EM1.2 histogram

[timbo6]

ETTR makes sense at base ISO only, you gain nothing if you push the histogram to the right by rising the ISO. So it's not so common to find a situation when you can do it as you typically need to increase the exposure time. And at base ISO the advantage is small unless you have important shadows to recover. And no moving subjects. In practice it works fine mostly for landscapes.

Also be extremely careful doing this when you have strong colored lights: you may blow one single channel without any blinkies on the screen or problems in the big luminance histogram. The small single-channel histograms will show the problem (but are too small to be really useful).

@Giiba To answer your original question, I find no advantage in using the histogram over the blinkies+EVF. Considering there is no disadvantage in overexposing a little the shot (even with Auto-ISO) I think the blinkies are good enough for complex light situations, especially if you are in a hurry (with the big exceptions said above about clippings and colored lights and this include sunsets).
To properly use the histogram you have to evaluate the scene with your eyes and say: ok, for this scene I expect an histogram with this shape. And doing this correctly is complex. In a dark scene the histogram will be, and should be, squashed to the left anyway. I do not think our eyes are much better at evaluating a scene rather then the EVF in complex or strange light situations.

The EVF fooled me recently with an extremely dark scene (ISO 3200, f/1.4, 1/80s) where it displayed a bright image while the pictures where completely black (with Live boost off). I had to go to 1/15s to get the shots. I think chimping is the only thing that works in these situations.

ETTR makes sense at base ISO only, you gain nothing if you push the histogram to the right by rising the ISO. So it's not so common to find a situation when you can do it as you typically need to increase the exposure time. And at base ISO the advantage is small unless you have important shadows to recover. And no moving subjects. In practice it works fine mostly for landscapes.

Also be extremely careful doing this when you have strong colored lights: you may blow one single channel without any blinkies on the screen or problems in the big luminance histogram. The small single-channel histograms will show the problem (but are too small to be really useful).

@Giiba To answer your original question, I find no advantage in using the histogram over the blinkies+EVF. Considering there is no disadvantage in overexposing a little the shot (even with Auto-ISO) I think the blinkies are good enough for complex light situations, especially if you are in a hurry (with the big exceptions said above about clippings and colored lights and this include sunsets).
To properly use the histogram you have to evaluate the scene with your eyes and say: ok, for this scene I expect an histogram with this shape. And doing this correctly is complex. In a dark scene the histogram will be, and should be, squashed to the left anyway. I do not think our eyes are much better at evaluating a scene rather then the EVF in complex or strange light situations.

The EVF fooled me recently with an extremely dark scene (ISO 3200, f/1.4, 1/80s) where it displayed a bright image while the pictures where completely black (with Live boost off). I had to go to 1/15s to get the shots. I think chimping is the only thing that works in these situations.

If you are using a high iso that just means less light will be hitting the sensor and hence will have more chance of introducing noise. The dark areas will have the most noise, ie the area on the left of the histogram. so with high iso to reduce your chance of noise try and move the dark areas to the right.

With caf, shooting a dark moving subject against a bright static background, you will stop down for depth of field, say f8, and shutter speed of 250, means your iso gets pushed up.

Get prepared, do this slowly before you have to take a quick caf photo. Somehow work out where in the histogram the dark subject lands. Then work out the lowest iso and rightmost position you can get for that subject. You might have to clip some of the highlights, ie lose some highlights in the clouds.

Next set your exposure to manual. Now you have one variable to concentrate on when photoing that fast moving subject.

 

[Old Man]

In case anyone is still interested this is a reply to the original post. I had the same problem and discovered in the multi-function button an item called S-OVF which is described on page 121 0f the manual as
'Select [On] for a viewfinder display similar to an optical viewfinder. Selecting [S-OVF] makes the details in shadows easier to see.
• is displayed in the viewfinder when [S-OVF] starts. • The display is not adjusted for settings such as white balance, exposure compensation, and picture mode. '
When this is on the histogram on the evf is frozen but everything else works normally. I was thinking I had a software glitch until I discovered that I had turned this mode on while setting up what is for me aa new camera

 

[Grayheron]

First an let me say that I’m a life long Canon guy who has just got an OM-D M5-2, and I have to say, I love it.

But, one thing is really bugging me and I have read this thread to see if it answers my question, but it doesn’t seem to.

Upfront I’ll say I have LV boost off ;-)

What I’m seeing is manual mode, with a manual lens, and I can only believe it is a camera limitation, is that my LV and my histogram do not reflect the shutter setting once you are beyond + or - 3Ev.

Once you go past this range, the LV ‘freezes’ in the exposure condition that was at the - or + 3Ev point. Thus, as an example, if I keep dialling the shutter to is fastest point, LV and my histogram never go to ’completely black’, which is what I would expect.

Surely this can’t be right: I must me doing something wrong with a setting.

I hope someone can put me right.

Cheers

Garry

 

[Growltiger]

First an let me say that I’m a life long Canon guy who has just got an OM-D M5-2, and I have to say, I love it.

But, one thing is really bugging me and I have read this thread to see if it answers my question, but it doesn’t seem to.

Upfront I’ll say I have LV boost off ;-)

What I’m seeing is manual mode, with a manual lens, and I can only believe it is a camera limitation, is that my LV and my histogram do not reflect the shutter setting once you are beyond + or - 3Ev.

Once you go past this range, the LV ‘freezes’ in the exposure condition that was at the - or + 3Ev point. Thus, as an example, if I keep dialling the shutter to is fastest point, LV and my histogram never go to ’completely black’, which is what I would expect.

Surely this can’t be right: I must me doing something wrong with a setting.

I hope someone can put me right.

Cheers

Garry

It is intentional. The camera already tells you the exposure is way off. To go further makes it impossible to see what you are pointing at.