Mirrorless electronic viewfinders in dark?
Okay - as someone who has used EVF cameras for many years maybe I can help 'confuse' you some more
In low-light level circumstances, the EVF outshines the optical viewfinder every time - as the EVF "auto-brighten / darken" arrangement takes over and in this case, boosts whatever the camera sees. However, in doing so, it also introduces noise as it struggles to boost what's not there - if you follow what I mean! The photo when taken is identical to any other dSLR / mirrorless / superzoom-bridge camera
When there is NO light ... ie: stars & the Milky Way, then there is little-to-nothing there for the EVF to boost, so you get an almost-black viewfinder full of noise, and need to do as every dSLR user does at similar times, "point it generally in the right direction and take a test shot".
There have been heaps of times for me when I have had a 'black' sky and seen nothing, set ISO-800 & "M" & 60-seconds and discovered heaps of stars 'up there' when the camera returns to me and displays what it has seen and photographed
to comment on other posts ..... for this type of stuff I use the fold-out LCD screen rather than the EVF simply for convenience as the tripod legs get nudged when I get in real-close to view via the eyepiece
Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/
Yes - electrical 'noise' is with us everyday with every electrical device we use. Normally the signal comes in 'loud and clear' and we never hear or see the noise, but as with the car radio 'crackling' when we're away from town, or the TV signal 'blips' on the screen as the signal drops away and noise takes over when we're some distance away from the transmitter antenna [or during thinderstorms].
Over the years when doing after-dark pics of varying sorts I have been pleasantly surprised on many occasions at the low-light 'brightness' of the EVF and the visual detail within the screen. The 'but' is with star trails, where there is damn-all to see via the F2,8 lens and one just has to "point and shoot". It only takes a minute or two to do the check-pics and align the tripod accordingly - and away you go
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/
G'day KateLittle Kate wrote: Can't you just manually focus on brightest dot and leave at that for night time stuff?
Yeah - often you can do that fairly easily, though sometimes the brightest dot is still pretty dim.
However around town with plenty of street lighting, there's no problems
Phil
Last night I decided to try a Milky Way shot directly overhead, using the Panny FZ-200 with its electronic viewfinder as per the new mirrorless SLRs
Camera on tripod, centre column raised slightly so that I couly swivel the ball-head into a vertical / above me, opened and swivelled the LCD screen so that I could see the overhead sky without craning my neck into the eyepiece
Set camera to MF mode, "M" for 15-seconds exposure + ISO-1600, 1x zoom equals 24mm in film camera mode, and then gently moved the camera/ ball head slightly until I saw a nice bright star towards the centre of the image.
Pressed the panny MF-focus button and 'hey-presto' the camera pulled the star into focus very nicely. A bit more gentle sideways adjustments and the pic was taken
Bottom line ... if a 6-yr old superzoom / bridge camera can do it nicely, todays newer mirrorless cameras will be even better
As always, feedback welcome
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/
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