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Panasonic G6: Is there a way to show exposure "offset" in S/A like in M?

Discussion in 'Panasonic Cameras' started by emilb, Mar 26, 2014.

Top Rated
  1. emilb

    emilb Mu-43 Rookie

    14
    Mar 26, 2014
    Hi,

    In the M(anual) setting on the mode dial, the "exposure compensation" display on the screen shows you how "off" you are from the "correct" exposure. I'm wondering if there's a setting I'm missing to get the same behavior (instead of the default of showing you the exposure compensation that you've selected) in other modes (in particular in S)?.

    The reason that I'm asking this is that when I'm using shutter priority, there are times when the aperture is as wide as the lens allows and the aperture/shutter speed display blinks red because the settings would under-expose. What I want to know in this situation is how far off I am immediately. If I'm only off by 1/3ev or so then I may want to keep my preferred shutter speed and deal with the under-exposure/"push" the ISO in post. Right now, I'm having to adjust the shutter speed until the display stops blinking to figure this out.

    I've tried looking through the manual but it's pretty large so I could very well have missed some obvious section. Alternatively, is there a better way for me to be thinking about and handling this situation? I should note that I have set a max auto-ISO because that's what I generally want, and I don't want to menu-dive to disable that for the few occasions that this comes up.

    Thanks!
     
    emilb, Mar 26, 2014
    #1
  2. ThomD

    ThomD Mu-43 Top Veteran

    602
    Jun 1, 2013
    SF Bay Area
    No. You can overlay the histogram if needed.
     
    ThomD, Mar 27, 2014
    #2
  3. mattia

    mattia Mu-43 Hall of Famer

    2,388
    May 3, 2012
    The Netherlands
    Doesn't it simply show up on the exposure meter? I don't have a G6, but that's how all my cameras have worked to date; or use the (live) histogram. Or shift ISO until you can get in-range. Also, in my experience, I tend to find I'm better off pushing ISO in-camera and pulling back a little in post, rather than 'shooting to the left'.

    Besides, you have a camera with an EVF. A major upside is the more-or-less accurate live preview of exposure, which will work particularly well in combination with the histogram.
     
    mattia, Mar 27, 2014
    #3
  4. emilb

    emilb Mu-43 Rookie

    14
    Mar 26, 2014
    Thanks for the reply and suggestions.
    Maybe you can help me better understand the histogram and live preview because I currently feel like I'm not thinking about them correctly.

    As an extreme example, I just did the following experiment in a low-light environment. I used shutter priority with a higher shutter speed (500) and low ISO (160) - I'm intentionally making it basically impossible to take a reasonably exposed picture. But if I adjust the exposure compensation upwards, the histogram moves to the right and the live preview gets brighter even though there's no actual aperture on the lens that can produce that exposure. So I feel like the histogram and live preview isn't actually showing me what the picture will end up looking like? (if I actually take a picture with this setting, it's basically just black).

    What am I doing/thinking wrong?
     
    emilb, Mar 31, 2014
    #4
  5. emilb

    emilb Mu-43 Rookie

    14
    Mar 26, 2014
    Separately, in Manual mode the histogram and live view doesn't seem to change at all even as I adjust the shutter/aperture.
    Is this expected?
     
    emilb, Mar 31, 2014
    #5
  6. mattia

    mattia Mu-43 Hall of Famer

    2,388
    May 3, 2012
    The Netherlands
    On my Oly bodies there's a setting like called exposure boost or similar. That needs to be turned off. It's designed to boost underexposed scenes so you can see the scene even if your exposure is way off.
     
    mattia, Mar 31, 2014
    #6
  7. ThomD

    ThomD Mu-43 Top Veteran

    602
    Jun 1, 2013
    SF Bay Area
    Surprisingly, this is correct. I just tested it and get the same result. The histogram shows the scene ratio, but not the actual result. The exposure comp indicates the offset from "correct". The histogram is orange when the exposure is "wrong" and white when in the right range.

    In S & A modes, the histogram is a little odd. It is showing a ratio again, but only seems to shift when I use exp comp. As you found, once you are off the scale, orange histogram and red numbers are the only signs that you are over/under exposing. I never noticed this, but there are definitely some funky things going on with live preview and the histogram not showing you what is really going to happen. Set the Shutter to 500 (like you did) with an exposure that you know will be black and the live view looks fine. Dial in a little + exposure comp and the live view will get brighter, the histogram will shift right, but you could still be way under exposed.

    It looks like the only way to to see a proper scene preview on the screen you need to use the Preview button. First press is depth of field preview, second pres is shutter speed effect, 3rd press clears it. I don't know what the default button for this is.

    I never noticed all of this. Those color queues (orange histogram and red numbers) are more important than I thought.
     
    ThomD, Mar 31, 2014
    #7
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