JD750 Loc: SoCal

Your right ! My z7 doesn't have scene modes!! I just assumed they were there. All my previous DSLRs had them. Never looked for them.

I'm glad the blinks are useful to you. I haven't found them of much use on Mirrorless. As I have said, I have been shooting M43 since circa 2005. Never need blinkies, histo, et. al., on the Oly. With the Oly, I can see EXCTLY what the image is going to look like in the EVF. Exactly. That is THE advantage of the EVF.

Maybe Nikon isn't there yet with EVF technology? I have noticed I don't get as good of correlation to WYSIWYG on the Nikon. And I spent time calibrating the EVF, so maybe Nikon still has some catching up to do.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

That's one of the selling features of mirrorless cameras: The EVF image is a faithful simulation of the RGB JPEG the camera will create. But that camera JPEG is often not my exposure goal. If the image in the EVF looks real good and will create a very good camera JPEG then there's a good chance I don't want that exposure. So then the highlight warning can help me get the exposure I want.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Well that's true. I have found that an adjustment, more of a tweak, for EVF brightness is needed to get good results. In theory you could adjust the EVF to show you ETTR but that would take some trial and error.

There was talk of a raw histogram for a while, but that does not seem to have materialized.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Yep, no raw histograms. And so the EVF is the camera JPEG and not a precise indicator of the raw file exposure. I never want the camera JPEG and so the EVF is showing me something I don't want. As a result I look for other measurements to help me get what I want.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I think it's not the JPEG, per say, that is the issue, it's the dynamic range and color space of the display (EVF) which is less than that of the raw file. And the raw file has to be demosaiced to create a color image, so JPEG is a convient way to do both of those things. I expect in the future as digital cameras continue to evolve, manufacturers will incorporate more dynamic range into the EVFs, maybe even a custom bit map rather than a JPEG.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

There's a couple factors but the biggest reason that a camera JPEG will indicate clipping where there is no clipping in the raw file is white balance multipliers. To create the JPEG a WB has to be assigned and WB coefficients are applied to the raw data. Raw data that is not clipped get's multiplied into clipped data by the WB coefficients and the JPEG then indicates clipping where the raw data is not clipped. You see the same in the EVF because the EVF simulates the JPEG.

Yes, color space can be a factor. Folks who want the JPEG to be more faithful to the raw data will set the camera to assign the larger color space. It's possible for an sRGB JPEG to show clipping where and Adobe 1998 JPEG shows no clipping

Another factor can be as simple as a built-in hedge to protect highlights in the raw data by the camera engineers. This can differ one camera brand to the next. Nikon for example does little to none of this while Fuji applies a heavy hand. We test our gear.

The remaining reality is that with our current cameras the feedback information we get from the cameras about our exposures isn't as accurate to the raw data as some folks would like. The discrepancy in general isn't huge. It's a non-issue for JPEG shooters and only an issue for persnickety raw shooters and raw shooters trying to work in extreme DR conditions.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

I'm going to continue running some tests. Here's the results of one test done this morning. I selected a difficult lighting condition with sidelight bright sun, blue sky and big shadows (tried to avoid human made shinny objects).

Camera on a tripod I set the f/stop to f/8 and the camera to A priority. WB to daylight and Picture Control to Standard.

I took four photos: Matrix metering, Center-weighted metering, Center-weighted metering w/blinkie hack, and Highlight-weighted metering.

In all but the Center-weighted metering w/blinkie hack I let the camera select the shutter speed with EC set to 0. In the shot using the blinkie hack I used the EC control to adjust exposure until the black patches of sky were gone. That required a -1 EC.

Matrix metering returned an excellent exposure with no raw data clipping and less than a 1/3 stop of room left at the top before clipping would begin.

Center-weighted metering crashed and burned with unredeemable highlight clipping in the raw data.

Center-weighted metering w/blinkie hack produced the same exposure as did Matrix metering -- as good an exposure for the raw data as you could hope for.

Highlight-weighted metering was very conservative -- yep the highlights are protected alright. Given a camera like the Z7 a one stop underexposure is not going to trash the photo -- but it's a case of playing it really really safe.

This is just one test and not conclusive of anything but the blinkie hack shows promise. Why not just use Matrix metering since it did just as good a job? Matrix metering is an auto function. It's relying on an algorithm in the software to make the call and in this case it made the call right but I've seen cases where it doesn't. Center-weighted metering w/blinkie hack cuts out the auto software algorithm and as such may be a little more consistent.

(Download)

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Most interesting. Thanks for posting that.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Testing and understanding how one's camera works is a critical requirement. It is clear from most posts on this and other photography sites that the vast majority of members either ignore or skip those steps. There is also a real tendency to make <many times uninformed> generalizations, like the one above about scene modes.

Every entry level Nikon DSLR that I'm aware of over the past 15 years offers scene modes. None of the higher tier cameras (D200, D300, D300s, D500, D810, D850) that I am aware of have offered them. I am not sure exactly where the threshold is, because I am least familiar with those models. (I owned a D610 for about a week, but cannot remember how it was configured.)

As a second example, several elements predicting exposure results are available for display in Live View on some DSLRs. For instance, the selected White Balance is used to display the Live View image on all of the cameras with that feature that I own. It is also possible to display the image with exposure settings applied, at least on the D810. I used that functionality at a workshop a few years ago, but have since reprogrammed access to a different function that I find more useful. Might put it back some day, because it does allow live manual focusing (or at least live focus verification) of the night sky.

I think we could save a lot of arguments here if folks would just realize and acknowledge that not all cameras work the same and that just because our camera works in a certain way does not mean that all other cameras by the same maker work the same way.

KLambar Loc: New Jersey

The Nikon Z 6 II & 7 II has in Playback Menu/Playback display options where you can put check mark on Highlight for Blink Mode

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

It's probably more conservative than necessary. Only 40 pixels are blown out of 45.7 MP and since it happened in all four channels it's probably the specular highlights in the shiny object at the bottom of the frame.

I have found that EC+0.3 is a good compromise since it doesn't blow a significant number of non-specular highlights.

The DR in this scene looks like about 8½ stops. Anything less and you would not need ETTR. The highlights and shadows would fit nicely with just matrix metering. That's what highlight weighted metering reverts to when the DR drops.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

That's after you take the photo. The Z6 and Z7 do the same. Given they all use an EVF it's possible to provide that feature before you take the photo -- many mirrorless cameras do, but not the Z6 and Z7. As I noted I'm not sure about the model II.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Another example where Nikon is still playing catch up in the mirrorless market.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

I have now set up the hack using both the 'flat' and 'standard' profiles and compared them, so far appear to perform the same. For info found enlarging my screen view in Windows made it a lot easier aligning the graph.

With regard to you comparisons, interesting results, but they will of course be scene specific other than the 'blinkie hack' one.

My own interest in this hack is that taking a scenario such as a high DR sunrise where it is absolutely imperative that max possible exposure is achieved to allow serious pulling of shadows in post it may be quicker and more reliable than relying on the histogram (disregarding chimping). This is an area where 'highlight' metering varies dependent upon brightness area and is not too accurate.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Thanks.

Yep, I like to shoot a lot of backlit landscapes and same issue; need all the exposure I can get.