Why can’t live view fully preview shutter speed effects on modern cameras?
Asked 3/26/2013
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My older Sony F717 could preview the effect of different shutter speeds in live view, at least for exposures up to about 1 second. On many newer DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, live view often seems to show only exposure changes, and some cameras also offer depth-of-field preview. Why don’t modern cameras usually show a true live preview of shutter speed effects, especially motion blur? Is this a limitation of the technology, or is shutter-speed preview considered unnecessary in normal photographic workflow?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
7
It actually depends on the camera that you have. You basically have two kinds of "Live Preview", the first using an automatic gain fonction to help you with the framing. It's the most basic one and for this, no matter what exposure setting you choose or modify, the screen will keep showing the same scene.
The second type of live preview is called Real time exposure simulation live preview (name may vary depending on your camera make), where if you chance something (aperture, ISO or shutter speed) it will affect what you see on the LiveView screen.
I just made this simple test on my Canon EOS 1100D (which is very entry level)
- switch to manual, ISO100, f3.8, 1s
- switch to live view
- turn the main dial to modify shutter speed to 1/1000s: screen turned completely black.
- turn it the other way to modify shutter speed to 30s: screen turned completely white
- turn the dial to modify aperture and narrow it down to f12: screen went back to more or less properly exposed.
It is likely that you either are using a camera that did not feature this capability yet, or where it is disabled via menu.
Or you are shooting in a semi-auto mode (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority) where the camera adjusts the other exposition settings for you as you change your settings so that the end image still stays properly exposed.
Originally by user14163. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user14163
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Many cameras do preview shutter speed in live view—but usually only as part of exposure simulation, not as a true preview of motion blur.
There are generally two behaviors:
- some cameras use auto gain so the screen stays bright for framing, regardless of your exposure settings
- others offer exposure simulation, where changing shutter speed, aperture, or ISO changes the live-view brightness
What’s usually missing is realistic motion rendering. Live view refreshes at a fixed rate, often around video-like frame rates, so the camera can show brightness changes but not accurately simulate how subject motion will blur during a still-photo exposure. Fast shutter effects are limited by sensor readout speed, and slow shutter effects would require accumulating frames, which adds lag and still may not be accurate.
So the limitation is mostly technical, not “unprofessional” workflow. A few cameras do have exposure simulation modes, sometimes needing to be enabled in settings. But a true live preview of shutter-speed motion blur is much harder than previewing exposure.
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