E-M1 II EVF brightness

Henry Richardson wrote:

Aberaeron wrote:

I have the EVF set to auto luminance, off; evf adjust temp+1 brightness -1. Elsewhere, 'keep warm colours, off.

I played around with turning off Auto Luminance yesterday, but I will play some more today with it. In my quick check yesterday I saw that for some scenes it was better than having it On (On is turned on by default from the factory for all my Olympus cameras). I did notice that for some scenes though having it Off resulted in a worse view, but this was just a quick check. I will do more today. Thanks for the suggestion.

Works for me and I think it is an excellent viewfinder and far better than on my Sony A7III. I do find that set as above the viewfinder accurately reflects the captured image. As well as any of my Panasonics.

Thanks, again. I will spend some time with Auto Luminance turned Off today and hope that the result is much better. It is strange that Auto Luminance is On by default on my E-M10, E-M10 II, PEN-F, and E-M5 and I never had a problem with it on those cameras. Only the E-M1 II.

All the Olympus cameras have it turned on by default for some reason, just as they turn off and hide the jpeg large super-fine file setting.  All the reviews I've seen that mention it, recommend turning auto-luminance off unless shooting in specific conditions. Auto luminance by its nature alters the brightness of the viewfinder and screen automatically, which means it does not consistently reflect the brightness of the scene or your exposure.

I discovered that non polarized sunglasses (clip on) are available and work fine for me on sunny CA days. I use clip on because they are vastly cheaper than pricey variable lens glasses with a durable frame and a proper fit.

Greg

Henry Richardson wrote:

A couple of weeks ago I got an E-M1 II. Like it a lot, of course, but I am somewhat disappointed in the EVF. I would rate it worse than my PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, E-M5, and GX7 II (GX85) EVFs with regards to accuracy of the image that is recorded. It is a bit too bright and sort of washed out compared to the image displayed in playback on the rear screen and when displayed on the computer later. The rear display and my 2 computers match reasonably well. It is only the EVF that is not as good as I am accustomed to with m4/3 going back to 2012.

I looked through the menu and I found that in the cog menu there is something called EVF Auto Luminance and it was set to On. You have the option of turning it off and manually adjusting it. I tried that and for some scenes it is better, I think, but now, of course, it no longer auto adjusts so for some scenes it is even worse.

I checked my PEN-F and E-M10 II and they have the same EVF Auto Luminance option (except in the J menu) and it is set to On on both of them. Never had any problem with the EVF being a pretty close match to my rear screen and on the computer. With the E-M1 II pretty often white/brighter areas -- which are not blown out (I check the histogram) -- will lose detail in the EVF, but on playback on the rear screen and on the computer I verify there are no blown highlights and that, in fact, I can now see detail in those white/brighter areas.

For illustration purposes only, here are 2 photos that give you sort of an idea of what I often see. No blown highlights in either one. This is an uninteresting photo taken as a JPEG and how it looks on the rear screen and on the computer:

rear screen and computer

And here is approximately how it looks in the EVF:

EVF

Sometimes the EVF seems okay, but I guess that is because EVF Auto Luminance is On so it is dynamically adjusting. Sometimes it does a reasonably good job, often it does not though. All my other m4/3 cameras though do a good job.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Well, here we are 3 weeks later. I have been using my E-M1 II every day and using both Auto Luminance On (the default) and turning it off trying to decide which is better. I use one for awhile and then I go back to the other. To make it easier during this period I even set C1 and C2 to be identical except C1 has Auto Luminance Off and C2 has Auto Luminance On in order to make it easy to change and also easy to flip back and forth to see the EVF view. Of course, for the obvious reasons I can't keep C1 and C2 this way so must choose one of the settings.

I am disappointed to report that the result is the same as my quick check of Auto Luminance Off a few weeks ago when I first started this thread: sometimes Auto Luminance Off is better and sometimes Auto Luminance On is better. With Auto Luminance On the camera is dynamically adjusting the EVF to look good, so I can't make clear-cut remarks about what it does to a view since for some views it is better than when it is off, but for others it is worse. Note, that all my previous Olympus cameras do not have this issue with Auto Luminance On, only the E-M1 II.

I don't want to make this sound like a big problem since, of course, the camera is very usable with Auto Luminance Off or On, but it is disappointing that the higher level, more expensive model is not as good as the PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, and E-M5 in this one regard. Often Auto Luminance On does very well, but sometimes it loses detail in highlights even though the histogram clearly shows it is not overexposed. I am surprised no one even cared about that in my OP since photographers, I would expect, would immediately note that is not a good thing. Auto Luminance Off is better sometimes, but I have found that sometimes it is worse with the image being too dark or in other cases too bright. Auto Luminance On in these cases is often better than Auto Luminance Off, but perversely in other cases it is the other way around. I guess I think that Auto Luminance On is biased to be a bit too bright, too hot, whereas in my other Olympus models it is good.

