histogram in viewfinder

Messages
6,401
Edit My Images
No
just watched a guy on youtube and he said mirrorless cameras you can see the histogram in the viewfinder ?
what make of camera have this facility ?
 
Well, Olympus does and I surmise all other mirrorless do the same. (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji........)

It is part of the info display choices in the setup/usage.
 
Just about all I think. All my Panasonic cameras have it (GX80, GX9 and TZ100) and also my Sony A7 but annoyingly with the Sony I can't have the histogram and the level in display at the same time but I can with the Panasonics.

Be aware that mostly if not all of these are I think based on jpeg rather than raw and are arguably not all that accurate but are I think ok as an indicator if not something that's carved in stone.
 
must be a great aid to seeing you have got your exposure correct and not clipping highlights etc

You can let the histogram go off the right hand side a bit and still recover the exposure post capture if you're shooting raw. I don't know if you can do that if shooting jpeg though.
 
Most can, however with many when you switch to that display you lose a lot of the other info which is annoying. I don't understand why all manufacturers don't let you be able to customise the display like you can with Olympus so you can have the stuff on there that you want (y)
 
Most can, however with many when you switch to that display you lose a lot of the other info which is annoying. I don't understand why all manufacturers don't let you be able to customise the display like you can with Olympus so you can have the stuff on there that you want (y)

I've never seen any loss of info. My Panasonic cameras have the best display customisation but with the Sony it's mostly ok my only problem being that I can have the level or the histogram but not both, not in the same display. Pressing the display button does however allow me to step though displays to get either the histogram or level, as far as I can remember.
 
I've never seen any loss of info. My Panasonic cameras have the best display customisation but with the Sony it's mostly ok my only problem being that I can have the level or the histogram but not both, not in the same display. Pressing the display button does however allow me to step though displays to get either the histogram or level, as far as I can remember.
That's what I mean, you can either have a display showing your shooting settings etc, one showing just the histogram, one showing a level etc etc but not all together or being able to decide what you want to see. With Olympus I had it set so that I had some of the shooting info, histogram and clipping all shown at the same time (y)
 
That's what I mean, you can either have a display showing your shooting settings etc, one showing just the histogram, one showing a level etc etc but not all together or being able to decide what you want to see. With Olympus I had it set so that I had some of the shooting info, histogram and clipping all shown at the same time (y)

With the Sony A7 I have everything I need shooting settings wise plus either the level or histogram but with either I can't see anything else that's missing. I've never seen a display which has just the histogram or level, as in just one of those and nothing else.
 
With the Sony A7 I have everything I need shooting settings wise plus either the level or histogram but with either I can't see anything else that's missing. I've never seen a display which has just the histogram or level, as in just one of those and nothing else.
All at the same time, or do you have to press the disp button to go from shooting settings to histogram? Or do you mean the screen that has all that info but no image?

With Sony this is the cycle of displays
Screenshot 2021-02-19 at 17.14.07.png

What I'd ideally like is a combo of the first and third screen, but not quite as much info as the first one. Not asking for much am I :LOL: You can customise these screens on Olympus though, and I don't know why Sony, Nikon and Canon don't allow you to do the same.
 
Last edited:
All at the same time, or do you have to press the disp button to go from shooting settings to histogram? Or do you mean the screen that has all that info but no image?

With Sony this is the cycle of displays
View attachment 309436

What I'd ideally like is a combo of the first and third screen, but not quite as much info as the first one. Not asking for much am I :LOL: You can customise these screens on Olympus though, and I don't know why Sony, Nikon and Canon don't allow you to do the same.

Golly I couldn't be doing with all that. Maybe that's the answer, I just have the basic shooting info and the battery symbol so maybe that's why I haven't run into any lack of info scenarios.
 
Golly I couldn't be doing with all that. Maybe that's the answer, I just have the basic shooting info and the battery symbol so maybe that's why I haven't run into any lack of info scenarios.
TBH I don't want 90% of it, but some of the info such as metering mode and WB are useful.
 
With mirrorless as well wysiwyg applies so once your confident with your camera you don’t really need a histogram .. get very few Olympus raw files I can’t adjust fairly easy
 
With mirrorless as well wysiwyg applies so once your confident with your camera you don’t really need a histogram .. get very few Olympus raw files I can’t adjust fairly easy
This really - with evf there's very few occasions when a histogram would be useful.
 
With mirrorless as well wysiwyg applies so once your confident with your camera you don’t really need a histogram .. get very few Olympus raw files I can’t adjust fairly easy
This really - with evf there's very few occasions when a histogram would be useful.
That’s true a lot of the time but sometimes when shooting in bright sunshine for example it’s not always exact as stray light through the viewfinder etc can impact on the contrast and shadows etc in which case a histogram can be useful. That being said I tend to just rely on the viewfinder and my metering technique.
 
That’s true a lot of the time but sometimes when shooting in bright sunshine for example it’s not always exact as stray light through the viewfinder etc can impact on the contrast and shadows etc in which case a histogram can be useful. That being said I tend to just rely on the viewfinder and my metering technique.

Absolutely, I quite agree. I wouldn't say that a histgram is never needed, just relatively seldom. It's not like the bad old days when you had to expose to the right because sensor tech sucked and it was the only way you could stop an image from having horrible dirty shadows.
 
I rarely use the histogram on my Olympus but often use the blinkies that apply a false colour to areas that are too bright or too dark to capture.
That allows me to dial in exposure compensation so that I don't lose too much. In extreme circumstances it show me I need to bracket then combine in lightroom later.
 
Back
Top