Dan' de Bourgogne

ISSUE : DARK SCREEN , DARK FINDER WITH CANON R6
In january, we bought some gear to shoot portrait inside our club's meeting room.
Along our members, 3 are newly shooting with their new camera: Canon R6.
All 3 encounter the same issue when we want to start shooting portraits with flash : they have a quasi black screen/black viewfinder as soon their camera as been set (mode M) in order to « kill » the ambient just before turning on the flashes .
Of course, I have myself absolut no problem at all with my Nik’D7200 and i’m feeling helpless to solve their issue which is they can’t set the focus once the camera has been set ready to shoot the first image. To get a proper focus, they have to crank up the ISO : this way, they get enough light for the screen/viewfinder to display a well lit image…thus allowing to see what happens when focusing. Once the focus acquired, they have to set back the required "lower" ISO.
I guess, this issue is not specific to EOS R6…I imagine it happens with any mirrorless camera ?
I don’t own a mirrorless camera, so I have no mean to check what/how to set in the camera to avoid this issue.
Do You have an idea what settings are required ?
Thanks for Your help .

BebuLamar

Change the EVF mode. Exposure Simulation set to disable. Page 249 of the manual.
(I don't have the camera just down load the manual).
I think people who bought mirrorless camera should know about this feature before buying it.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I have NEVER experienced that with my Olympus bodies.

BurghByrd Loc: Pittsburgh

I don't use Canon but suspect that there is a built in AF assist illuminator fuction.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

BebuLamar is correct. Exposure simulation allows the viewfinder to show correct brightness as per your exposure settings. If you’re shooting flash in the studio for instance, your settings will usually be several stops below ambient exposure, so the viewfinder will appear dark. Turning off exposure simulation allows the view screen to mimic ambient light regardless of settings. I believe this won’t occur if you use a dedicated canon flash, only for manual flashes synced from the hot shoe (R6) or pc socket on the R5.

User ID

Yup. Bebu nailed it in the very first reply. Acoarst several parrot pages will follow.

Same old story. Folks buy gear that they don’t know how to use and don’t bother to learn much about. The problem in this instance was self evident but not one of three users with three identical cameras were left clueless. User manuals acoarst are useless to those who never RTFM.

User ID

(Corrected post)

Yup. Bebu nailed it in the very first reply. Acoarst, several parrot pages will follow (if not, I’ll celebrate).

Same old story. Folks buy gear that they don’t know how to use and don’t bother to learn much about. The problem in this instance was self evident but all of three users with three identical cameras were left clueless. User manuals acoarst are useless to those who never RTFM.

Dan' de Bourgogne

Thank You BebuLamar! I also think they should know how to use their toy...I was myself trying to find out on the web what happens with this Canon R6 but the guide I began to read seems to have about 500 pages...so I decided to ask here I already sent your advice to my buddies! Again thnaks a lot for Your help!

Dan' de Bourgogne

Yes, User ID..You're right! they should know how to use their stuff. OK, when it comes to make the learning curve regarding new gear, it can take a while till one knows what to do to set some parameter.
It makes me "irritated" when I understand they did not make any effort to discover in the user's guide what to do. I'm pretty sure, those people don't want to learn by themselve..it's much more cool to ask a friend!
Thank You for your comment

Dan' de Bourgogne

hello Tomfl101! I'm happy to have such people here who knows so much! I was trying to get a solution by myself, reading the user's guide (as thick as the holly bible)...but the reaction here is so quick: nice site UHH!
Yes, the settings are about mini 3,33 stops under "ambiant"...so it's normal the EVF gets dark. I had the conviction there is certainly possible to avoid the "simulation of exposure".
We use 4 x OCF "Godox TT600"...synched by radio trigger (FT-16) slipped into the hot shoe

Dan' de Bourgogne

Thank You Camérapapi! It's very kind of You to help me...I imagine Your camera bodies are mirrorless too? My Nikon D7200 is "classic"...with mirror...so I'm used to "see" in the optical viewfinder exactly what happens under ambiant light...
I imagine, sometimes it can be interesting to see the photo BEFORE it has been shot...but I don't feel this need so I'm not interested on mirrorless bodies.
As far I understand, people who experience this issue just want to see , before taking actually the photo, they want to see what the shoot will look like...and having "killed" the ambiant, everything gets dark...because without the flash burst, the image HAS to be dark! OK...for me the question is "solved".

BebuLamar

Thanks to the internet, I would download and read thru the entire manual before I decide whether I would buy the camera.

Hip Coyote

One added suggestion (unless I missed it) was that if I anticipate going into a situation where I need the EVF to be more like a dslr (and not give me a preview of what the shot might look like) such as a flash situation, I set up a custom settings so when I get there, it is all set up....such as going to a holiday dinner or doing portrait photography. It works pretty well. I also use the same custom set up for travel...say we are doing a tour of churches, I know it is going to be dark inside, so I do the settings for what I anticipate...at least a starting point. Same with wildlife...as cameras get more sophisticated, make a setting for the focus, frame rate, etc that you might want.

Dan' de Bourgogne

I'm afraid the question is not only related to set the focus...the AF illuminator should solve the issue. The problem comes from the fact, the operator wants to have the EVF AND THE SCREEN always showing the image as it will look like once the photo has been snaped...
Doing this, they just forget by "killing" the ambiant and letting the photo lit solely by a flash burst, as long they are waiting for this flash burst, EVF+screen remain dark because they set the camera that way!
Now, I consider this issue as solved.
Thank You again for Your comment

Dan' de Bourgogne

oh yes...absolutly...when I know what will happen, I do also preset my gear according the expected shooting conditions. The problem I had is probably more laying in the fact , certain members of our photo club are just waiting to get a kind of training "how to use their gear"...they believe the club should be a school where they will learn photography...because reading the user's guide is for a lot of people something like "boring"! In fact, sometimes it is