Monitor Showing Live View is Too Dark

[brightnight]

As I understand it, my kraken monitor diplays the picture as my Canon 5dmIV sees it in live view. However, the camera is set to full manual and isn't accounting for light from the strobes so everything the camera sees is very dark and therfore everything on the monitor appears very dark. Since everything appears dark on the monitor even though the brightness of the monitor is is set high enough, framing images is impossible because I can't see anything.

 

How can I keep the camera settings the same while have the monitor compensate or what are my options? Is this where selecting a lux table in the monitor would be helpful or some type of exposure compensation?

 

 

 

 

 

[Davide DB]

I see that no one is responding, so I'll try to put my two cents in.

 

I don't think it depends on the monitor which in theory should replicate what happens on the display (I write in theory because I read that Sony is quite complicated on the subject) but I think it is a “simple” camera setting.

In my Panasonic GH5 there is a setting called “Constant preview” that changes the way the camera display behaves with respect to the exposure/shooting settings. This setting has impact especially when the camera is set to manual.

 

Constant preview ON = you see the real exposure on the display
Constant preview OFF = you display will have a good exposure/perfect image regardless of your exposure settings.

Now, I guess that you have just to find where is this settings on your camera.

 

One image is better than a thousand words:

 

 

[JS1221]

Olympus has the same feature, it's called Live View Boost. When it's turned on you get a bright display, regardless of what the camera setting are. I looked through the menu of my Canon T5i but I did not see anything similar, but it is an older camera. 

[Isaac Szabo]

In the live view shooting settings, try setting exposure simulation to disable.

 

 

[brightnight]

Exposure simulation was it! Thank you, was out today and made a massive difference now that I can actually frame a shot 🙂

[brightnight]

Two additonal questions have come up while using my monitor and curious if anyone has suggestions.

 

1) Now that the image on the monitor looks so good (which is ideal for framing images), I often find myself thinking it would be nice to change the camera settings in photo mode so that the image is exposed to what the monitor is displaying because the monitor looks so nice. I assume there's no way to output the adjustments my Kraken 7" ultrabirght monitor is making from the camera to make the image look so nice so I can set the camera to be the same. My workaround is to test fire a shot and look at the picture, then adjust as needed but wondering if there is a better way so I don't have to waste battery life firing off shots. I know I want my cake and eat it too but someone here might have a trick up their sleeve.

 

2) My monitor often goes gray and says lost signal from the camera. Sometimes it seems to go through phases where it happens often but mostly it seems to cut out for a few seconds once a minute or so like the signal strength from the camera dropped out and then comes back. Thinking it could be too long of a flat ribbon cable in the housing (it's the one that came with the monitor), maybe the flat cable was creased and that's interferring with the signal, or maybe the HDMI cable is stretched and thats causing interferance between conductors inside, anyone else seen anythng like this or have a suggestion on what to do?

[Isaac Szabo]

As a point of clarification, it is the camera that is making the auto adjustments to the liveview image. The monitor just displays the signal that the camera sends it.

 

I don't think there's any way to output the auto liveview settings to your shooting settings, other than maybe setting the camera to a fully automatic mode. Short of that, you could temporarily turn exposure simulation back on which might help you dial in your settings more quickly than reviewing test shots. You can likely assign it to a custom button or menu so that you can quickly turn it on or off.

 

As for your second question, my guess is that an HDMI cable or connector could be slightly loose or damaged. If you use a monitor long enough, it tends to happen eventually. While it could be any part of the HDMI pipeline, the ribbon cable and connectors are the most fragile. I have learned from experience to travel with spares for those. It might be a good idea to ask Kraken if they have seen this issue and know what might be causing it. 

[brightnight]

I'm still puzzeled about the performance of Canon 5D Mark IV with a monitor when shooting in low light.

 

Once it gets quite dark, everything on the monitor appears bright and well-lit, but the camera perceives the scene as dark as it actually is and requires a focus light to achieve focus. If the monitor can display a clear image, why can't the camera temporarily increase gain or sensor sensitivity to lock focus before reverting to its set ISO and shutter speed? Or is there a setting in most cameras that can do this that I'm not aware of? Seems like relatively simple feature.

