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EOS40D LCD monitor problem? (1 Viewer)

MSA

I may be relaxed but I'm not drunk....
Despite having what should be a nice large display, I find that looking at an image "in the field" is pointless, as what appear to be out of focus shots are absolutely fine once I upload to the computer. Conversely (and I only just realised this a couple of days ago) what seem to be good shots on the screen are actually rubbish when uploaded! Does anyone know if the image can be adjusted/calibrated at all, please? The manual gives no info.
 
Despite having what should be a nice large display, I find that looking at an image "in the field" is pointless, as what appear to be out of focus shots are absolutely fine once I upload to the computer. Conversely (and I only just realised this a couple of days ago) what seem to be good shots on the screen are actually rubbish when uploaded! Does anyone know if the image can be adjusted/calibrated at all, please? The manual gives no info.

The picture that you see on the LCD display of 40D after you take a shot is a low resolution thumbnail and is not good enough to judge whether the capture image is in proper focus or not. When you use live view, you do get to see a better resolution image.

Canon fixed this issue in 50D and 7D (which also have higher resolution displays).
 
A couple of things you can do.

First, you can up the LCD's sharpness to the max (7, I think?) and change any other in-camera settings that will help the image look "right" so that the displayed images take on more of the character of the finished article: doing so is harmless to the image because the in-camera settings can't be read by any other RAW converter than DPP, and can be turned off in DPP. I've done this with my 40D for - well, years now, and honestly I've had zero problems in deciding which are sharp images and which are not.

In fact I'll go as far as to say that my 7D's LCD - nice as it is - adds nothing to the "user experience" for me, because now everything looks good on the LCD, which is no more representative of reality than the 40D's LCD in terms of deciding on which files are keepers.

Which brings me to tip number 2: don't chimp. The fact is that the camera's LCD is the worst place to make decisions about whether a given image is worth keeping. There's no strong argument for doing this on the camera - if you're running out of room on the CF card, just put another one in.

Do your culling at home on your computer, on a big, properly set-up monitor, not a pokey little LCD in too much, or not enough, light...
 
A couple of things you can do.

First, you can up the LCD's sharpness to the max (7, I think?) and change any other in-camera settings that will help the image look "right" so that the displayed images take on more of the character of the finished article: doing so is harmless to the image because the in-camera settings can't be read by any other RAW converter than DPP, and can be turned off in DPP. I've done this with my 40D for - well, years now, and honestly I've had zero problems in deciding which are sharp images and which are not.

In fact I'll go as far as to say that my 7D's LCD - nice as it is - adds nothing to the "user experience" for me, because now everything looks good on the LCD, which is no more representative of reality than the 40D's LCD in terms of deciding on which files are keepers.

Which brings me to tip number 2: don't chimp. The fact is that the camera's LCD is the worst place to make decisions about whether a given image is worth keeping. There's no strong argument for doing this on the camera - if you're running out of room on the CF card, just put another one in.

Do your culling at home on your computer, on a big, properly set-up monitor, not a pokey little LCD in too much, or not enough, light...


That could cause a few problems if the OP shoots jpeg ;)

I do agree on the no chimping bit though. Use the histogram and blinkies for exposure but for IQ leave it till you get home

and if you're not happy with a 40D screen don't ever get a 1d mkIII......
 
Cheers guys - what brought this home to me was looking at a mate's pic of the WT Plover on his screen, so much clearer and sharper than mine! He was using a Nikon though.... ;) I've made a mental note never to chimp, although I may scratch my head from time to time...
 
and if you're not happy with a 40D screen don't ever get a 1d mkIII......

...that is unless you got used to knowing what looked 'bad' on the 40D screen but would be good on the PC, and what looked shocking on the 40D screen and was indeed shocking on the PC! :-O ...in which case as they've got the same screen, you're on safe ground!
 
...that is unless you got used to knowing what looked 'bad' on the 40D screen but would be good on the PC, and what looked shocking on the 40D screen and was indeed shocking on the PC! :-O ...in which case as they've got the same screen, you're on safe ground!

They may well be the same screen but somethings different, I've compared the same image on a 40D and 1D mkIII and they looked nothing like each other. The version in the mkIII is rubbish. IMHO ;)
 
Paul, I'm not sure how true this is, but a mate of mine got a 1d3 with firmware 1.2 (or something early) on it still. He upgraded to the latest version and said that it made the screen unquestionably better. I don't think it's a publicised feature and could just be him but I've got 1.2.5 on mine (it came with it) and the image quality is comparable with the 40D screen.

Dave.
 
Paul, I'm not sure how true this is, but a mate of mine got a 1d3 with firmware 1.2 (or something early) on it still. He upgraded to the latest version and said that it made the screen unquestionably better. I don't think it's a publicised feature and could just be him but I've got 1.2.5 on mine (it came with it) and the image quality is comparable with the 40D screen.

Dave.

Thanks for that Dave but i'm running ver 1.2.5 firmware. Maybe later mkIII's had different software for the screen or something?
Obviously the screen will vary depending on the picture style and I run mine very flat so that the histogram best replicates the raw file, that probably has something to do with it.
I did a shoot yesterday, took 500 images and to be honest based on the camera screen I would have binned every one. At home today 20 odd turned out to be OOF, and that was only because I was pushing the limits of poor light, handholding and shooting at f2.8
 
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