder and live-view sensor at the same time... should be interesting to see if they put the implementation into cameras any time soon and if it works out well

That's news to me. Interesting really. I doubt it is the same type of mirror technology I once used in portrait work because such a mirror would make both the view finder and the live view notably darker than reality. Do you have a link for this?

Anyhow, get back on topic.... yes, the K20D live view could be significantly improved but Pentax will likely never update this feature unless enough people tell them!

[Vylen]

i did say "...some other people here might..." :P

and i was refering to the way the camera allows the live-view sensor to get light.... sony has a method to have secondary mirror that directs light to either the viewfinder or the live-view rather than lift the main mirror for example...

as for the canon thing:
Canon patent application offers solution for Live View autofocus issues - Engadget

[pentaxmz]

i did say "...some other people here might..." :P

and i was refering to the way the camera allows the live-view sensor to get light.... sony has a method to have secondary mirror that directs light to either the viewfinder or the live-view rather than lift the main mirror for example...

as for the canon thing:
Canon patent application offers solution for Live View autofocus issues - Engadget

I love Engadget and um.... I hate Engadget because they always make me want more gadgets! Thanks for the link!

[Wheatfield]

I just upgraded to the K20D, I played around the live view feature, and it's very limited in feature and performance. Focus time in live view is very slow. It doesn't display any info when using live view. When zoom-in in live view, I can't really know the picture is properly focus or not because the picture become very grainy. It's live view is worst than my old P&S camera. Looks like the Live View feature in K20D need alot of improvement compare to other brand. Even i don't use it much, but i still wise it's better. Is there any trick or tips to use live view in K20D?

One of the annoying things is that whenever a company puts a new feature onto a camera, we have to wait until it's their second or third generation implementation of it before it works really well.
It doesn't matter who makes the camera, this just seems to be the way of it.

I saw the first implementation of LiveView from Canon, and it pretty much hoovered.
Anyway, AF is slow in Liveview because of the way it works. The mirror has to drop, the shutter has to close, the sensor has to be deactivated, then the AF gets to do it's thing and then everything gets started again.
I don't think that it can be made especially fast, even a fast AF from Liveview is going to be pretty painful to watch.
My take on this feature is that it is of limited use. I have used it from time to time doing macro photography, but I find that the digital preview is better because I can zoom better with it and see if things are in focus.

[pentaxmz]

Anyway, AF is slow in Liveview because of the way it works. The mirror has to drop, the shutter has to close, the sensor has to be deactivated, then the AF gets to do it's thing and then everything gets started again.
I don't think that it can be made especially fast, even a fast AF from Liveview is going to be pretty painful to watch.

Not necessarily. Focusing (and exposure values) can be evaluated directly from the sensor using specific algorithms (called nonlinear/wavelet transformation, etc.); the caveat being, this type of analysis requires a lot of processing power. Remember, the focusing systems used in our cameras now, is not much more advanced than 10 years ago.

I am quite certain that in the future, there will be no need for a pentaprism. The term 'SLR' will vanish into antiquity.

However, since the future hasn't hit us yet , stick to manual focusing when in live view mode.

[Ratmagiclady]

Frankly, a lot of the ways to make Live View more like a P&S LCD end up compromising the viewfinder brightness for one reason or another, I'm glad Pentax was conservative about it: Live view is a nice little feature, but in the end I could cheerfully take or leave it, the LCD gets some use on my bridge camera, but on my K20, I have the stopdown enabled instead. ..Nice to have, I'd just rather performance wasn't compromised elsewhere for it.