camera lcd and pictures don't match

What's up guys, I need some serious help.

I can't get the camera to display changes on the camera LCD screen (ie: changes to shutter speed, iso, f-stops, etc). Those things will increase or decrease but on the screen they stay the same. Once I take the picture however I'm able to see the changes in brightness or whatever. This is very frustrating and I have no idea how to make the LCD screen match to what my picture will look like.

Please help in how I can fix this.

Welcome to the forums.

Do you mean when using Live View?

Alas, except on the Pro level cameras Live View will lock in on the exposure settings you choose when you open it and will not change as you change the aperture/shutter speed. It's meant to serve more as a way to frame the photo and not as a way of insuring proper exposure.

Welcome to the forum

Yeah, during live view I can adjust my iso and everything but the changes can't be viewed unless I take a picture. Which is kind of pointless if I'm unable to see what my picture will look like before the time.


Excuse me backdoorhippie, but what exactly do you mean by "pro camera's"? Are you saying this problem can't be fixed? A friend of mine has the same camera (nikon D3200) but he hasn't experienced this problem. Are you saying this an internal problem on my camera then?

Your friend has probably not used live view much, at least not with much variation in his exposures. My d5200 (another entry-level model) reacts just as you described, matching backdoorhippie's explanations.

Dante said:

Excuse me backdoorhippie, but what exactly do you mean by "pro camera's"? Are you saying this problem can't be fixed? A friend of mine has the same camera (nikon D3200) but he hasn't experienced this problem. Are you saying this an internal problem on my camera then?

Click to expand...

What I'm saying is that my understanding is that when using Live View on any camera "below" the D800 you will not see exposure changes reflected in Live View. Above that level, the screen will lighten/darken as you adjust ISO and aperture settings. It's the way things are and not something that is broken.

Now perhaps I am misundertanding what you're saying the problem is. Are you talking about the screen changing or the settings at the bottom of the screen? Those should definitely change as you change them on the camera.

I just checked on D3300, the settings display the changed values in Live View, but the image brightness does not change with the settings. That means that the changed settings will be used only while taking a shot, but will not change the live view. Just to be sure, I checked with the mode dial set to "M". The only changes you see on the live view are focus changes.

In fact, you must take cognizance of the fact that the image for live view is taken at aperture wide open. In D3xxx series, when you take the shot while in live view
. The live view is stopped
. Mirror comes down
. AF and metering is done
. Mirror goes up
. Camera fires the shutter

A friend of mine managed to fix my problem. In the settings "manuel movie settings" needed to be turned "on" for the lcd screen to display any changes in 'live view' mode. Thanks for the help though everyone, appreciate it.

Glad you fixed it. You might have mentioned you were in Live View Video and not using it for single shots as someone would likely have come up with it. The Video menu change should not impact shooting still photos.

Yeah, my bad for not pointing that out. The changes now however apply to both photographs and video which is what I wanted anyway. Should have pointed that out earlier though.

Dante said:

A friend of mine managed to fix my problem. In the settings "manuel movie settings" needed to be turned "on" for the lcd screen to display any changes in 'live view' mode. Thanks for the help though everyone, appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Thank for the tip. Checked on my body. The display changes in movie and M mode for stills, as the other modes are always adjusting one parameter against the other the display does not change.