Does anyone know a tip or trick with the K-5 to...

make it let you use the 3" LCD as a VIEWFINDER???

I KNOW I sound like AMATEUR HOUR asking this (and sorry for the leading question that sucks you in without really telling you what the question is...), but my last four cameras have really spoiled me in this regard (although an OPTICAL VIEWFINDER was ALWAYS a necessity for me, as well -- I REFUSE to buy a camera OR camcorder WITHOUT an optical viewfinder). Flipside is that there are SOME occasions where being able to use that big LCD on the back as the viewfinder comes in REALLY HANDY, and I was TOTALLY unaware I couldn't do that until this booger arrived and I started trying to.

I figure there MUST be some workaround, but maybe I'm wrong. I've done a bit of reading, and I gather that the image on the LCD either displays images on the card, or what's being projected directly ON the sensor, in which case the MIRROR would have to be locked up to use it as a viewfinder -- UNLESS there's a workaround... Wiill save me some headaches a week from Wednesday night if there is.

Maybe I just haven't properly understood the manual, or something, but I've not figured out a way, yet.

Any thoughts???
Jeff
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May the Blessings Be.

n/t
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Lars

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/larsholte

Ummmmmmm, Lars, let me go LOOK THAT UP, lol. I think I've stated elsewhere that I READ the whole manual... doesn't mean I properly DIGESTED all of it, lol.

But THIS is where having THE ENTIRE MANUAL downloaded in PDF form on your computer comes in REALLY HANDY (PDF searching, too), which I did MONTHS before I bought the camera... I download the manual for ANY major electronics I'm seriously considering purchasing, if I can, prior to purchase... REALLY helps ya get a feel for what the product's like, and also how good the documentation is.
Jeff

OK, YEAH, I THOUGHT I'd read SOMETHING in the manual that said I could shoot using the LCD, but I hadn't figured it out yet. Looks like this MIGHT still be a bit problematic for me next week, though... I'll be shooting a live dancing show -- dancers moving across a stage, often in continual movement, and sometimes under varying light conditions -- and I MAY be shooting in high-speed mode much of the time, with AF set to continuous. Pretty demanding situation. I may see what I get with a few shots using LiveView before I commit to using it all night.

I'm gonna TRY to take my monopod in with me, but I don't know if they'll allow that, or not -- MIGHT consider it a potential weapon, if nothing else -- plan to get there EARLY, just in case. Carry my BIG Tamrac 5613 bag with the monopod strapped to the bottom -- barely longer than the bag, collapsed, BUT have a MUCH SMALLER BAG (that they let me in with last year) IN THE CAR just in case they reject both the monopod AND that huge bag, lol. I can always go back to the car, leave the extraneous stuff in the big bag and put just what I need in the small one (HIDE that big bag well, although I'll likely be in paid parking again, which is patrolled by security).

I always say... "yaneverknow until you try" and "forgiveness is usually easier than permission," so I'm gonna see what I can get by with first, lol.
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May the Blessings Be.

no text

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Belgium, GMT+1

This thread is LOL and FAIL at the same time.

Perhaps the K5 is too much cam for the OP.

As others wrote, first you should find out how LV (Live View) works. Read the manual to become familiar with it and how various AF (autofocus) modes work in LV and select the mode you think is most suitable for your kind of photography. Then you should choose the LV by pressing the LV botton at the top of the four way controllers at the back of the camera. Now you should be able to use the LCD as you wish and do the AF the same way you use normally. Use the rectangle on the center of the LCD to pick up the object of your interest. There are many ways of customizing the LV for your taste.
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It's the singer not the song.

I have a problem simlar to that described in the thread opening message:

I work in the liveview mode as I have to avoid mirror slapping (HDR mode with long exposure times on a tripod - if you have the mirror slapping three times it definitvely becomes a problem). I work with LED light. The AF through the lens works fine but the contrast based AF used by the LiveView mode leads wrong focus.

