Hello peoples! I recently acquired a Sony A6400. Now I didn’t get it for stills, I got it mainly to start practicing video as I’m majoring in film.
Video I haven’t messed around with it all that much, but I’m pretty pleased with the results so far.
Stills tho…… I’m super disappointed. I think it has to do with that it has an EVF. I get EVFs have a lot of advantages, but those come at the expense of the user experience.
I was shooting some landscape just now, and the flip up screen is cool and all, but I COULDNT SEE MY SCENE. Like I had no idea what was actually in my shadows, and it was not conducive for taking good pictures.
Eye af and all the info is cool, but idk… I just don’t like EVFS for stills.
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Sometimes it’s the Indian and not the arrows
Um …? Did you try putting your eye up to the actual eye piece called the viewfinder? The flip up screen is not the viewfinder.
Yeah, EVFs are very different from seeing the live scene directly, and while I still prefer an SLR view, I use my Q2 more than anything.
One advantage has is that an EVF can see in the dark. One disadvantage is that there’s a lag and this gets worse in the dark.
It’s only over time and with practice that you can predict what’s going to happen.
The problem you are having is that the viewfinder/screen on mirrorless cameras generally shows you exactly what your photo will look like. If you have it set to expose for the sky then of course the shadows will be dark since that is what the photo will look like. Your eyes can see a lot more dynamic range than the sensor so of course an optical viewfinder will look better but it isn’t accurate. What I often do in high contrast situations is boost the exposure while I’m composing so I can see the shadow details and then drop the exposure to the correct settings before taking the photo.
D700 raw files were so good I literally just shot in matrix metering mode and just recovered whatever shadow detail I needed in post. There was rarely a time I needed to exposure comp.
Made composing really easy since the VF was crystal clear and I could trust my meter to get me good results setting me up for a post edit. I get that’s possible on a mirrorless cam but the difference is, there’s no OVF. Having to bump exposure to see my shadow detail is just so uncanny lol. But I guess I’ll get used to it.
Try turning DRO on. It won’t do anything to the RAW files but it will brighten up the shadows in the viewfinder a bit.
Try the r6. Went from the EOS R and Sony 6300. Now I shoot my still on the R6 and video is the A74. I personally love mirrorless and will continue to use them especially canon for still and Sony for video/lowlight settings
Think I’m gonna stick with my good ol d700 for stills and the a6400 for video. I got the a6400 for video in the first place. I am not disappointed in the quality of the images (like they look like images from any other generic crop cam) but the experience while shooting sucks and thus ruins my impression of the work I’m doing. That’s the point I was trying to get across with this post but people don’t seem to get it lol
Flip up screen? I’m confused are you complaining about the EVF or the rear LCD?
Sorry, I’m seeing the autofocus specs for the R3 and I’m sold, even though I have no plans to get rid of my EF glass ever.
I’m on an R6ii. Still don’t own any RF glass.
TL;DR: Guy buys cheap mirrorless, never learns how to use it, makes stupid generalizations.
I guess it’s refreshing to have a workman-blames-tools post where they blame newer hardware instead of older hardware. Usually, I see some variant of “I’m not Ansel Adams because my camera is a year old and only cost $10k, tell me which new one to buy.” This one has a more traditionalist aesthetic. (Obligatory fair shake comment: using an EVF effectively if you are used to SLRs does take a shift in thinking. I didn’t realize how much I had internalized about the peculiarities of the SLR viewfinder until I started working with a mirrorless system and wasn’t getting the results I expected. Not hard to adapt, though, once you realize the problem.)