Q&A with Chuck Westfall

[Ade H]

Photography Blog has published a Q&A with Canon's Chuck Westfall (http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/qa_with_canons_chuck_westfall/). He answers, albeit often non-committally, a few of the questions that often get repeated around here at POTN, such as whether Eye Control will ever be back, why Canon prefers lens IS, and a few other interesting questions. Worth a read.

[Ook]

Gee Whiz, 84 questions! While I'm reading through these, I'd like to voice a concern with what's been said: Chuck's said at multiple points thus far that one-button Live View is an acceptable substitute for MLU.

I was under the impression that the mirror swung down-up-down when taking a shot from live view, making this method no lower-vibration than normal shooting. Do I have something wrong?

[Ade H]

I always use LV as mirror lockup -- it makes sense to take advantage of being able to see your shot while the mirror is up.

Look through the 'finder while taking a shot in LV and you'll see that the mirror stays up throughout. This applies whether silent shooting is enabled or not. The exception to that is an exposure with flash because the camera needs to drop the mirror briefly for that.

(Based on a 40D - other bodies may behave differently).

[jaclarkaus]

It drops or stays up dependant on which focus method you set in some cameras (450D).

On cameras with no focus (1DIII, 1DsIII) it stays up, as there is no focus option.

[I Simonius]

Utterly confused by this:

can anyone explain for a bear of very little brain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_the_Pooh) such as me??

[Ade H]

"Utterly confused" by what, exactly?

[I Simonius]

"Utterly confused" by what, exactly?

By this:

"that one-button Live View is an acceptable substitute for MLU"

and this:

"I always use LV as mirror lockup -- it makes sense to take advantage of being able to see your shot while the mirror is up"

As I haven't got a 5D2 I have no idea how the MLU dos or doesn't work and how that does or does not relate to MLU:confused:

[Ade H]

Who needs a 5D Mk.II? :) All current Canons have Live View and they all, as far as I know, behave in fundamentally the same way except for the additional option of contrast detection AF on the latest models.

Press the Set (or Live View) button and the mirror locks up, but with the added benefit of maintaining some degree of control through evaluative metering via the sensor, contrast AF via the sensor, or phase detection AF by dropping the mirror briefly. The AF mode is set in the custom functions. Plus, you can have exposure simulation on the display, an optional histogram, and very easy manual focussing with 5x and 10x magnification. Aside from the option to use phase detection AF, the mirror stays up at least until after the exposure and can stay up even then if you have one of the silent modes engaged. Not all models have silent modes, though, I should point out. There is only one thing that would make the mirror drop before the exposure and that's using a flash, because of the TTL metering, but you wouldn't be using MLU with a flash anyway.

[I Simonius]

Who needs a 5D Mk.II? :) All current Canons have Live View and they all, as far as I know, behave in fundamentally the same way except for the additional option of contrast detection AF on the latest models.

Press the Set (or Live View) button and the mirror locks up, but with the added benefit of maintaining some degree of control through evaluative metering via the sensor, contrast AF via the sensor, or phase detection AF by dropping the mirror briefly. The AF mode is set in the custom functions. Plus, you can have exposure simulation on the display, an optional histogram, and very easy manual focussing with 5x and 10x magnification. Aside from the option to use phase detection AF, the mirror stays up at least until after the exposure and can stay up even then if you have one of the silent modes engaged. Not all models have silent modes, though, I should point out. There is only one thing that would make the mirror drop before the exposure and that's using a flash, because of the TTL metering, but you wouldn't be using MLU with a flash anyway.

sound fun- thanks

[I Simonius]

just FWIW, I had posted this Q on that blog and I include the answer
As I say this is just FWIW as the question has pretty much already been answered above'
-------------
Hi Chuck,

AEB with MLU and Timer question:

ON the current 5D I have my custom setting permanently set to MLU, AEB, 2 sec timer, because I use this setting a lot. It is a complete PITA to have to press the shutter three times when you want one bracketed exposure.. ( more chance of camera vibration or movement)

On the new 5D2 is there a facility to set MLU with auto bracketing and timer (or remote) where the camera will fire the three shots of AEB from ONE press of the shutter button?

If not why not?

Ideally there would also be a time lag that you could set between exposures based on whether you need three in the fastest possible sequence to prevent motion differences between the exposures (e.g. a moving duck in a landscape), or whether you need absolute minimum camera vibration (on a tripod)

Also this should ideally work by by using the timer setting that is already there but maybe adding a further option of 'persistent' timer or 'one off' timer i.e. set timer to 2 secs, camera fires and takes three fast consecutive shots with no gap, OR it times 2 secs between each exposure. MLU should stay up throughout, rather than going up and down 3 times.
All from ONE press of shutter

Seems to me this should be really easy to do if it isnt already in the 5D2 (havent read the manual
yet)

thanks
----------

Hi, SImon:

You can get 3 consecutive AEB frames in one shutter press with the EOS 5D Mark II with mirror lock by setting the camera to Live View mode with continuous advance. For best results, use a remote switch like the RS-80N3 or TC-80N3. The 5D Mark II fires at 3.9 fps in continuous mode, and the interval between shots is not adjustable. If for some reason you want to shoot at a slower rate, you can fire one frame at a time with the remote switch.

Hope this helps! Thanks for reading Tech Tips.

Best Regards,

Chuck Westfall

[Kadath]

I much prefer Fake Chuck Westfall =)

[I Simonius]

I much prefer Fake Chuck Westfall =)

and Fake Chuckie much prefers you!:lol:

[moolamarios]

wow

[moolamarios]

this is really interesting!

[I Simonius]

wow

this is really interesting!

trying to get your post count up eh?;):rolleyes: