Live View in a DSLR... (NOT what I thought)

[iskoos]

I purchased a D90 just because of the live view for my wife. She has a bit of an issue looking through the eye piece. I noticed that the auto focus was a little slower in live view but not much. I actually forgot it had live view until last weekend when i was taking shots at my nephews 6th B-day party. And only remembered because I had to switch to live view to record video.

Is the AF on the shutter button on D90?

 

[tresguey]

Yes it is, very simple to use.

 

[Village Idiot]

I really like the idea but it is only good if you are doing this style shooting.

Not necessarily true. There's other instances. Plus it just seems more natural to use.

 

[fokker]

I've always had it assigned to one of the buttons by the thumb. That way I can auto focus, recompose, and shoot without having the camera focus when the shutter goes half way down.

I do see your point in this statement. Now, I guess that's why Canon engineers used a dedicated button for AF. If you first AF and then change your composition and then shoot, camera will just capture the image whereas if the AF would be on the shutter button, the camera would then refocus and this would just add unnecessary time to the already lenghty process...
I really like the idea but it is only good if you are doing this style shooting. I rarely change the composition after AF. That's why I would still like to see if the AF button is assignable in my camera. If so, I will give it :thumbup:...
If not, it is still my camera...:hug::

I sort of get the point of doing this, but you can still focus-recompose with the AF on the shutter half press, you just half press the shutter button to focus, the recompose while keeping the button half pressed, and then take the shot. Doesn't seem like another button would provide any advantage here except that you don't have to leave the button half pressed.

 

[Dao]

Someone who shoot sports mentioned in the past in here that it is much faster and easier when shooting fast action sports with a separate AF button.

 

[Village Idiot]

I've always had it assigned to one of the buttons by the thumb. That way I can auto focus, recompose, and shoot without having the camera focus when the shutter goes half way down.

I do see your point in this statement. Now, I guess that's why Canon engineers used a dedicated button for AF. If you first AF and then change your composition and then shoot, camera will just capture the image whereas if the AF would be on the shutter button, the camera would then refocus and this would just add unnecessary time to the already lenghty process...
I really like the idea but it is only good if you are doing this style shooting. I rarely change the composition after AF. That's why I would still like to see if the AF button is assignable in my camera. If so, I will give it :thumbup:...
If not, it is still my camera...:hug::

I sort of get the point of doing this, but you can still focus-recompose with the AF on the shutter half press, you just half press the shutter button to focus, the recompose while keeping the button half pressed, and then take the shot. Doesn't seem like another button would provide any advantage here except that you don't have to leave the button half pressed.

If you're shooting in servo mode where the camera continually focuses, then the camera will focus the entire time the button is pressed half way. And once you do focus, you don't have to sit there with the shutter button halfway down to stay focused if you're in one shot mode.

 

[fokker]

OK, so you mean that you can effectively shoot one-shot mode style even when in servo? I guess that could come in pretty handy.

 

[kundalini]

Another thought on the AF-ON (Nikon speak) button. By using the AF button with your thumb, this allows me more control when depressing the shutter. I find that if my index finger only has to do one thing, then I am much more likely to roll it over the shutter button than pressing down on it. This is another little (and prefered) trick to reduce camera shake.


EDIT:
Oh yeah, forgot to mention. Other than a few instances such as VI pointed out, I rarely use LV... even in macro. If I had a tripod head with rail extensions, might think differently though.

 

[Derrel]

Live View varies a *HUGE* amount from camera manufacturer to camera manufacturer, and from body to body. It is pretty hard to generalize about the usefulness of Live View when some cameras have a very primitive form of it, while other cameras have very sophisticated and complete, easy-to-use Live View options. Many camera offer Live View, but non-articulated, fixed LCD screens, so the newer cameras that offer movable, articulated rear LCD screens add yet another wrinkle to Live View.

 

[gsgary]

Someone who shoot sports mentioned in the past in here that it is much faster and easier when shooting fast action sports with a separate AF button.

Could have been me, for sport it is way better i like to use it in the studio great for focus recompose

 

[iskoos]

Someone who shoot sports mentioned in the past in here that it is much faster and easier when shooting fast action sports with a separate AF button.

You are not saying the above for Live view shooting right?

 

[chris182]

for the most part I think live view is pointless on a dslr. I really wanted it when I first started looking for a dslr but after not having it I have realized I prob would have never used it. Just try holding your camera out with a lens on it and focus and hold it steady, not the easiest thing to do(for me atleast). Congrats on your purchase, you will have a blast with it!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Live view has it's place. I felt it sucked too at one time, till I had an instance where I needed to use it, and then suddenly I had more instances to use it, and now it is a tool, just like everything else. You can has options!

 

[Dwig]

The type of LIVEVIEW you want with fast AF etc. is available on the Sony DSLRs and it is matched with a tiltable LCD screen. ...

Sony's system is not a true LiveView system. It does not use the camera's image sensor for the electronic VF. Instead it uses a separate sensor in the prism housing. On the plus side, this allows the camera to still use the fast phase-dectect AF system common to SLRs, digital and film, where true LiveView cameras have to rely on contrast-dectect AF systems which tend to be slower. One the minus side, since the VF's sensor is not the actual image sensor the displayed image is not the 100% accurate image that is typical of true LiveView cameras.

In order to make LiveView focus quickly lenses need some slightly different logic than those setup for phase-detect SLR AF. Most "old style" DSLRs that have had LiveView tacked on to their feature set don't have a line of lenses optimized for the contrast-detect LiveView focusing. As a result, LiveView focusing is rather slow.

Camera systems, like the new micro4/3 system, are based on LiveView and contrast-dectect focusing. Their lens line is optimized for LiveView and their focusing performance beats all current true LiveView DSLRs. The only DSLRs with an EVF option that can beat the micro4/3 AF, specifically Panasonic's, focusing performance are the Sony's with their pseudo-LiveView arrangement.

 

[epp_b]

Everybody goes through this the first time they see an SLR.

What do you mean you can't look at the screen to take a picture? That's stupid!

When, in fact, composing using the LCD is usually stupid in itself