I had to chuckle

Snipped ...


Furthermore, as one progresses through the Live View section,
one comes across this instruction:

Activate Live View.
You can continue taking pictures normally through the XSi=3D3D92s
viewfinder. When you=3D3D92re
ready to activate Live View, press the Set button. The mirror
will flip up, and the
sensor image will appear on the LCD.
5.
Adjust brightness.
If the image is too bright, rotate the Main dial to the right;
if it is too dark,
rotate the dial to the left.

Now, I don't know what camera this applies to, but it isn't
the XSi.

When in Live View, rotating the main dial alters such settings
as the camera aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc, but not the
display brightness. =3D3DA0At least, I can't find any key
combination that will enable the main dial to accomplish that
feat. =3D3DA0One has to go into the menu system and adjust it there=
.

Anybody know of a DSLR with Live View that fits this
discription?

Take Care,
Dudley

Hi Dudley,
If you have the actual Canon 450 manual, take a look at the bottom of
page 96.

5 Display the Live View Image
Press the set button
...
If the image is too bright, turn the main dial to the right. =3DA0I=
f is
is too dark, turn the main dial to the left.

My daughter got my Rebel XSi, so I can't verify, but if both manuals
say it works that way...

That's interesting.

As I noted above, when in Live View, the main dial adjusts let'
s say, the aperture when in Av mode, shutter speed when in Tv,
etc. =3DA0It can also set the ISO and other settings. =3DA0But, I don'
t know of any way to get it to set the display brightness. =3DA0
Except for, if you're in manual mode and are setting the
exposure manually. =3DA0But, let's face it, you're setting the
exposure, not the display brightness. =3DA0Still, I wonder if that'
s what the original author meant.

Take Care,
Dudley

No, I'm pretty sure both manuals are talking about setting the display
brightness while in live mode.

more snipped ...


I dug out my old pdf copy of the XSi manual, the one I don't
read that often as I can't convert it to plain text, but have
to read in a pdf reader like Adobe, or Omnipage (which is a
bit tricky using my screen reader).

Just before the part you quote from Canon's manual, there is a
little blurb that says:


The Live View image will appear on
the LCD monitor.
??
The Live View image will reflect the
brightness level of the actual image
you capture.

Then, it goes on to explain that, "if the image is too bright,
turn the main dial to the right, if it's too dark, turn the
dial to the left...

As I put forward above, it appears that Canon writers were
referring to adjusting the aperture if the displayed image is
either over- or under-exposed, in effect, adjusting the
exposure, not the display brightness.

Unfortunately, Mr. Busch omitted that little statement which
goes a long way toward maintaining clarity during the
explanation of operating the camera in Live View mode.


Interestingly, I tend to either use the auto ISO setting, or
run the aperture and shutter speed settings in the middle of
their ranges, so I seldom have a problem with the image being "
too bright" or "too dark," at least as far as the exposure is
concerned, since the XSi has a pretty decent exposure range,
at least as long as you don't go from a really dark setting to
a really bright one.

My desire to turn up the brightness of the display is a bit
unusual. I doubt most other users will need to set it to the
brightness level I'd like, except perhaps in really bright
sunlight...

Take Care,
Dudley

Dudley Hanks wrote:

As I put forward above, it appears that Canon writers were
referring to adjusting the aperture if the displayed image is
either over- or under-exposed, in effect, adjusting the
exposure, not the display brightness.

You've been right all along Dudley. In Live View the main dial alters the
exposure, and the brightness of the displayed image corresponds with that.
The brightness of the display /itself/ is only altered by the "LCD
brightness" control in the menu.

Here's what the main dial does in Live View in each mode -
P - changes aperture within the range of the lens, and shutter speed changes
with it to maintain same image brightness, therefore, no change in displayed
image brightness.
Tv - changes shutter speed, and aperture tries to change with it to maintain
same image brightness, therefore, no change in displayed image brightness
until you hit the limits of the aperture range of the lens.
Av - same as P.
M - changes shutter speed while aperture remains the same, therefore,
displayed image brightness changes.
A-DEP - same as P.

So what the manual says is accurate only in M mode. I assume the twit who
wrote it didn't try it other modes.