Viewfinder in Nikon Z8 washes out when increasing EV

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James C.

James C.

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When I increase the EV in my Z8 beyond +1.3 or so, I notice that the image in the viewfinder can get so "overexposed" that I often can't see or find the bird that I was trying to photograph.

I shoot with shutter priority, Auto ISO, with a max ISO of 10,000. My shutter speed is usually between 1/2,000 and 1/4,000 since I want to be ready for a BIF. I usually go out to shoot in the afternoon "Golden hours," so I am often working with dim light conditions, especially if I am shooting into brush. I often have to push my EV to +3.0 or +3.3, especially if it's an overcast day.

Are there some settings that I can adjust so that my viewfinder doesn't get so washed out?

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
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It sounds to me like you're exceeding the limits of some of the settings in the camera under those conditions. With auto ISO set and limited to 10,000, you are probably bumping up against the ISO 10,000 limit with such a high shutter speed. The only parameter the camera can adjust to ensure proper exposure then is to select the widest possible aperture, so what parameter can then be adjusted by the camera if you demand more light with exposure comp than what ISO 10,000, 1/2000 sec and a wide open aperture can provide? I don't know the answer. I've also had some real weird exposures happen when I had highlight-weighted metering selected ( Page 461 of the Z8 manual).

As a test, I would remove the set upper limit of ISO 10,000 and allow the camera to pick a higher value if necessary. See what happens then. If that works, then you will have to set a slower shutter speed under those conditions, or live with a higher ISO.
 
I don't shoot Nikon so by EV I assume you are talking what I would call EC, exposure compensation. If your camera is set to simulate exposure, sounds like it is, the viewfinder getting too bright is a good thing because it is telling you you are overexposing. Sometimes you have to make a choice to sacrifice the sky in order to get the subject bright enough, but if you don't want to blow the sky you can't crank it too high. Other Sometimes you can bring up the subject in post if you went a little dark to save the sky.

With exposure compensation the rule of thumb is background brighter-brighten, background darker-darken. In other words in a dark background your auto settings are trying to raise the exposure possibly too much so you use negative EC, if the background is bright the auto settings are trying to lower the exposure so if it is too low you compensate with a positive EC.
 
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James C. said:
Should I set the viewfinder brightness to manual instead of having it on "Auto?"
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I found that changing VIEWFINDER BRIGHTNESS from AUTO to MANUAL resulted in a more accurate "what you see is what you get". It seems that when set to auto it tries to compensate for any exposure compensation that has been set. In manual you can see the result of the change in exposure compensation. I also changed MONITOR BRIGHTNESS from AUTO to MANUAL.

I hope this helps.

Bill
 
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I got it fixed. Although, the fix is a little weird.

The way my settings are, "Viewfinder Brightness" and "Viewfinder color balance" were both greyed out when I was looking at the Setup Menu on the LCD monitor. So I couldn't change the brightness from "Auto" to "Manual."

Based on how I'd setup the camera, I had to call up the menu and look at it through the viewfinder, rather than the LCD monitor. THEN those two settings were accessible! I then manipulated the controls on the back of the camera to navigate to those settings and change "Viewfinder Brightness" to "Manual."

The viewfinder now stays exactly the same brightness no matter how much I crank up the EV.

Thanks, everyone.
 
James C. said:
I got it fixed. Although, the fix is a little weird.

The way my settings are, "Viewfinder Brightness" and "Viewfinder color balance" were both greyed out when I was looking at the Setup Menu on the LCD monitor. So I couldn't change the brightness from "Auto" to "Manual."

Based on how I'd setup the camera, I had to call up the menu and look at it through the viewfinder, rather than the LCD monitor. THEN those two settings were accessible! I then manipulated the controls on the back of the camera to navigate to those settings and change "Viewfinder Brightness" to "Manual."

The viewfinder now stays exactly the same brightness no matter how much I crank up the EV.

Thanks, everyone.
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So does the exposure simulation in the viewfinder get brighter or darker as you raise or lower exposure or use exposure compensation?
 
James C. said:
The brightness level in the viewfinder now does not change when I raise or lower the exposure compensation value.
Click to expand...

Isn't that one big reason people like mirrorless cameras, the exposure simulation? I think I must be missing something.
 
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bleirer said:
Isn't that one big reason people like mirrorless cameras, the exposure simulation? I think I must be missing something.
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In my case, the way I had setup my camera, (as I mentioned above), increasing the ev gave me a washed out viewfinder. So washed out, that at ~+2.3 ev, the whole viewfinder was almost totally washed out. I couldn't even see my subject (usually a bird). But when I "chimped" the photo, the photo's actual exposure looked about right. No where near as overexposed as it had looked in the viewfinder. Who wants to deal with a problem like that when photographing?

Now, if I could figure out how to establish the Z8's settings so that that DIDN'T happen when I set "Viewfinder brightness" to "Auto," I'd be happy to try it out. But for now, I'm going to stick with the change I made today. ;)
 
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James C. said:
In my case, the way I had setup my camera, (as I mentioned above), increasing the ev gave me a washed out viewfinder. So washed out, that at ~+2.3 ev, the whole viewfinder was almost totally washed out. I couldn't even see my subject (usually a bird). But when I "chimped" the photo, the photo's actual exposure looked about right. No where near as overexposed as it had looked in the viewfinder. Who wants to deal with a problem like that when photographing?

Now, if I could figure out how to establish the Z8's settings so that that DIDN'T happen when I set "Viewfinder brightness" to "Auto," I'd be happy to try it out. But for now, I'm going to stick with the change I made today. ;)
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There must be another setting in your camera that is set incorrectly. I have mine with viewfinder brightness set to Auto and I don't have the problem you were experiencing. My viewfinder works exactly as designed, it gives me WYSIWYG. The picture taken resembles what I see in the viewfinder in terms of exposure.
 
I guess I would keep pursuing it. Either the camera is malfunctioning or you have something wrong in the settings. If you have metering in any auto mode and meter a plain piece of paper the histogram should be around center and it should appear midtoned in the viewfinder. As you increase exposure the image should brighten and the histogram should move to the right until it blows out around +3 stops and the histogram hits the right wall. That is about how much latitude a jpeg preview usually has from middle to top on any camera.
 
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James C. said:
In my case, the way I had setup my camera, (as I mentioned above), increasing the ev gave me a washed out viewfinder. So washed out, that at ~+2.3 ev, the whole viewfinder was almost totally washed out. I couldn't even see my subject (usually a bird). But when I "chimped" the photo, the photo's actual exposure looked about right. No where near as overexposed as it had looked in the viewfinder. Who wants to deal with a problem like that when photographing?

Now, if I could figure out how to establish the Z8's settings so that that DIDN'T happen when I set "Viewfinder brightness" to "Auto," I'd be happy to try it out. But for now, I'm going to stick with the change I made today. ;)
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Check setting D10 in the CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU. D10 - VIEW MODE(PHOTO LV) - Then select SHOW EFFECTS OF SETTINGS. This may be a different number as this is on a Z9. I don't have a Z8.

I hope this helps.

Bill
 
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Custom Settings:​

d8: View Mode (Photo Lv)​

This will allow you to toggle between showing the effects of settings vs adjusting for "ease of viewing" (somewhat mimicking what an optical viewfinder would give you). Obviously this won't adjust your exposure if it's incorrect / too bright, it just bypasses the real-time exposure preview of the EVF.

You can also adjust the brightness of the EVF (and display monitor, separately) manually. Hope this helps!
 
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