 

As I understand it some mirrorless cameras have a feature called "low-light AF assist" which does basically what I described but the 5DmIV does not.

[MatthewSullivan]

Two things here: 1) now that live preview settings are turned off, the monitor doesn't adjust unless you do something manually. So it is going to be as bright as you have it set and has nothing to do with how the camera is perceiving the scene. 2) you are also using a DSLR to focus via live view. By nature, DSLRs (with maybe the exceptions being 1dx mark iii and d780, i'm not sure about 5D4) do not have proper live view focusing as this isn't how they were really designed to be used so the overall focus performance is going to be worse. Again though, it has nothing to do with the monitor. the monitor is simply a larger screen, showing the same feed your LCD shows, it does not impact the camera's performance. 

[Chris Ross]

6 hours ago, brightnight said:

I'm still puzzeled about the performance of Canon 5D Mark IV with a monitor when shooting in low light.

 

Once it gets quite dark, everything on the monitor appears bright and well-lit, but the camera perceives the scene as dark as it actually is and requires a focus light to achieve focus. If the monitor can display a clear image, why can't the camera temporarily increase gain or sensor sensitivity to lock focus before reverting to its set ISO and shutter speed? Or is there a setting in most cameras that can do this that I'm not aware of? Seems like relatively simple feature.

 

As I understand it some mirrorless cameras have a feature called "low-light AF assist" which does basically what I described but the 5DmIV does not.

a 5D IV is quite an old camera now, live view was quite a new feature back then.  Live view as you know uses data from the sensor for AF as the mirror is up and the phase detect AF chips can't be used.  The Phase detect sensors could AF the camera but the on chip AF is just not up to the task unless there's plenty of light available.

[scubadiggy]

On 10/20/2024 at 9:48 AM, brightnight said:

Two additonal questions have come up while using my monitor and curious if anyone has suggestions.

 

1) Now that the image on the monitor looks so good (which is ideal for framing images), I often find myself thinking it would be nice to change the camera settings in photo mode so that the image is exposed to what the monitor is displaying because the monitor looks so nice. I assume there's no way to output the adjustments my Kraken 7" ultrabirght monitor is making from the camera to make the image look so nice so I can set the camera to be the same. My workaround is to test fire a shot and look at the picture, then adjust as needed but wondering if there is a better way so I don't have to waste battery life firing off shots. I know I want my cake and eat it too but someone here might have a trick up their sleeve.

 

2) My monitor often goes gray and says lost signal from the camera. Sometimes it seems to go through phases where it happens often but mostly it seems to cut out for a few seconds once a minute or so like the signal strength from the camera dropped out and then comes back. Thinking it could be too long of a flat ribbon cable in the housing (it's the one that came with the monitor), maybe the flat cable was creased and that's interferring with the signal, or maybe the HDMI cable is stretched and thats causing interferance between conductors inside, anyone else seen anythng like this or have a suggestion on what to do?

To answer the second part of your question. It usually is the HDMI cable which gets finicky and can tend to have breaks within. I have changed two already! There can definitely be cables made, I AM SURE, that can last much longer but then thats not great for business i guess ? 🙂 I finally have a cable that works and i have secured it at the ends with silicone tape, but know that its a matter of time. I now hardly use the monitor and use the camera screen instead for videos and have currently stayed away from Macro videos. 

[brightnight]

Appreicate the adive, I'll try another cable. For my last trip I used a brand new cable and still had issues but I can try a normal HDMI cable too and see if I have issues with that. The fact that the monitor cut out at different rates sometimes often and sometimes going minutes without cutting out does suggest a cable issue as opposed to the camera having trouble putting out signals over HDMI that far. Thanks for the tip!

[MatthewSullivan]

32 minutes ago, brightnight said:

Appreicate the adive, I'll try another cable. For my last trip I used a brand new cable and still had issues but I can try a normal HDMI cable too and see if I have issues with that. The fact that the monitor cut out at different rates sometimes often and sometimes going minutes without cutting out does suggest a cable issue as opposed to the camera having trouble putting out signals over HDMI that far. Thanks for the tip!

One other thing. with certain monitors, including the kraken, the OUTPUT on the camera has to be set to 1080. You can have the camera record whatever resolution you want but the HDMI output has to be set to 1080.