Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

I went to shoot this week with my Z8 and a flash on a bracket with ttl cord. It was indoor in a dark room at f8 at 1/250th of a second at iso 3200 or 6400 and when I looked through the electronic viewfinder. the image was very dark - it was although I had pressed a depth of field preview button and the aperture stopped down to f8. Could barely make out the subjects to compose the shot. I didn't intentionally change any of the "normal" settings that I shoot with. I'm new to the Z8 and haven't shot many indoor scenes, but I have never had the viewfinder darken so much. Any idea what I actually set to get this stopped down view?

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

Never mind. Managed to figure it out. The z8 defaults to "exposure simulation" for viewfinder. As I described, it is similar to the old "depth of field preview" button on early slr's/dslr's with optical viewfinders. There is a control in menu D8 that toggles the stopping down in the viewfinder. I can understand why Nikon defaults to exposure simulation since one of the main advantages of the EVF is the ability to make exposure changes on the fly with the results being immediately seen in the evf.


In fact the exposure simulation mode is what I would normally use unless I was using flash in dark environment, so I will simply program a custom button to toggle quickly between simulation on and off.

BurghByrd Loc: Pittsburgh

Exactly! Menu item d8.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Interesting. I haven't used a flash with mine yet.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

It was a bit more than "interesting" at the time I was shooting the party. didn't have time to skull it out at the shoot and I couldn't see squat when composing the shot. Knew I had the mp's, so I cropped loosely and hoped for the best. Fortunately, it worked out well.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Interesting my Z7 defaults to brightly lighting the viewfinder when the flash is turned on.

FYI is this your first digital? I ask because "Exposure simulation" is not the same as DOF Preview. Exposure simulation is "what you see is what you get" when you snap the shutter. DOF Preview does not simulate exposure or what you are going to get. Also Exposure simulation does not necessarily show you the DOF for the selected aperture. That is why there is still a DOF button on the digital camera.

Having said all that, I am basing what I say on years of use with digital cameras, and digital camera bodies are constantly evolving, I have not (Yet) bought my Z8 (but i shall) so maybe they changed something.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

For the record, I have been shooting Nikon digital for more than 20 years (D2h in August 2003) and I am quite familiar with digital cameras. Second, my comment in the original post stated "....As I described, it is similar to the old "depth of field preview" button on early slr's/dslr's with optical viewfinders." I never said that exposure simulation was same as depth of field preview. I was simply explaining that if you leave your Z8 in it's default setting under d8 menu, the view you get looking through the EVF is similar to the effect of stopping down to the aperture selected. (You know like when the old dof button (in both slrs and dslrs) stopped the aperture down so the image in the viewfinder often darkened to the point when you could barely make out the scene?) What I saw with the Z8 in default was similarly too dark. It was nearly impossible to see the scene through the EVF and, in fact the reason is because the EVF is designed to show you wysiwyg as you stated. The problem is that in M mode with a 1/250 sec ss at f8 in a dark room, of course the wysiwyg view is going to be dark. It's not dark because the lens was stopping down. It shows dark because it cannot detect the effect the flash will have when shutter fires. That dark scene was warning me that the settings were WAY underexposed. Duh - I knew it was underexposed without the application of flash. That's why I mounted the flash. I shot the entire party barely able to compose the shots. Sucked. Only when I got home to do some research did I discover that menu d8 cures the issue.

I have no idea what the Z7 does, but when you actually get your Z8 and you want to shoot with a flash, I suggest that you remember to go to menu d8 and toggle the choice to optimize the view through the finder for ease of viewing.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Good grief I guess I offended you which I did not mean to do. I offer my apology for any offense I might have caused.

BebuLamar

I don't have a mirrorless but I think if you use a dedicated flash and the camera knows that your flash is ready to fire it should have an option to automatically shut off the "Exposure simulation" mode. But according to others the Z8 obviously doesn't have that option and you have to turn it off manually.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I’m not sure why he was using flash in any case. My Pentax gracefully handles high ISO values, so I can normally use ambient light, and avoid calling attention to the camera, as flash tends to do.

BebuLamar

My Nikon Df does quite well with high ISO but there are times when using flash is better when you need to light your subject in a certain way. Of course there are times also I can flash all I want without anyone notices because there is no one around.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

Huh? Ever see a professional event photographer NOT use flash indoors in a poorly lit room?

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Professionals are often after ‘shot hogs’; as an amateur, I want people to act naturally.

Rick from NY Loc: Sarasota FL

Huh? I have no idea what you’re talking about.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Huh? what does that mean? Please explain.