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D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

Started Mar 27, 2012 | Discussions
Horshack Veteran Member • Posts: 8,767
D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

Has anyone noticed how poor the D800's Live View magnified view is? It appears none of the magnification levels are 1:1 pixel views but rather are interpolations of a lower resolution sample, the same as what the D90/D5000 did for their magnified views. This is going to be a big problem for me because I rely on Live View for manual focusing and not having a pixel-level magnification makes focusing difficult. Can others try this on their D800?

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. The photos below were taken of the D800 LCD. The photo on the left is the Live View display. The photo on the right is the playback of the photo taken that is previewed on the left. Notice how much sharper the image playback is. All the Live View magnification levels appear to suffer from this same interpolation, with varying degrees of poor clarity.

Nikon D800 Nikon D90
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steras Senior Member • Posts: 1,199
Re: D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

I actually think you've noticed the same thing I noticed when working with the D800 next to the 5D3. The latter has a better screen when focussing in live view mode.

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sirshannon New Member • Posts: 15
Re: D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

That is troubling. Kinda hard to manual focus using the LCD with an image like that

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OP Horshack Veteran Member • Posts: 8,767
Re: D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

steras wrote:

I actually think you've noticed the same thing I noticed when working with the D800 next to the 5D3. The latter has a better screen when focussing in live view mode.

The D90/D5000 suffered from this, the D7000/D5100 do not. None of the Canon DSLRs suffer from this either (they all do 1:1 pixel views in Live View).

I can't imagine Nikon did this on purpose. I assume there's some frame rate/scan limitation that prevents the firmware from doing 1:1 sampling off the sensor in Live View. This is not good.

steras Senior Member • Posts: 1,199
Re: D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

There is a setting where one can choose between Auto, 50 and 60 Hz. But I don't think that's the issue solver. This must be a firm- software thing..?

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OP Horshack Veteran Member • Posts: 8,767
D800 vs 5DM2 Live View

These are hand-held shots of the LCD so there's a little motion blur but you can see the difference of interpolation artifacts on the D800 vs none of the 5DM2. D800 on the left.

steras Senior Member • Posts: 1,199
Re: D800 vs 5DM2 Live View

Horshack wrote:

These are hand-held shots of the LCD so there's a little motion blur but you can see the difference of interpolation artifacts on the D800 vs none of the 5DM2. D800 on the left.

That is exactly what I observed too.
VERY hard to do exact manual focus in LV when the screen behaves like this.

Now, either this is a settings problem that is easily corrected or Nikon will have to mend this!

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Dominique Dierick Veteran Member • Posts: 4,495
Ugly

I hadn't noticed this earlier this evening. Maybe it is more visible on certain subjects. I had liveview running to focus my lunar image. It didn't get in the way of focusing, but still, seen like this, it is ugly.

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steras Senior Member • Posts: 1,199
Re: Ugly

I will look into this and if no setting can remedy this I will report it to Nikon Nordic.

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Arretose Senior Member • Posts: 1,114
Re: Ugly

GREAT! Now I am going to have to cancel my D800 order. Spartan Warrior was right about the D800 after all!

; )

Dominique Dierick Veteran Member • Posts: 4,495
Strange

I just tried with my D800, I see nothing specially bad (aimed at books). Maybe my eyes aren't that good for close distances You have it with all ISO's? I had a brief look at 800 ISO (running some tests here, so couldn't interrupt long).

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OP Horshack Veteran Member • Posts: 8,767
Re: Strange

Dominique Dierick wrote:

I just tried with my D800, I see nothing specially bad (aimed at books). Maybe my eyes aren't that good for close distances You have it with all ISO's? I had a brief look at 800 ISO (running some tests here, so couldn't interrupt long).

It will depend on your subject distance. The closer you are the less pronounced it may appear. The best way is to take a photo and compare the image review of that photo to the magnified view in Live View.

orchidblooms
orchidblooms Senior Member • Posts: 1,267
Re: Ugly

I noticed this too... things not as sharp as i thought they would be in live view taking close up photos of flowers... went back to viewfinder -- waiting for focusing screens to help - i have zeiss lenses ...

Dominique Dierick Veteran Member • Posts: 4,495
Re: Strange

OK, Is see, will try it tomorrow.

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Dominique Dierick Veteran Member • Posts: 4,495
Confirmed

Zooming in, lines get skipped. It's ugly, but I can still focus easily with it. Hopefully they can issue a firmware fix for it, but it's not too disturbing for me.

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Paul Ward2 Forum Member • Posts: 59
Re: Confirmed

I find the zoom function horrible too, it's way worse ( in this aspect) compared to my old 5D mk2 zoom function - lets hope they can fix it in firmware

pixel_peeper Regular Member • Posts: 178
Re: D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

When you can see those damned missing lines, it's in focus!

hunk
hunk Veteran Member • Posts: 3,409
Re: Confirmed

yeah, me too. I don't like it but it's not that hard to find perfect focus.

Dominique Dierick wrote:

Zooming in, lines get skipped. It's ugly, but I can still focus easily with it. Hopefully they can issue a firmware fix for it, but it's not too disturbing for me.

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Dominique Dierick Veteran Member • Posts: 4,495
Re: D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

exactly. It is a free focus confirmation
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jackpro Regular Member • Posts: 376
Re: D800: Poor LiveView interpolation

Live view focusing is tough at the best of times but Nikon truly sucks there, especially the whole reason you would get a D800/E would be for landscape & studio work with manual focus lenses! What a huge fail, Nikon fix it! I am loving the nikon trickery with noiseless shadows although it doesn't work for the astrologers as the noise removal process used removes stars LOL! Other than that the D800/E rocks! & I wish I had one! I would be using prime lenses like 35, 85 & macro, I just wish they were as good as Canon lenses. Once Nikon update there 2 primes I like I will seriously consider an D800/E

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