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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
05-03-2016, 02:23 PM
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Reviving this thread with a late addendum, but it appears that there is a second workaround for the dimming of the LCD when shooting manual flash in liveview mode! (Thanks to Adam for suggesting it in another thread.) Instead of using M mode, use TAv with a very narrow range of possible ISO values. To do this, set the camera to TAv, then press Info, select the ISO range, and then use the front and back dials to set the minimum and maximum ISO values. For example, if you want to shoot at ISO 250, select a range of 200-250. Then exit from the menu and proceed to select your aperture and exposure time. The liveview LCD brightness should remain the same regardless of your aperture or exposure time choices.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-17-2015, 01:36 PM
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BTW, I was at a local dealer today and tested a K-S2 and a K-50 and they both behave the same way as the K-3. A Ricoh rep was also on hand, and he was unable to find a setting that turns off this "exposure preview", and agreed that the behavior is quite inappropriate when shooting flash, as did the store's resident macro guy...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-08-2015, 06:36 PM
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Argh, bummer... Forgive my lack of the appropriate technical jargon here, but I always thought there was a little "lever" under the left rail of the Pentax hotshoe that was meant to help the camera detect when a flash is inserted into the hotshoe, and I also thought that this lever is the reason why the Pentax hotshoe cover has an "empty space" on the left side (to avoid having the camera think there's a flash on the camera when you put it on). That being said, the EXIF data when using manual flash certainly supports the idea that the camera doesn't have a clue that there's even a flash firing...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-08-2015, 02:07 PM
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You're right, I think. I'd forgotten that in M mode, the EV comp button switches the K-01's single control dial between controlling aperture and controlling shutter speed. There doesn't seem to be a way to access actual exposure compensation. Bummer. Maybe there's a K-5 IIs in my future...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-08-2015, 11:43 AM
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Don't worry, no offense taken. I put the words "dream of" a firmware fix to indicate I'm quite aware of the likelihood of this possibility... ;) However, the change in behavior between the K-5/K-01 and the K-3 does indicate that this is an area where some code churn is happening...
This is very interesting. I will go back to test this on the K-01 tonight. If the K-01 does as the K-5 (quite probable), it means I could possibly use this to *brighten* the K-01 display using the EV comp, and then under the circumstances where I'm having problems with the K-3, I'd have, theoretically, a 4 eV brighter display on the K-01 (since the K-3 stupidly dims it by 2 eV and I can boost it by 2 eV on the K-01). This might actually make it worth my while to go back to the K-01 and its lower resolution sensor...! (EDIT: It occurs to me I could also use EV comp on the K-01 to brighten the display when shooting with reversed lenses... Nice!)
Intriguing option, as Steve said. I can't test this right now, but as I stop down, won't the shutter time increase in such a manner that I'll always get a full exposure's worth of natural light in the total exposure? Thus, even discounting possible camera movement issues, won't adding flash will always mean the shot will be over-exposed? The only exception I can see to that is when the subject is in near darkness and natural light only affects the distant background, so that if you were really shooting without flash, you'd get an exposed background with a black subject. Then as you add the flash, you'd get the flash lighting the subject only, and natural light lighting the background only... Might be worth a try...?
Haha. It would be interesting to know how the flucard liveview behaves in this regard, if only theoretically for me. Both because I don't have a flucard to test with, but mostly because then I'd need to be a two-man outfit! One person to hold the camera and focus by moving the camera body, and another person to trigger the shot on the remote device.
That was one of the first adjustments I did when I got the camera, as I'd also done that on the K-01. I'm sure it helps, but my "corner cases" (where I miss a shot because of the dimming) already have that factor rolled in...
BTW, does the camera actually know when a fully manual (ie single pin) external manual flash (or flash trigger) is installed in the hotshoe? If so, (and to dream a little) it might be reasonable to send a message into Ricoh asking for a FW update with "no liveview exposure preview when using onboard or external flash"...?
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-08-2015, 05:21 AM
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Doesn't do anything for me... Does that work for you?
BTW, I absolutely wouldn't mind a fix that only works when (manual) flash is used, but I haven't found one. I tried to shoot with the onboard flash rather than an external manual flash - I used either "Flash On" or "Manual Flash Discharge" modes - and it didn't change anything either. You'd think that when using the onboard flash, the camera would at least be aware that the flash is going to fire (plus possible optical slaves), and not think that it's evaluation of how the scene is exposed without flash has anything to do with how the final exposure will look, but nope, no dice, still dimming the display as I close the aperture.
