Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Mirrorless Cameras => Topic started by: rockyk on November 14, 2013, 02:14:27 pm

Title: Square Images and Mirrorless Cameras
Post by: rockyk on November 14, 2013, 02:14:27 pm: I'm interested in buying into a CSC kit, mainly for personal work. I would prefer a camera with at least an EVF and a FF or APS sensor. I've always enjoyed shooting square-format compositions, so pardon my ignorance about these cameras for my main question: if a camera does offer a square format image, does its corresponding EVF provide some sort of masking so that one can compose a square in the viewfinder? I notice that some of the Fuji cameras offer square-proportioned images, but I've never had the opportunity to try one out. Also, the new Sony A7 seems like a really sweet machine, but I didn't see square image proportions for it on the Sony website specs. I would think that a firmware update could provide that in most cameras if the consumer demand was there. Any feedback is appreciated!
Title: Re: Square Images and Mirrorless Cameras
Post by: Remo Nonaz on November 14, 2013, 02:52:24 pm: I can't speak for all CSC cameras, but with the Panasonic m43 cameras, what you see is what you get. If you put the frame into a square frame, you see a square image. Same with 3:2, 4:3 and 16:9 formats.

I'll add that you can use all the formats in RAW, JPG or RAW + JPG. Makes no difference.
Title: Re: Square Images and Mirrorless Cameras
Post by: Petrus on November 14, 2013, 02:52:57 pm: At least Fujifilm X-Pro1 shows square framing in both EVF and OVF. Setting the format to 1:1 (or any other non-native ratio) requires JPEG shooting or JPEG + RAW, and if I remember correctly, the RAW file always has the full sensor info in it, in case you change your mind about the frame shape afterwards.
Title: Re: Square Images and Mirrorless Cameras
Post by: Martin Ranger on November 14, 2013, 02:57:34 pm: Quote from: Petrus on November 14, 2013, 02:52:57 pm
At least Fujifilm X-Pro1 shows square framing in both EVF and OVF. Setting the format to 1:1 (or any other non-native ratio) requires JPEG shooting or JPEG + RAW, and if I remember correctly, the RAW file always has the full sensor info in it, in case you change your mind about the frame shape afterwards.

Same with the X-E1. And yes, the RAW is full format, which has come in handy on occasion.
Title: Re: Square Images and Mirrorless Cameras
Post by: BJL on November 14, 2013, 11:32:00 pm: Same with the Olympus EM5: both viewfinders show the selected shape crop, and the raw file is still the full uncropped, just with metadata suggesting the crop.
Title: Re: Square Images and Mirrorless Cameras
Post by: rockyk on November 15, 2013, 11:28:54 am: It's great news to me that these cameras offer fairly accurate composing tools. Even better that the .xmp references the crop, but the entire frame is still available.
@Petrus: is the OVF on the X-Pro 1 fairly accurate?

Thanks to all that replied.
Title: Re: Square Images and Mirrorless Cameras
Post by: Petrus on November 15, 2013, 12:47:15 pm: Quote from: rockyk on November 15, 2013, 11:28:54 am
It's great news to me that these cameras offer fairly accurate composing tools. Even better that the .xmp references the crop, but the entire frame is still available.
@Petrus: is the OVF on the X-Pro 1 fairly accurate?

Thanks to all that replied.

Define "fairly"...

I would say: no.