EOS R, there seems to be no way to disable the display for shooting?

Nov 12, 2016
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Got my hands on a new EOS R. Seems ok, but I'm concerned that there appears to be no way to effectively disable the display for live view shooting. I want to use only the viewfinder for shooting, and then review images on the display, like a DSLR. The closest thing I can find to doing this is to set the display timeout to 15 seconds. This way when I remove my eye from the viewfinder, the screen switches on, but then goes off after 15 seconds. the drawback is, once the display goes to sleep, when I bring the camera back up to my eye, the viewfinder takes longer to start displaying again as opposed to if the display had not gone to sleep.

You can also set a dedicated button to make the display go to sleep, but this has the same problem with lag when you bring the camera back up to your eye. Setting a button to manually switch between the viewfinder and display also seems cumbersome because you end up with the menus or image review popping up in the viewfinder.
 
Got my hands on a new EOS R. Seems ok, but I'm concerned that there appears to be no way to effectively disable the display for live view shooting. I want to use only the viewfinder for shooting, and then review images on the display, like a DSLR. The closest thing I can find to doing this is to set the display timeout to 15 seconds. This way when I remove my eye from the viewfinder, the screen switches on, but then goes off after 15 seconds. the drawback is, once the display goes to sleep, when I bring the camera back up to my eye, the viewfinder takes longer to start displaying again as opposed to if the display had not gone to sleep.

You can also set a dedicated button to make the display go to sleep, but this has the same problem with lag when you bring the camera back up to your eye. Setting a button to manually switch between the viewfinder and display also seems cumbersome because you end up with the menus or image review popping up in the viewfinder.

Manual P.403: Setting the Display Mode.
Display setting -- Auto (use viewfinder to look through and take picture, switch to screen when your face is away from the camera.
Display setting -- Manual (restrict the display to either screen or viewfinder)

or simply just flip the screen over to turn it off/on?
 
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Nov 12, 2016
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Right, I understand you can set it to manual or auto, I just want it to automatically turn on the EVF, but not then change back over to using the display for live view when I move the camera away from my face. I want to use the EVF for shooting and the screen for image review and menus, like a DSLR.

Yes, I could flip the screen over, but touch and drag on the blank screen while looking through the EVF is the only quick way to select an autofocus point, which I can't do with the screen flipped over.
 
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May 4, 2011
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I had this VERY question when I was playing around with it in the camera store this morning. We could not figure it out - looks like the closest you can get is switching the display mode to viewfinder only...but this does two things: 1) makes EVERYTHING restricted to the viewfinder (including menus!), and 2) leaves the viewfinder permanently on, even when your eye is away from it. Not ideal....

I would need more time with it to figure out the best compromise solution, but maybe someone else can beat me to it.

Another thing I noticed is that if you have Image Review turned on - after you take a pic, the image review shows up IN THE VIEWFINDER as well as on the screen, inhibiting you from continuous shooting/tracking! I immediately had to turn image review off for the camera to be usable.
 
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Dec 13, 2010
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Image review wouldn’t be needed in the same way as on a DSLR though. But hopefully it will be addressed in firmware the ability to use the screen and VF like on any DSLR ...

I’ve always had my camera set up to jump to 1:1 at the actual point of
Focus when pressing the SET button, , hope that still works, then the image would play back on the screen and shooting is through the VF, but the always in LV will be very different...
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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Another thing I noticed is that if you have Image Review turned on - after you take a pic, the image review shows up IN THE VIEWFINDER as well as on the screen, inhibiting you from continuous shooting/tracking! I immediately had to turn image review off for the camera to be usable.

This is no different from using live view on recent Canon DSLR's with DPAF. You have to turn image review off, or wait for it to time out. Its apparently due to processing required. I turn it off for my 5D MK IV and SL-2 when I want to use liveview and take more than 1 shot every few seconds.
 
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May 4, 2011
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I guess it could also be argued that with exposure preview on MILC, there’s less of a need for the image review function than with a DSLR...but IMO it would at least be nice to have the option to separate the two.

Oddly enough it hasn’t caused an issue for me in DSLR Live View mode, but then again, when I use LV I’m not concerned about speed anyway.
 
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If you are used to a DSLR, there are some fundamental changes required in the way you shoot. Looking at these comments, I went through this years ago. I shoot with image review off almost exclusively. For the most part, the EVF is pretty much exactly what you will capture, and it also unlearns any habitual chimping since you have to actually press "play" to review the last shot.

That leads to the second issue people face. The EVF/LCD switch sensor is not instantaneous and you will miss shots if you have it auto-toggle. What I do (not sure if possible for the Canon), is I set the screen/EVF to a manual toggle and assign it to a button. This prevents any inadvertent changes if the camera gets too close to an object/camera bag/strap/etc. It's either always on the LCD or always on the EVF.

These two things have worked well for me shooting the last few years using MILC. YMMV.
 
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YuengLinger

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I was wondering, on my 1dx2 I hardly ever switched the power button to Off, and never had issues with battery power.

Is it the same with the R, or mirrorless in general? Is it really off when it goes into standby? Cuz if not I’m gonna wear out the power button in less than a year, lol..
Not about the R, but, funny, my 5D III can go weeks and weeks without being turned off, and the battery has drained hardly at all. But the 5D IV, on the other hand, with all wi-fi/gps, etc disabled, seems to drain the battery very quickly when left on but not used for even 10 days. I think it even drains the battery when the power switch is off, just not as fast. Never figured out why the difference. My 80D doesn't seem to drain either, and that can go a month or more without use.

If I send in the 5D IV for a clean and check, I guess I could request a voltage check.
 
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Dec 13, 2010
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Not about the R, but, funny, my 5D III can go weeks and weeks without being turned off, and the battery has drained hardly at all. But the 5D IV, on the other hand, with all wi-fi/gps, etc disabled, seems to drain the battery very quickly when left on but not used for even 10 days. I think it even drains the battery when the power switch is off, just not as fast. Never figured out why the difference. My 80D doesn't seem to drain either, and that can go a month or more without use.

If I send in the 5D IV for a clean and check, I guess I could request a voltage check.
Interesting.. hmm, wonder if that goes for all 5d4’s or if yours isn’t quite well...
 
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YuengLinger

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Interesting.. hmm, wonder if that goes for all 5d4’s or if yours isn’t quite well...
Until reading your post above, I hadn't given it much thought. The 5DIV has behaved the same since it was brand new...And, since nothing else is wrong with it, just took it as part of the package.

Have you tried the EOS R outside in cold weather yet?
 
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Dec 13, 2010
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Until reading your post above, I hadn't given it much thought. The 5DIV has behaved the same since it was brand new...And, since nothing else is wrong with it, just took it as part of the package.

Have you tried the EOS R outside in cold weather yet?
A little bit, in fact the first thing I shot was a soccer match in pretty cold weather. I still had it on the useless Silent Live View shooting mode, and it ruined it for me.

But the weather is getting colder here now, so I will actually try it today. So far I haven’t seen anything wrong:D
 
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stevelee

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Dunno about the 1 or the 5, but my 6D2 has a couple different GPS modes you can set. In one, which may be the default, the GPS keeps working even when you switch off the camera manually. The other mode, which I set, will turn off GPS when you physically switch the camera off, but will continue to use GPS if it shuts itself off. Or something like that. So different behaviors from different cameras could be the result of different settings or defaults.
 
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