I will note that there are 3 main choices to select how you want the EVF to look:

1. Auto Luminance Off (WYSIWYG)
2. Auto Luminance On (improved WYSIWYG)
3. S-OVF (not WYSIWYG-- totally ignores your exposure settings) -- This is primarily used for studio flash situations where you may have a high shutter speed, small f-stop for the flash, but that makes the display very dark so you can't see to focus and compose. It can also be used by people who lock the ISO down to the base ISO and then for dark conditions they underexpose many stops and then brighten in their post-processing software. Some claim this gives better results than increasing the camera ISO setting. Of course, this will make the display very dark also if S-OVF is not used.

With an OVF the view is pretty much what your eye can see. Your eye can handle a very wide dynamic range so you can often see into shadows and see details in highlights at the same time. An EVF is a computer monitor that can't display as wide a dynamic range and then on top of that it is displaying a real time image that is just a JPEG of what the camera sees.

The EVF can give a near WYSIWYG view and that is one of the great things about an EVF, but in photography you also need to see what you are photographing. If shadows are so dark you can't see into them and there is no detail in highlights then that is a problem. An EVF tries to be both WYSIWYG and at the same time give you a good view for composing. It tries to straddle that divide. The PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, and E-M5 manage to do it pretty well, the E-M1 II less so.

Since I must choose what to use I suppose that Auto Luminance On is better more often than Auto Luminance Off. But it is very close. Or maybe Auto Luminance Off is better more often than Auto Luminance On. Very hard to say.

mtnroads wrote:

I love my E-M1 II, but agree about the viewfinder. While it looks nice and large, it often seems like I am over exposing by 1/3 or 2/3 stops and I used to compensate for that by setting the exp comp to -1/3 or -2/3. Then the image was perfect in the viewfinder but under-exposed in the shadows, upon inspection. It took a long time for me to just leave it at "0" on the exp comp and trust it would not be over-exposed. It seems to handle highlights well.

Typical of this camera, I have no idea where to even find the auto-Luminace setting.. have looked through the menu twice now.

Have you adjusted the brightness of the viewfinder at all? I’m not with my camera just now but I do suggest you find these settings in the menu and get to know your menu system. Twice is not a lot, and certainly not enough for you to find what you want. It’s all there.

As previously mentioned I have set auto illuminance to off and brightness to -1 and it matches reality with the screens fine.

mtnroads wrote:

I love my E-M1 II, but agree about the viewfinder. While it looks nice and large, it often seems like I am over exposing by 1/3 or 2/3 stops and I used to compensate for that by setting the exp comp to -1/3 or -2/3. Then the image was perfect in the viewfinder but under-exposed in the shadows, upon inspection. It took a long time for me to just leave it at "0" on the exp comp and trust it would not be over-exposed. It seems to handle highlights well.

Typical of this camera, I have no idea where to even find the auto-Luminace setting.. have looked through the menu twice now.

Adjust to your own fancy. These are some of the settings I use and seldom change once set to my liking, which is as below, with the location in the cog menu table first.

Cog Menu

1. I. EVF Adjust, EVF Auto Illuminance ‘off’. This is surely where you would expect it to be, under the EVF Adjust setting, hidden in plain sight.
2. I. EVF Adjust, temperature ‘+1’ Brightness ‘-1’
3. D2. live view boost ‘off'
4. D2. LV close up settings ‘mode1'
5. D2. LV close up settings live view boost ‘off'
6. G. All WB+/- All set 'A+1' 'G-1'
7. G. keep warm colours ‘off'

Henry Richardson wrote:

Well, here we are 3 weeks later. I have been using my E-M1 II every day and using both Auto Luminance On (the default) and turning it off trying to decide which is better. I use one for awhile and then I go back to the other. To make it easier during this period I even set C1 and C2 to be identical except C1 has Auto Luminance Off and C2 has Auto Luminance On in order to make it easy to change and also easy to flip back and forth to see the EVF view. Of course, for the obvious reasons I can't keep C1 and C2 this way so must choose one of the settings.

I am disappointed to report that the result is the same as my quick check of Auto Luminance Off a few weeks ago when I first started this thread: sometimes Auto Luminance Off is better and sometimes Auto Luminance On is better. With Auto Luminance On the camera is dynamically adjusting the EVF to look good, so I can't make clear-cut remarks about what it does to a view since for some views it is better than when it is off, but for others it is worse. Note, that all my previous Olympus cameras do not have this issue with Auto Luminance On, only the E-M1 II.

I don't want to make this sound like a big problem since, of course, the camera is very usable with Auto Luminance Off or On, but it is disappointing that the higher level, more expensive model is not as good as the PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, and E-M5 in this one regard. Often Auto Luminance On does very well, but sometimes it loses detail in highlights even though the histogram clearly shows it is not overexposed. I am surprised no one even cared about that in my OP since photographers, I would expect, would immediately note that is not a good thing. Auto Luminance Off is better sometimes, but I have found that sometimes it is worse with the image being too dark or in other cases too bright. Auto Luminance On in these cases is often better than Auto Luminance Off, but perversely in other cases it is the other way around. I guess I think that Auto Luminance On is biased to be a bit too bright, too hot, whereas in my other Olympus models it is good.

