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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-08-2015, 11:53 AM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
I don't believe that EV comp works in M mode on the K-01 -- it is a "flagship" feature I guess. (But double check)
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-08-2015, 10:21 AM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
I'm wondering how the FluCard mirroring works in this regard -- if you are using a phone or tablet as your liveview screen, does it go dark? And can you just pump up the screen brightness on your device? (Does just setting the screen on the camera to very bright help at all?)
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-08-2015, 09:29 AM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
I only have the K-5 to test -- changing the aperture does nothing at all to the display (as you know). However, changing the EV comp will in-fact darken or brighten the screen as you do so. Looks like the effect is restricted to the -2 to +2 range. Anything more extreme (it goes to -/+ 5) doesn't do anything.
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-08-2015, 08:07 AM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
I will continue this discussion in a new thread after I've done a little testing...
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 09:44 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
How about if you crank up the EV compensation? (Which in M mode won't change your settings, just the metering.) I think that affects screen brightness, doesn't it?

Another option for macro is to maybe use an always on LED light panel to keep the scene lit. (Are there any of those that will actually turn OFF when you fire it so the flash is the light source for the shot?)
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 07:19 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
Apologies, of course. I only brought it up because apparently there have been changes in the recent model since your problem is new to you with the K-3 and so was just wondering if they had done anything about that other annoying problem. It does sound like the engineers need to sit down and work out a philosophy of just how live view is supposed to work under different circumstances, and maybe provide some options to have it work this way or that at the photographer's preference especially since we've seen complaints on both sides of this issue. It should have a toggle -- maintain average brightness for viewability OR act as a shot preview (more or less) of the current settings.
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 07:05 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
With dottune, you critically focus in live-view, or just make sure you are in critical focus anyway, and then you turn AF off so it doesn't move. Then you go through the adjustments one at a time setting them, from -10 to +10, and then you hit the shutter half-press or AF button to activate the focus confirmation system (even though you are now in manual) and you write down if get that confirmation, i.e. the green hexagon goes on or doesn't or goes on slowly or is flickering. You find the range where it confirms instantly, and then set your final AF adjustment to the mid-point of that. So that's how it uses the green hexagon. (My point being is you might not think of what the aperture is set to during this entire procedure because you aren't actually taking any shots, but where the aperture is set on the dial will affect whether you get that green hexagon or not, and how fast you get it -- if you happen to have it at f/6.3 it will be confirming all over the place, but if you are at say f/2.8, it is much more discerning about when the green hexagon comes on.)

Send me a fast FA lens and I'll do that. I have to think about what I have right now that is suitable. I no longer have some of the lenses I've had pass through my hands that showed the problem. The Sigma 70/2.8 macro will show it, but it doesn't have an aperture ring to force it open. I do have the Sigma 100-300/4 which I haven't tried -- that is only a stop off so we'll see (pretty sure it goes to 5.6 when it stops down but not positive) I'm not sure I've ever even tried autofocusing with the aperture not on 'A' -- does that even work?

If I had more (fast) AF lenses, I would have been complaining about this even sooner. I always knew it did that stop down thing, which annoyed me for manual focus, but I figured I'm in an extreme minority manually focusing all the time and only a minority of my lenses even have 'A' settings at all. I thought surely it doesn't do that when it is autofocusing? Cause that would really be stupid, and everyone would be complaining. Then I put a 70-200/2.8 on it (which I no longer have) and couldn't get an in-focus shot and realized what was happening...
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 06:13 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
It is the K-01 where you have no other option that I would have thought people would have taken notice of. I mean, you can't use AF and shoot at fast apertures with an 'A' lens or newer on a bright day -- at all, it just doesn't work. Seems like that would cover a pretty substantial set of use cases. (Maybe the pancake 40 is immune?) You can't even use manual focus unless you know to use the magnify function. I keep hoping someone will tell me that I'm a dummy and there is some setting that will fix it, but no one ever talks about this even though we get a zillion threads about "why isn't this in focus?" which are always user error. If I get a chance tomorrow and it isn't raining, I'll show you how bad it is...

Oh, and take note of what I said earlier when you are doing your focus calibrations -- the aperture setting will affect how easily the camera will confirm focus, so any AF adjustments should be done with the aperture always kept at wide-open (even if you aren't actually taking shots, which if you are using the "dot-tune" method you might not be because that just involves seeing if you get the green hexagon or not at various adjustments)...
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 05:30 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
But it has been doing that on all the previous models as well going back years. And I can tell you it is a real problem because I've tried to use fast lenses at fast apertures and can NEVER get the subject in focus unless I switch to manual and use the magnify function. (Even on an isolated subject where there is nothing else to focus on.) It is essentially causing itself reverse focus shift by design...
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 04:18 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
The point is that the camera stops down while you are focusing (or just viewing) and so it is achieving focus or confirming focus (if manual) with possibly a greater depth of field than you will actually shoot at. So if you take your 1.4 AF lens, set it to 1.4, and go use CDAF autofocus *in bright sunlight*, the camera will be autofocusing at f/5.6, then you take the shot at f/1.4 and whatever you focused on is very very likely BADLY out of focus (because in order to achieve critical focus at f/1.4, the aperture actually needs to be wide-open while you do so, and it is not). I think you will find it is nearly impossible to get in-focus shots (of what you want) with a fast lens using a fast aperture when using CDAF liveview AF (or even MF if you aren't using the zoom function). And I find it strange that I seem to be the only one to have ever noticed this...
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 02:23 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
If in manual focus mode, using the magnify function will keep the aperture wide-open while it is digitally zoomed in...
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 01:19 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
I found out when testing that it actually is more generous on locking focus (even in PDAF) if you have it set to a smaller aperture. So if it confirming focus but not dead-on what you want, setting the aperture to wide-open first can help, i.e. you should set your aperture (if you are setting it yourself) before you focus...
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 12:35 PM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
Yeah, if you're shooting at f/5.6 or smaller, it is ok, but if you are shooting at f/1.8 and it focuses at f/5.6, more than likely what you focused on will be badly out of focus for the actual shot. How dumb is that?
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 09:11 AM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
That is a HUGE problem and I don't know why it doesn't get more complaints. Not the dimming (it usually compensates with increased gain instantly), but the stopping down in bright light. Using a fast AF lens on the K-01 (where LV is the only option) in the daylight, for instance, is basically impossible -- you can't take an in-focus shot at f/2.8 or faster EVER (because it focuses with the lens at stopped down to f/5.6). You can workaround it with manual focus by using the zoom-in function which opens the aperture, but with AF there is nothing you can do that I know of. Anyway, that's getting off-topic. It sounds like the K-3 has some differences with LV, but I guess I can still look forward to still NOT being able to using LV AF focusing in the future?
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 06-07-2015, 08:56 AM  
Annoying Liveview Behavior: Fixable? Bug?
Posted By vonBaloney
Replies: 57
Views: 5,812
I think I've always heard the opposite complaint around here -- that when in M mode they want the screen to show how the shot is actually going to turn out instead of artificially brightening it. So this will be a fix to those people. Flash changes the equation, of course...
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