R10 / 7 / 3 OVF assist feature

R2D2 wrote:

Does anyone know if the autofocus utilizes this “altered” view when focusing?

It would be similar to what I do now by turning “Exp simulation” off to improve AF (works especially well in darker environments).

That would be the biggest benefit for me.

R2

On my R5, exposure matters as far as AF. Underexposed shots will have poor AF in low light. I do find that a normal exposure in low light works just as good as exposure sim off on the R5, so I tend to never underexpose.

I didn't test that when I had an R3 in my hands, but I'd assume it is the same. It worked very, very similar to the R5. Unfortunately, I didn't use the OVF assist enough to determine if it would work better in low light, but I'd assume that would be like the exposure sim off on the R5.

I would guess that The R5/R6 need the exposure to be good in order to "see". Remember they (and I believe the R3), use a single image processing pipeline, meaning what you see is what the camera sees. The Nikon, which has two different feeds for the EVF and sensor recording, could potentially get around the problem but I'm not sure if that is the case.

It's a bit late for this, but I'll add my 2 cents...

Speaking as a long-time DSLR holdout, who loves the experience of taking pictures and being in the moment, not just the end result...the OVF (essentially HDR) simulation feature is brilliant.

I don't need exposure simulation, but I do want to see the scene I'm shooting as naturally as possible. Previously that meant using a mirror. But having used an R3 for a brief time, I would say that the viewfinder experience is better than using my 5D4. I'm gutted the new R6 has the same lower res EVF as its predecessor, as with the OVF simulation, 5.76m dots EVF is a good experience.

I shoot raw and am quite happy adjusting for exposure rather than potentially over-exposing in camera and losing highlights etc. Even in snow I will only mildly adjust exp. by say, +1, and am happy with what I get once its processed. Metering is amazing these days, unless you shoot jpeg, turn on the OVF simulation.

cfieldgate wrote:

I like it on my R3, but having played with the Picture Styles I have managed to set up a much more ‘true to life’ view using the standard EVF mode which provides the benefit of Exposure Simulation. It’s not quite as nice but it’s acceptable to me.

Can you share your picture style settings?

From my understanding, a good way to get realistic looking outputs is to set HDR PQ and Highlight Tone Priority enabled. You will get raw and/ or HEIF files only. You can convert them to Jpeg to get photos that will look close to what you saw with your own eyes, but within the constraints of SDR display/ print. You will get exposure simulation as well as realistic looking output, unlike OVF simulation which by definition will not provide exposure simulation. OVF simulation takes the advantage of HDR display, so it cannot show you how the output will look on SDR display/ print.

My standard setup is the R7 with the RF 100–400mm telephoto. I have the OVF Sim assigned to a button where it toggles on and off. This allows me to “brighten” a scene which is dark in the viewfinder without changing exposure settings. This can be very helpful for judging composition and focus point location, and is very welcome when I am simply using the camera and lens as a telescope. BTW, the view this gives me toggled on does appear to be identical to the result I would obtain with a standard HDR shot. Useful, but I would not set it on full-time in the menus.