Live Time

On of the features of the E-M5 I had not played with is called Live Time.

Live Time is designed for long exposure shots when you are not entirely sure how long an exposure you need. But set the shutter onto Live Time and press the button to start exposing the shot and the rear screen will update and show you how the shot is looking as the exposure progresses. Once you have the look you want, press the shutter again to finish the exposure.

Here’s an Olympus example of Live Time in action:

For my first attempt I found some waves splashing on some rocks at sunset, set the F stop to F16 to maximise the exposure, and then started Live Time. This one was 3.3 seconds:

An obvious candidate for Live Time would be fireworks, where you could keep the shutter open until you had captured the display to your satisfaction. Alternatively, get a very dark ND filter and take some cool daytime shots of sea and river scenes without having to guess an appropriate exposure. Cool feature Olympus.

Comments 🔗

2013-05-14 | Bob James says

EP-5 supposedly has improved on it

2013-05-15 | Kevin Moore says

Nice to know there’s someone reading the instructions for the benefit of us all. Well done Spike will have to have a play with it.

2013-05-15 | Spike says

With a sufficiently beefy ND filter, there are some interesting daylight possibilities.

2013-05-16 | dude says

this actually is a great feature - if it works properly (i don’t have an om-d). I never had much trouble guessing the correct time for long time exposures (i tried calculating but always ended up guessing). the one question i have is: Canikon - what is your excuse? There are so many new features in mirrorless cameras and so few in the big old dslrs. Focus peaking, wifi & nfc, touchscreens, “live time”, super accurate “pinpoint AF”, … Of course I don’t need a touchscreen (wifi, etc) to take photos and it certainly isn’t as “pure” as photography could be but it’s convenient and I don’t understand why (almost) every mirrorless camera has one and the high-end Canikons don’t. … whatever…

2013-05-17 | Spike says

… 5 axis stabilisation, Fuji hybrid viewfinders, highlight/shadow clipping in the viewfinder etc etc.

I was in a camera shop in Bangkok yesterday, filling time while waiting for SWMBO. Had a look at the Fuji display; gorgeous looking quality machines. On the next shelf were black bakelite Canikons, so boring.

Anyway, having failed to find anything suitable in Bangkok, the very nice people at B&H are sending me a 10 stop ND filter, which should provide very long exposures even in bright light.

2013-05-17 | Bob says

Surprised they had it in stock

2013-05-17 | Spike says

Maybe because the filter size (46mm) is not much used by all the DSLR junkies. I have always been impressed with B&H. Very quick service and arrives very quickly in Thailand. And every few months they send me a monster free catalogue of camera porn.

2013-05-19 | Wolfgang Lonien says

Cool photo Spike! Have to try this with my wife’s E-PL5…

2013-05-20 | dude says

talking about the amazing things that micro four thirds cameras can do… how about new articles on microfourthirds.info ?

2013-05-21 | Spike says

I know, I have neglected it. But here is some more on Live Time: http://www.microfourthirds.info/2013/05/live-time-and-and-a-10-stop-filter/