Live View Display

Please note: Currently the live view display is only available with the Canon EOS-1D Mark III, Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, Canon EOS 40D, Canon EOS 50D, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EOS 450D/Rebel XSi and Canon  EOS 1000D/Rebel XS.

Select "Live View" or type Ctrl+L to select the live view display and display the windows below. If the camera is not already in live view mode the mirror will flip up and the camera will enter live view finder mode. The controls in the main DSLR Remote Pro window can still be accessed when the live view window is displayed. If the live view window is covered by other windows it can be displayed by typing Ctrl+L when the main DSLR Remote Pro window is displayed. Closing the live view window will cause the camera to exit live view mode unless the live view image is also being displayed on the camera's LCD. The window can be resized to display a larger live view image.

Live view images can either be displayed full frame as in the screenshot above or zoomed as shown below. The white rectangle shows the area of the zoomed image. The position of the zoomed area relative to the rest of the frame is also shown in the navigation window in the bottom left hand corner. The zoomed area can be moved by clicking on the white rectangle and dragging it using the mouse or by dragging the rectangle in the navigation window. Double click the left mouse button over the image or the navigation window to move the zoomed area and switch to the zoomed view.

Click on the "Release" or "Preview" buttons to take a image or a preview shot. The shot will be displayed in the main DSLR Remote Pro window.

The lens can be focused using the arrow buttons or by using the mouse wheel. The "<<<" button shifts the focus nearer by a large increment, "<<" focuses nearer by a medium increment and "<" can be used for fine adjustment. Similarly the ">", ">>" and ">>>" focus farther away by small, medium or large increments.

The mouse wheel provides a very effective way to adjust the focus. When the Shift key is held down the mouse wheel adjusts the focus in large increments. When the Ctrl key is held down the mouse wheel adjusts the focus in medium increments and when no keys are held down the mouse wheel can be used for fine focus adjustments. The lens can also be focused using the cursor left and right keys with the Ctrl and Shift selecting medium or large increments respectively.

Please note: The lens should normally be set to the auto-focus setting for the focus controls to work. Some lenses, e.g. Canon EF 17-40mm F/4 L, can also be focused when the lens is set to manual focus.

Select the "DoF preview" check box to stop the lens down to the currently selected aperture to assess the depth of field.

Right click on the image to display a menu for enabling or adjusting the grid overlay display. The live view shares the same grid overlay settings as the image display in the main window.

A live histogram can be displayed in the full frame view showing the intensity (or brightness) and the red, green and blue channels. Right click on the histogram to enable or disable the display of each channel.

Please note: The histogram display is only available when live view exposure simulation is set in the camera's custom functions (CFn IV:16 for the Canon EOS-1D Mark III, CFn IV:7 for the Canon EOS 40D) and the full frame live view display is selected.

The zoomed area can be moved by clicking the mouse on the image and dragging as required or by by dragging the white rectangle in the navigation window. It can also be moved by double clicking in the navigation window.

Double click on the live view image or uncheck the "Zoom" check box to return to the full frame view.

The camera controls are automatically disabled when live view mode is selected but the camera settings can still be adjusted using the controls in the main DSLR Remote Pro window. Press the camera's "Set" button to display the live view image on the camera's rear LCD. In this mode most of the camera's controls may be used to adjust the camera's settings and the shutter release button can be used to take pictures.

Auto Focus

Type Ctrl+F to activate auto focus in the full screen or zoomed live view displays. During auto focus the AF status is shown in the title bar of live view window. It may take several seconds for optimum focus to be achieved and in some cases (e.g. where the contrast in the image is low or the live view images are very noisy due to low light levels) it may not be possible to achieve accurate focus.

In main view the area defined by the white rectangle is used to define the auto focus area. The rectangle can be dragged to a new position to auto focus in a different area of the live view image. In the zoomed view the central 1/5 area of the image is used for auto focus. The focus area is highlighted in red during AF.

Hold down the Shift key when typing Ctrl+F to activate the auto focus using fine adjustments only for fasting focusing if the image is nearly in focus already.

Limitations: Because it takes several seconds to auto focus in live view it is not suitable for handheld shots or for moving subjects. Auto focus may fail if the image is very out of focus when AF starts, if the focus area has poor contrast or if the live view images are very noisy due to low light levels. Lenses which focus in large steps when using the fine focus settings (the "<" and ">" buttons) and lenses which focus by different amounts when focusing nearer or farther may cause AF to fail to achieve optimum focus in live view.

EVF Upscaling

The size of the live view (aka EVF) images depends on the camera model e.g. Canon EOS 40D images are 1024x680 pixels, Canon EOS 450D/Rebel XSi images are 848x560 pixels and Canon EOS 1000D/Rebel XS images are 768x512 pixels. By default the Live View window will enlarge (or upscale) the images to fit the window. This can produce pixelated images or other display artefacts depending on the amount of upscaling or the type of subject being photographed. If this is a problem EVF upscaling can be disabled by right clicking  on the image and deselecting "Allow EVF upscaling".

Mirroring and rotating the live view display

Right click on the full frame live view image to display a menu to select horizontal flipping, vertical flipping or 180 degree rotation of the live view image. Horizontal and vertical flipping is useful if pictures are being taken through a mirror or if you want to get the same effect as looking through a mirror e.g. mounting the camera above the computer display so that when people look at the display it is like looking through a mirror.

180 degree rotation is useful when taking pictures using a copy stand where the camera is often mounted facing down with the camera's base plate away from the photographer.

Onion Skinning

Onion skinning is where the current live view image is displayed on top of a previous image help line up a shot. This is very useful when taking stop motion animations and in other situations where it is important to accurately line up the camera for consecutive shots.

Onion skinning is only available when the full frame view image is displayed. To start onion skinning right click on the view image and select "Onion skinning" from the menu. By default the background image is updated whenever a photo is taken but this behavior can be disabled if required.

The background image used for onion skinning can be saved and loaded to from the a file. This is useful when doing stop motion animation and you wish to save the background at the end of the day and load it again to continue work the next day. It also means you can save the background image, edit it in an image editor to add reference marks and then load it back into the live view window.

Another use for onion skinning is when taking panoramas. The onion skinning background can be offset to the left or right for panoramas taken in horizontal format or to the top or bottom for vertical format. The background is offset by 60% and is used to help align the next shot in the panorama.

Arranging Windows

Type Ctrl+A to automatically arrange the live view and main windows. Repeatedly pressing Ctrl+A will cycle through the following window layouts:

Keyboard Shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts can be used when the live view is displayed: