You learn something new every day.... or do you ?

Borats Baby

Borats Baby

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Rikki
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Prolly get a chrous of "what, you didn't know that !!! " now but anyway ...

I just read in the manual that if you dont have your eye to the viewfinder when taking a shot, the exposure can be off because of stray light getting in it.

Never had a problem myself, but can this ever actually present a problem, or is it just Canon covering themselves ?
 
it is true but then i rarely find it a problem as the mirror would flip up and faces what you are looking at.
 
You should have got a wee plastic/rubber thing in the box with your camera. Mine's attached to the neck strap. You can slide this down over the viewfinder to stop anything getting in.
Looking back at some daylight long exposures I took, I can notice a slight difference in clarity between those I took with and without it coverd. I think...

Maybe it's more a problem in bright light or with really long exposures, as in minutes or more.
 
I think as Matt says stray light through the viewfinder is only a problem with long exposures.

Steve
 
I think this is more of a theoretical problem than an actual issue, and as The Matt says, only during really long exposures I imagine
 
Rik,

A simple test....

Set up on a tripod with your back to the sun (big yellow thing that appears for a few days in July).
Take one shot with the viewfinder covered and another without and see if the shutter speed or aperture changes in the EXIF.

Bob
 
It's not a long exposure thing.

The camera needs to see through the lens to determine the exposure. That exposure is determined when you press the shutter button and before the mirror rises and the shutter fires.

My minolta XE-1 has a little lever at the side of the viewfinder which moves a little shutter over it to block it from stray light.

EDIT: Most light meter sensors are up in the prism area and read the light via the mirror. That's why light getting in through the eyepiece can have an effect. TTL flash metering is different, it measures the light reflected off of the film (or those new fangled electronic sensor thingies cameras have these days).



Steve.
 
Canon Bob said:
Rik,

A simple test....

Set up on a tripod with your back to the sun (big yellow thing that appears for a few days in July).
Take one shot with the viewfinder covered and another without and see if the shutter speed or aperture changes in the EXIF.

Bob
Click to expand...


Why bother with taking the pictures? Just look at the exposure info on the top LCD with your thumb over the eyepiece and without. Sometimes it makes a big difference (eyepiece facing sun or other bright conditions) other times it makes very little (if any) difference (night shots, shooting from dark to bright).
 
how much difference does it actually make in reality... would the majority of keen amatures like myself even actually notice?
 
The Matt said:
You should have got a wee plastic/rubber thing in the box with your camera. Mine's attached to the neck strap. You can slide this down over the viewfinder to stop anything getting in.
Looking back at some daylight long exposures I took, I can notice a slight difference in clarity between those I took with and without it coverd. I think...

Maybe it's more a problem in bright light or with really long exposures, as in minutes or more.
Click to expand...

Thats what that's for, I thought its was for holding the strap out of the way for some reason:lol:.
Looks like I've learnt something today:).
 
We noticed this on EdinburghGary's camera when we were in Scotland. Shooting without the eyepiece blind down made some odd internal reflections on the image recorded. You wouldn't think it would be a problem with the mirror moving up to shutter off the eyepiece, but it happened.
 
Try metering with your lens cap on. Without the viewfinder covered, my camera reckons it can get a correct exposure in a few seconds at wide aperture (good luck) and the time shoots right up when I cover it.
 
The only time I've found it to be a problem is when I'm shooting on a tripod and if I'm shooting on a tripod I'm probably using full manual.

Unless your using live view.
 
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