You have the possibility for close-up views only if you use the AF modi whcih are exclusive for LieveView - you can't even turn it off -but I have not foud a posibility so far to get a close up view after I did the focus through the lens - You have to take the photo and check afterwards if everything was OK.

Best regards
Holger

"He knew to drive the car he had to turn the wheel, but which one???"

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http://www.pictasmagoria.com
http://pictasmagoria.blogspot.com

Well beside everyone taking the Micky there is a serious point

LV will not do as you require, though it pretty good for a D-slr implementation of contrast detect AF there is no way on this planet that the cd-AF will keep up in a low light situation , not even sure that LV will allow af-c.

I'm afraid you will need to use Phase detect which means either the view finder or blackout LV (whilst the mirror drop ).

The K5 is the tool for the job but you will need to play to its strengths not its weakness's.

You will almost certainly need to use phase detect and the optical viewfinder to achieve passable results, A monopod will help but you need to be skilled in its use.

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My PPG

http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/home#section=ARTIST&subSection=1471087&subSubSection=0&language=EN
My Photo Stream
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Now you've discovered LV, Jeff, there are some things to consider.

First, waving a DSLR at arms length, especially with a biggish zoom lens, is a tougher proposition than using even a relatively big P&S. This is particularly true when holding the camera high to see over other people.

Second, AF is much slower than on a P&S. The main reason is the tighter DOF from DSLR-size kit. As a typical example, the SX20 has a crop factor of about 5.6 compared to FF: this means a FOV equivalent to a 50mm lens needs about 9mm focal length. At a subject distance of 20 feet the DOF is infinite even at max aperture of f/2.8, so all the AF needs to do is make sure it hits something anywhere within the frame. On APS-C, though, the crop factor of 1.5 means the same FOV needs a 33mm lens and DOF drops to 14 feet so the AF system has a much trickier job.

Things get worse with a movinf subject - on P&S it's virtually impossibel to get anything out of focus, whereas on APS-C it's easy for people/things to slip outside that relatively narrow DOF.

If you do want to use LV for stage shots I suggest you get a lot of practice: you don't need a stage, just some sort of street scene with people moving around in the evening.

Regardless of how you view the scene, the best shooting mode to use is TAv. Think about how much subject blur (if any) you can accept and set the appropriate shutter speed. Decide what risk of missed focus you can accept (a fast 50 at 1.4 will give you a lot more light on the sensor but narrow DOF to a really tough 2.8 feet). The camera will then pick the correct ISO - the brighter the light the lower the ISO, which is always a good thing.

It's a good idea to dial in -2EV of exposure compensation. This offers several benefits:

• It avoids blown highlights. Stage lighting can be very bright in some areas and once they are blown you can never bring them back.
• It allows a faster shutter to reduce subject blur.
• It allows smaller aperture to increase DOF and ease focusing (or you can get a bit of this plus a bit of faster shutter).

If necessary go even further than -2EV. This shot would have needed -4EV to eliminate clipping completely (it was taken at -2 with my K-7, which couldn't cope with as much shadow recovery as the K-5 can). The shots will look dark on the LCD but are easily tweaked in PSE.



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Gerry


First camera 1953, first Pentax 1983, first DSLR 2006
http://www.pbase.com/gerrywinterbourne

awaldram said:

Well beside everyone taking the Micky there is a serious point

LV will not do as you require, though it pretty good for a D-slr implementation of contrast detect AF there is no way on this planet that the cd-AF will keep up in a low light situation , not even sure that LV will allow af-c.

I'm afraid you will need to use Phase detect which means either the view finder or blackout LV (whilst the mirror drop ).

Click to expand...

Yes, with phase detection it works quite well. But contrast detection never finds the focus. It ends up in completly blur - and you can see it clearly on the screen as the close up pops up. But phase detection is OK for me. I work on a tripod with remote control and also the selftimer working to be very sure I have not touched the camera for at least for a few seconds when the shutter does its work. Imake the AF by pressing the AF button and have a rough control through the viewfinder - then I change to the LV mode (I have the option to control the AF before shutter works disabled to prevent movement of the mirror again). Then I press on my remote control - the camera does its three shots and calculates the HDR - and I can easily check it on the monitor and as I can zoom into the finest details it is a very useful way to take the photos.

