Mike K Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Live View Silent Mode for Max Sharpness for40D, 50D, 5DII, 7D | |
Following up on a recent FM thread on use of Live View and MLU but this thread gives examples of 5DmkII
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/904829
a post by photoguy referenced this entry where a researcher using a Canon 50D was trying to optimize Live View use for photo microscopy
http://krebsmicro.com/Canon_EFSC/index.html
He shows examples and communications with Chuck Westfall of Canon describing the sequence of events when using Live View Silent Mode. On the 5D you get to this via Menu, Live View/Movie func. set, then Silent Shoot with a choice of disable, mode 1 and mode 2. Chuck's description is more detailed, but to summarize:
In Silent Shooting, mode disabled, the mirror stays up, but the shutter closes then opens to take a shot. It closes again to end the shot and reopens to reinitiate Live View.
In the Silent Shooting mode 1, the mirror also stays up the whole time but the shutter does not close nor reopen to shoot, but stays open and the exposure is initiated electronically, with a soft click. The shutter then closes to end the exposure, then immeiately reopens to reinitiate Live View. Continuous shooting is slowed down.
Silent Shooting mode 2 is similar to mode 1, but at the end of the exposure the shutter closes, but does not reopen until your finger pressure is off the shutter button. Continuous is not possible.
Since I have 4 manual focus lenses I use Live View very frequently for landscape shooting on a tripod. I ran a test to see if Live View Silent Shooting Mode 1 or 2 would make a improvement by reducing vibration as both modes eliminate closing of the shutter to initiate the shot.
Thus I set up a situation to amplify visual detection of MLU type vibration. I took the longest lens on hand, Canon 400 f5.6, added a 1.4X teleconverter and then slowed down the shutter speed with ISO 50, a circular polarizer and a 2 stop ND filter. I focused with Live View 5-10X on a house across the valley from inside my house, more than 1/2 mile away. Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 Carbon fiber tripod was used with RRS BH40 head. I used a remote in addition to a 2 sec delay to make sure no vibration was accidently added by some other mechanism. At f8 I was at 1/15 sec and at f16 I was at 1/4 sec, bracketing the shutter range most susceptible to MLU type vibrations, 1/30 to 1/2 sec. All shots were in RAW, with some sharpening added during conversion, all at the same level of course.
Here is the full frame shot reduced in size for posting:
http://www.fototime.com/37B819B5F4F52C5/standard.jpg
While there are some nearby OOF branches framing the shot, I will evaluate only 100% crops of the center deck of the house. Here is the crop of Live View Silent Shooting Disabled:
http://www.fototime.com/027A7AE1813B6EC/orig.jpg
Notice the bricks of the chimney, the cable running next to it, the wood crack in the upper right and the dark leaves of the potted plants on the right. In particular notice the wire tomato cage (funnel shaped). Next is the same shot, same exposure, same focus, seconds later using Live View Silent Shooting Mode 1.
http://www.fototime.com/CE27F4FE75A364B/orig.jpg
Sharper. The tomato cage is much more detailed, and this is of a 2mm wire from >1/2 mi away.
Here is the same exposure, same focus, using Live View Silent Shooting Mode 2.
http://www.fototime.com/DB71D4332E5E6F4/orig.jpg
the chimney and the plant leaves look pretty similar to Mode 1 but the wire tomato cage appears clearer in mode 2.
Here is the same shot at f16, 1/4 sec. Some manual refocusing between these next shots and the previous 3, so don't make that comparison. Live View Silent Shooting Disabled:
http://www.fototime.com/5C6E9C45651A235/orig.jpg
And the same exposure and focus seconds later using Live View Silent Shooting Mode 1
http://www.fototime.com/A40532DE42085E9/orig.jpg
And again the same exposure and focus seconds later using Live View Silent Shooting Mode 2
http://www.fototime.com/B96E9231E48C4C9/orig.jpg
In this sequence we can easily make out the Live View Silent Shooting Disabled is not as crisp as Mode 1. Mode 2 is very close to the detail of Mode 1; the tomato cage is just a bit sharper in Mode 2.
In summary, the Silent Shooting Mode 1 or 2 provides an small but consistent improvement in image sharpness over Live View Silent Shooting Disabled. This result is also consistent with the photo microscopy papere referred to above. Thanks to Charles Krebs for the write up and communication with C. Westfall. This result is also quite logical in that Silent Shooting Mode 1 & 2 use electronic shutter for first curtain, and avoid the additional mechanical closing and reopening of the shutter that is present in the Live View Silent Shooting Disabled. Traditional MLU operation is a bit in between in that it does not require closing of the shutter to reopen it for the exposure as in Live View Silent Shooting Disabled, but does involve mechanically opening the shutter as opposed to electronically initiating exposure. The Krebs paper does support the Live View Silent Shooting Modes as being sharper than traditional MLU, but I did not confirm that. Cameras with Live View Silent Shooting modes would probably be better off not turning off Live View to return to MLU.
The results presented suggest that Live View Silent Shooting Mode 2 may be a bit better than Mode 1, but the difference is small, if any. There is no obvious reason for it to be different as the Modes 1 & 2 differ in what happens after the shutter closes to end the exposure.
Mike K
Edited on Jun 02, 2010 at 12:36 PM · View previous versions
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