Yes, this is another possibility, but adds even more equipment and weight. On the other hand it would also be useful when shooting reversed lenses... Or, I could go back to the K-01, I guess, but then I lose the 24mp sensor with no AA... The least inconvenient right now is to use the aperture ring, and hope for/dream of a FW bug fix...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-07-2015, 07:11 PM
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While I can see how this other issue - auto-partial-closure of the lens iris in liveview under bright conditions - would be annoying and might cause inaccurate focusing with fast lenses, it is quite different from the problem I (the OP) brought up. If you wish to discuss/debate this issue at length, perhaps a new/different thread might make a more appropriate venue? I don't mean to sound annoying, but going off-topic will discourage others who might want to discuss the original problem...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-07-2015, 02:55 PM
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Yes, noise does become an issue. But I've made shots where I basically half-guessed the framing because the LCD is just so dim, and then a few pixels kinda light-up from the focus peaking and - wham! - nice in-focus shot. Of course, high magnification macro is a numbers game anyway: one accepts that the DoF is so thin, the creature can and does move, you're never perfectly still, and so on, so it's a given that you just get very few keepers. It's just annoying when the camera makes it even harder than it needs to be. It took me a while to figure out this was happening - I just kept thinking, "is it just me or is the K-3 LCD dimmer than the K-01?" until I figured out that this was the cause.
But don't you already have the eV bar that tells you if the shot will be under- or over-exposed?
In any case, for macro and in dim conditions, you do not want to be shooting with a pre-closed aperture. That is precisely the advantage in using, say, a 100mm macro plus a strong diopter rather than a reversed lens on tubes (at equivalent magnification). You're then focusing with a wide-open aperture, and can just see a whole lot better. If I'm shooting in tons of light, then I'm more likely to shoot with a reversed lens, where the aperture is preset. But when shooting under a thick canopy, in a dark forest, I can achieve focus with a regular lens plus diopter under conditions where using a reversed lens would just be hopeless (without some kind of continuous focus-assist light).
And at any rate, when you're using manual flash, there's no way the camera can preview the exposure. The LCD dimming in that case is really just a bug, IMHO...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-07-2015, 01:56 PM
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Thanks to all responders, but to you both particularly! I was wondering if my camera was maybe misconfigured. While I agree this might possibly be considered a "feature" when shooting natural light, I think we can agree it's a bug when shooting manual flash, and under all circumstances I feel we should be able to turn it off. When I'm shooting in dim light to begin with, sometimes the display goes so dim that I can barely see a thing, and it becomes more or less impossible to focus (by moving the camera and using magnified liveview to achieve focus). And sometimes even if there's enough light, if I'm looking at the camera from an odd angle (remember, I shoot macro), or the sun is shining into the LCD, then the dimming is also very aggravating.
As I wrote before, using the aperture ring is a viable, if inconvenient, workaround. But I guess I won't be buying that D-FA 100mm WR macro I've been thinking about to get a WR macro body & lens combo...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-07-2015, 09:02 AM
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Note: the aperture itself stays open until the shot is taken, of course. In a way, what I'm seeing could be described as a kind of "badly-placed exposure preview" (especially badly-placed when using manual flash, IMHO).
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-07-2015, 08:31 AM
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Hi all,
So has anyone witnessed the following behavior?
- Use an A-series or more recent lens;
- set the camera to M-mode and turn on Liveview;
- dial in a proper exposure using a fairly open aperture;
- now start closing the aperture using the in-body aperture control (not the aperture ring on the lens - if your lens has one it should be set to "A");
- you should see that as the aperture setting increases, the LCD gets progressively dimmer and dimmer, to about -2 eV, from which point onwards the brightness remains steady.
I just tested this also on my K-01 and it does not behave the same way as my K-3. Instead, on the K-01 the LCD's brightness stays the same regardless of how underexposed the camera thinks the shot will be once the shot is taken.
This behavior of the K-3 is very annoying! I shoot a lot of macro with manual flash in M-mode and with Liveview. Since the camera has no way of knowing the flash power, it thinks the shot will be quite underexposed, and dims the LCD, as described above. So, I'm shooting with an artificially, and quite unnecessarily dimmed LCD! Under some circumstances, that's the difference between getting and not getting the shot. :mad:
If I'm using a lens with an aperture ring, a workaround is to use the aperture ring to set the shot's aperture rather than use in-body aperture control. This is much less convenient, but at least when I do that, the LCD display remains at normal brightness even if the camera foolishly thinks the shot will be underexposed. But if I'm using a lens without an aperture ring, then I think I'm up the proverbial creek.
So, what do you think? Is there a setting that will turn this off? Is it a bug? I don't think it's a feature, but you might?
I'm running FW1.11.
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