I will note that there are 3 main choices to select how you want the EVF to look:

1. Auto Luminance Off (WYSIWYG)
2. Auto Luminance On (improved WYSIWYG)

The Auto Luminance On setting is possibly meant to do the obvious. While Auto Luminance Off tries to be WYSIWYG it cannot truly do that because the pupils of our eyes expand and contract depending on the ambient light. In bright sun the pupil will be small so that makes the EVF with Auto Luminance Off seem too dark and in dim light the pupil is much more open and with Auto Luminance Off it can make the EVF seem too bright. Auto Luminance On tries to handle this ambient light issue and give you a good EVF view all the time. It works very well on my other Olympus cameras. Only on the E-M1 II it doesn't work as well. And setting Auto Luminance Off also doesn't work so well depending on the situation. Olympus doesn't tell us what Auto Luminance is supposed to do so we just have to guess though.

We don't know how Olympus managed to forget how to do this in the flagship camera when they got it right in their lower level cameras. I suspect the Auto Luminance code is shared like most of the firmware, but must be tuned for each EVF display panel. It is almost like they forgot to tune it properly for the E-M1 II.

With all the Olympus cameras Auto Luminance On is the default. It is the default for a reason. It is meant to give the best EVF view. I didn't even know it existed until I found it in the E-M1 II and the only reason I found it is because I saw that the EVF was weird and I was trying to figure out what to do about it. With all my other Olympus cameras it just works properly so never any feeling of EVF weirdness.

1. S-OVF (not WYSIWYG-- totally ignores your exposure settings) -- This is primarily used for studio flash situations where you may have a high shutter speed, small f-stop for the flash, but that makes the display very dark so you can't see to focus and compose. It can also be used by people who lock the ISO down to the base ISO and then for dark conditions they underexpose many stops and then brighten in their post-processing software. Some claim this gives better results than increasing the camera ISO setting. Of course, this will make the display very dark also if S-OVF is not used.

With an OVF the view is pretty much what your eye can see. Your eye can handle a very wide dynamic range so you can often see into shadows and see details in highlights at the same time. An EVF is a computer monitor that can't display as wide a dynamic range and then on top of that it is displaying a real time image that is just a JPEG of what the camera sees.

The EVF can give a near WYSIWYG view and that is one of the great things about an EVF, but in photography you also need to see what you are photographing. If shadows are so dark you can't see into them and there is no detail in highlights then that is a problem. An EVF tries to be both WYSIWYG and at the same time give you a good view for composing. It tries to straddle that divide. The PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, and E-M5 manage to do it pretty well, the E-M1 II less so.

Since I must choose what to use I suppose that Auto Luminance On is better more often than Auto Luminance Off. But it is very close. Or maybe Auto Luminance Off is better more often than Auto Luminance On. Very hard to say.

Aberaeron wrote:

mtnroads wrote:

I love my E-M1 II, but agree about the viewfinder. While it looks nice and large, it often seems like I am over exposing by 1/3 or 2/3 stops and I used to compensate for that by setting the exp comp to -1/3 or -2/3. Then the image was perfect in the viewfinder but under-exposed in the shadows, upon inspection. It took a long time for me to just leave it at "0" on the exp comp and trust it would not be over-exposed. It seems to handle highlights well.

Typical of this camera, I have no idea where to even find the auto-Luminace setting.. have looked through the menu twice now.

Adjust to your own fancy. These are some of the settings I use and seldom change once set to my liking, which is as below, with the location in the cog menu table first.

Cog Menu

1. I. EVF Adjust, EVF Auto Illuminance ‘off’. This is surely where you would expect it to be, under the EVF Adjust setting, hidden in plain sight.
2. I. EVF Adjust, temperature ‘+1’ Brightness ‘-1’
3. D2. live view boost ‘off'
4. D2. LV close up settings ‘mode1'
5. D2. LV close up settings live view boost ‘off'
6. G. All WB+/- All set 'A+1' 'G-1'
7. G. keep warm colours ‘off'

There’s one more setting that can effect the viewfinder to prevent it being WYSIWYG of course, that I completely forgot to mention but just occurred to me and that is the optical viewfinder emulation mode. Make sure it is turned off, unless you want an optical viewfinder experience where the exposure is not emulated in the viewfinder of course.

You will find this option again in the I cog section [‘I’ for ‘eye’ makes it easy to remember], at the bottom of the page, labelled ’S-OVF’ for ’simulated optical viewfinder’. Some people coming from DSLR’s might appreciate this option but for the most part I think it is not useful. Switch it as required, in my case to ‘off’. If it is ‘on’, changes to the EV compensation setting will not be emulated in the viewfinder.

EDIT. I see that it is described correctly by someone else above, however the description of auto-illuminance as being “enhanced WYSIWYG” is mistaken. It may provide an enhanced view through the viewfinder in certain conditions but WYSIWYG it is not.