It would be nice to check the focus in LV mode without focussing again - but that close up function seems to be only available if you use the LV based focus methods.

awaldram said:

The K5 is the tool for the job but you will need to play to its strengths not its weakness's.

Click to expand...

Yes, to me it is a perfect tool.

awaldram said:

You will almost certainly need to use phase detect and the optical viewfinder to achieve passable results, A monopod will help but you need to be skilled in its use.

Click to expand...

If you want to take HDR photos with a little bit more DOF (I use mostly f=8.0 of a 60-250 mm lens) you get sometimes times of nearly one minute if you add the times of all three photos taken. I work with a wooden tripod and a Manfrotto gear head which guarantees the stable conditions I need.

Best regards
Holger

awaldram said:

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http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/home#section=ARTIST&subSection=1471087&subSubSection=0&language=EN
My Photo Stream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awaldram/

Click to expand...

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My Pentax Street Gallery - Arranged By Lens Used
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The K5 is not a mirrorless system so you have to deal with the drawbacks of this if you are using the LCD display. If you want a faster response with the LCD go for a mirrorless system but these have some downsides as well.

No, Pentax_Prime, I'm sorry to say it's NOT a joke.

And yeah, I pretty well FIGURED I'd be opening myself up to all SORTS of "eye-rolling at the stupid newbie" when I posted this thread, BUT after doing an ACTUAL SEARCH of the entire Pentax Forum, I couldn't find a SINGLE reference to my subject matter (didn't search for the term LiveView, however).

Consider that YES, I DID read the entire manual, BUT that's A LOT to digest at one time. I've mostly been learning AS I shoot, and there was NO WAY I was going to remember every single feature from the manual. When "shooting in the field" (I've been too busy, for the most part, to just go out and shoot "for the fun of it" and to test things out, BUT I plan to do A GREAT DEAL OF THAT during the next week -- MAKE time for it!), I just could never figure out HOW to get the LCD to work as a viewfinder...

After reading the section in the manual on Live View, however, it appears this "strains" the camera, which wants to function in Live View mode for only five minutes at a time, maximum (says the camera may OVERHEAT if you keep pushing the LV button repeatedly after the five minutes is up). It ALSO says there may be all sorts of "issues" with Live View, such as inconsistent color/contrast, etc., on the screen, especially when you're moving the lens, SO, as some of you have already pointed out, LV just MIGHT not do me much good at this event. At any rate, IF they'll let me in with my Tamrac 5613, it'll ALSO have my Canon SX20 IS in it, and if worse comes to worst, I CAN always use that for some of the pics. I got a few pretty good ones with it last year... Aren't there also some adapters you can get that fit over the viewfinder that extend it and give you a larger view?

Oh, and to Gerry, MANY THANKS for all YOUR thoughts, suggestions, and the photo you posted. You have actually had something CONSTRUCTIVE to say! For many of the REST of you, please allow me to remind you that IN ALL THINGS IN LIFE "there's always A PLUS FACTOR." There may come a day when YOU have a question I have the answer to (and which I thought "everyone knew"). I hope to be a bit less condescending when and if that day comes.
Jeff
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May the Blessings Be.

This Pentax forum is a pretty friendly forum but I guess recently there are couple guys tried to write something negative things about Pentax without actually using them - hence make several long time forum member really angry.

Welcome to the forum ! and I do hope this forum restore to its friendly nature as before. Don't be too judgmental towards newbie!

Lee

Hey I have the pdf manual too. Can you add notes to yours? I'm reading it on tablet and when I try to highlight make a note or copy text it tells me it's been locked. I haven't had this happen before. Do you know where I could get an unlocked version of the manual? Or is it not happening with yours? I tried saving a copy but that didn't help.
Thanks

Your assessment is correct. You can either use the optical finder with the mirror down, or you can use LV with the mirror up.

