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D610 Live view too dark to use to focus on stars
- Thread starter ata3001
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Ernie Misner
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I know that modern AF lenses do not have a hard stop at infinity for accuracy. Temperature changes create the need for a non-hard stop for better accuracy than what we used to have. For that reason I would prefer to focus under the shooting conditions if possible.... at this time anyway. Maybe others will comment.
Dang that makes sense but I like the peering-into-the-future explanation better :'(
I also came up with the following: perhaps you want to isolate infinity. That is, if it focuses at infinity and you're at f22, you can't blur out much in front of infinity. If you can focus "past" infinity then even at high f-stops you can isolate it better.
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The term "bokeh" looks and sounds quite silly. Let's agree never to use it again unless we're speaking Japanese.
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I have been struggling with manual focus through live view for nighttime photography with the D610. I've noticed at times that the Live View will be bright enough to zoom in and focus sometimes then later after taking a photo it automatically go dark and stay that way for the remainder of the evening. (Making manual re-focusing using live view virtually useless!) If live view is indeed using the aperture settings of the previous photo this might start to make a lot of sense. I'll start shooting before sunset using an aperture around f/8 but then when the street lights start to come on (say for bridges over water) I will switch to f/16 for the starburst effect. Combined with a change of location I will generally need to try and re-focus at which point gaining a sharp picture has started becoming a tedious task.
Ernie Misner
Forum Pro
Are you playing with ISO and shutter speed (assuming you are already wide open) when in LV? That can make a big difference in the quality of what you see. You can actually use your PDAF (through the viewfinder focusing) and nail infinity pretty good at night using a single AF point if you can put it right on the moon or find a light source out there at all.
theonetruepath
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Another thing might be catching you out:
You have to set aperture wide open before entering LV mode. Once you are in LV mode, changing aperture has no effect. The camera can't change aperture while in LV.
Ernie Misner
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Right on! (and I bet the 200 micro is killer with your D810)
theonetruepath
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My other lenses are sitting in the cupboard wondering how I died...
Humanoid
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theonetruepath
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I think he meant the sensor which determines how bright the LCD should be. This is just a little 'one pixel' light sensor that measures ambient brightness. Never worked well, and removed on more recent models.
Ernie: Thank you for your reply. I shoot in Manual mode, set my ISO as low as I can, then pic my aperture based upon subject and effect then modify speed to get my exposure (unless dealing with water or movement). From much of my reading of other posts it appears that the live view display does not update as aperture is changed on the D610. The LCD display appears to be based upon the aperture of the most previous photo taken. I've read many work posts that the work around is to open the aperture up fully (take a picture) then focus and stop back down to the desired aperture. I do try to focus through the OVF (when possible) but all of the focal points are restricted to the center 1/3rd of the frame.
Really appreciate your feedback!! If someone knows of a better way to focus the D610 in very low light situations where the focal point isn't within the center third of the frame, I'd appreciate further input.
Thanks,
Dan
Really appreciate your feedback!! If someone knows of a better way to focus the D610 in very low light situations where the focal point isn't within the center third of the frame, I'd appreciate further input.
Thanks,
Dan
Ernie: Just noticed you mentioned getting out of LV when adjusting the aperture. Thank you for mentioning that as well! I replied back before seeing the additional follow up posts.
I need to experiment further to see if I can get out of Live View, open the aperture then go back into Live View (without tripping the shutter) get the LCD to refresh brighter, then re set the aperture to the desired choice. Currently I take an extra wide open shot just to reset the LCD.
I do rely heavily on the LCD for focus for small focal spots and my needed glasses. Long gone are the days of seeing things like the date on a penny! I an really drooling over the D800 or D810's ability to update the Live View as the aperture changes (but there is a steep cost to swapping out the camera bodies).
Dan
I need to experiment further to see if I can get out of Live View, open the aperture then go back into Live View (without tripping the shutter) get the LCD to refresh brighter, then re set the aperture to the desired choice. Currently I take an extra wide open shot just to reset the LCD.
I do rely heavily on the LCD for focus for small focal spots and my needed glasses. Long gone are the days of seeing things like the date on a penny! I an really drooling over the D800 or D810's ability to update the Live View as the aperture changes (but there is a steep cost to swapping out the camera bodies).
Dan
Ernie Misner
Forum Pro
When ever you have enough light it is best to use LV focusing at the stopped down aperture because there will not be any "focus shift" error due to focusing wide open and then stopping down for shooting. Note that this is not possible when focusing through the viewfinder because the camera always uses a wide open aperture for focusing.
You can do a search for that focus shift term and you will find that the more you stop down the more there is a bit of back focusing I think. The act of stopping down does give you more DOF and will tend to mask the effect of focus shift... but if you are after the best result then focusing at the stopped down aperture in LV should give the best result, if you have enough light for it to work.
Ha, just realized this thread is about focusing on stars and shooting wide open.
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