G9 screen darkness

I'm got new Ikelite housing for CanonG9. But I have some problem about the sync cord connection. When the sync cord on the hotshoe is connected with the camera, the focus shown on the LCD is darkened. The camera also doesn't allow any adjustment on the flash mode. This problem happened to me once when I was using the camera on land. Back then, I fixed this problem by using flash. The amount of flash output was decreased to trick the camera. With this method, the picture shown on the LCD was back to normal. I'm afraid that this will be a problem for going for a night dive.

I'm not sure if this is relevant on the Canon but on my old Oly if you had the histogram feature turned on, the LCD would be as bright as the exposure as indicated by the histogram so when it was really dark, the LCD was black.

I don't know if this applies to your situation, but something that fooled me with the G9 is that the LCD is exteremely polarized. When looking at the screen through some other polarized glass (sun glasses), the LCD can look totally black if you have the orientation 90-degrees off from the polarization of the LCD. To test this, just rotate the camera 90 degrees and see if the LCD lights up (or just take off your sunglasses ). I don't know if there are any polarized masks, but it could cause a problem if there are.

--Mark

I mean the amount of lihgt on the LCD screen is reduced after the camera focus is confirmed (only in low light )

Before focus

After focus

Try this. Increase the shutter speed 1 stop and take a focus after each change. Does the screen get darker with each subsequent change in shutter speed?

I do not know your Camera, but it seems to me that you are in a manual mode and that your settings are too dark.

Is this -2=EV ??? The Ambient Light seems a bit low. What ISO are you using? Try to lower the Aperture settings.

I assume that the bar on the right hand side is the Exposure control. Is the red dot the actual exposure?

I think ce4jesus is right.....for most P&S cameras, the screen mimics the exposure settings and it does not consider if flash is used either.

THe reason why it is brighter during focusing is probably due to the focus assist lamp. Once focus is achieved, the lamp shuts off and the screen goes darker again. Of course, the flash will compensate and if there is TTL, the camera will tell the flash how much light to emit for perfectly exposed shots.

I think ce4jesus is right.....for most P&S cameras, the screen mimics the exposure settings and it does not consider if flash is used either.

 

THe reason why it is brighter during focusing is probably due to the focus assist lamp. Once focus is achieved, the lamp shuts off and the screen goes darker again. Of course, the flash will compensate and if there is TTL, the camera will tell the flash how much light to emit for perfectly exposed shots.

I have a G9 and it does matter if it thinks the flash is on or off and it isn't related to the focus assist light ... at least how it functions out of the housing with nothing in the hotshoe.

If the camera has the flash turned off, the LCD will mimic the exposure after focusing - ie dark screen if the meter reads under exposed, etc. ... but, prior to focus lock it will show the scene "corrected" regardless of exposure setting.

If the camera has the flash turned on, the LCD will show a "corrected" image regardless of the exposure setting - even after the focus lock.

Ok ... I reproduced what you are talking about with my speedlight in the hotshoe.

The LCD prior to focus lock is a bit brighter that the LCD after focus lock with something in the hotshoe.

What's the problem you think this will cause you?

Hi,

Thank you for all your replies guys. I really appreciate it. Oh Dr.Mark, I couldn't take off my sunglasses, the sunlight in Bangkok is so strong.

Ok guys; here's the problem again. It happens only in low light places. The flash mode will not work if the sync chord is in use.

Can anybody help me out with this problem?

Thanks a lot.

samjaw