I think you'll find LV is not effective with moving targets in low light. The AF will be slow and wonky, the monitor refresh is distracting, and so on.

I think using the K-5 and its optical finder will be fine, provided that your lens is fast enough that you can see well enough to compose...

W

Ok, so you didn't really specify properly what you were looking for, and people (incl me) mistook you for a lazy newby. But still, you should avoid capitalizing every other word. This is perceived as aggressive and will not help you. I see this is your "style" from older posts, but still I suggest you adapt to a more "friendly" typography?

Anyway, if you don't want to stress your sensor, but still insist on wanting to use an LCD, I expect the Zigview products may be a solution, albeit an expensive one. Also you won't get as large a LCD screen as on your camera, but it will be more flexible... Google "Zigview" for more detail.

Wim

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Belgium, GMT+1

Actually, Ishpuini, I NEVER capitalize "every other word," lol. Where this comes from is from long ago, in the very early days of computers, when it was usually impossible to achieve either bold or italics (still looks like it is on this forum -- or maybe I just don't the proper keystroke combo), so I got into the habit of capitalizing words I wanted to put EMPHASIS on.

I KNOW typing in ALL CAPS is considered "yelling" online, like you're angry or trying to "dominate" your audience. But that's generally the perception for someone who types ALL his or her characters in ALL CAPS (which drives ME crazy, as well). I just do it when I want to put emphasis on a word or two, here and there.

As for Live View, I didn't get a chance to play with it today, but I'm going to try putting it through the paces a liittle bit tomorrow. And I'm really NOT a newbie to either photography OR digital photography, just to digital SLR photography, which has A LOT more "bells and whistles" than even the most sophisticated high-end P&S cameras do.
Jeff
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May the Blessings Be.

JeffAHayes said:

Actually, Ishpuini, I NEVER capitalize "every other word," lol.

Click to expand...

I hope you'll accept this as constructive again, Jeff. Although you don't actually capitalise every other word the capitalised words stand out so strongly that at first glace it does often seem as if you have capitalised half of them, so we might allow Wim a slight exaggeration.

JeffAHayes said:

Where this comes from is from long ago, in the very early days of computers, when it was usually impossible to achieve either bold or italics (still looks like it is on this forum -- or maybe I just don't the proper keystroke combo), so I got into the habit of capitalizing words I wanted to put EMPHASIS on.

Click to expand...

As with finding LV it's actually so simple that you'll kick yourself. Immediately above the box where you type your message is a set of formatting instructions. For italics you just type a forward slash before and after the word(s) you want to put emphasis on.

JeffAHayes said:

I KNOW typing in ALL CAPS is considered "yelling" online, like you're angry or trying to "dominate" your audience. But that's generally the perception for someone who types ALL his or her characters in ALL CAPS (which drives ME crazy, as well). I just do it when I want to put emphasis on a word or two, here and there.

Click to expand...

Clearly you aren't trying to dominate but, sadly, whatever your intentions are, using caps - even if only for some words rather than all - does come over like yelling. Think of it this way - if you were speaking the sentence above you would put just a little bit of stress on "know", "all caps" etc. But sit back and look at the screen: KNOW and ALL CAPS stand out strongly above the rest of the paragraph.

It's as if you were saying "I [SHOUT] know typing in [SHOUT] all caps ... " so what you imagine - and obviously intend - as a minor emphasis actually comes over as major and excessive.

There is a degree of paradox here. Go out into the street and road signs are in lower case because that's what's easier to read quickly. When you use caps you actually make the words you want to emphasise slightly less easy to read; and the reader's eye is drawn to those words out of sequence so their meaning can be obscured.

You start out by intending a courtesy to your reader(s) by trying to make your meaning clearer. The result in practice is the opposite - at best you add nothing to your clarity and you run a risk of alienating your readers. Obviously I'm not advocating a complete absence of emphasis - I've used italics here to add emphasis in places - but it's worth considering how often it is really needed.

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Gerry


First camera 1953, first Pentax 1983, first DSLR 2006
http://www.pbase.com/gerrywinterbourne