D7100 and Liveview moon problem...

Hi all,
I have had the D7100 for about a month now and have just only had some clear night sky's here in the UK. The moon was looking good so I mounted my Sigma 150-500mm and went out to shoot the moon. Was shooting in Manual with the same settings that I usually use, put the camera into Liveview to zoom in to focus and all I could see was an overexposed blob. On my deceased D7000 the Liveview would show a correctly exposed moon as per my settings, but on the D7100 the settings made no difference to the overexposed preview. I can take shots of the moon correctly as per my settings but have this problem with Liveview. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Did you get this sorted?

I shoot the moon all the time with my D7100 and always use auto focus and on the program mode. I get great results on the first shot every time. Se the focus mode on spot and meter on spot. Minimum shutter speed to match the lens and auto ISO. The moon is very bright so the ISO will be low enough on the D7100

MartinCornwall said:

Hi all,
I have had the D7100 for about a month now and have just only had some clear night sky's here in the UK. The moon was looking good so I mounted my Sigma 150-500mm and went out to shoot the moon. Was shooting in Manual with the same settings that I usually use, put the camera into Liveview to zoom in to focus and all I could see was an overexposed blob. On my deceased D7000 the Liveview would show a correctly exposed moon as per my settings, but on the D7100 the settings made no difference to the overexposed preview. I can take shots of the moon correctly as per my settings but have this problem with Liveview. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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What metering mode are you using ?

[MENTION=9753]Scott Murray[/MENTION] It depends on which Nikon model camera you have apparently. Some show the stopped down aperture in Live View and some show the full open aperture preview. It was fine on my D7000 but like I said just a white blob on the D7100. I have been searching and this is a common issue on certain models in Live View. I have read a couple of work arounds but haven't had the chance to try them yet due to the weather. They sound like a faff though and I think by the time you do them the moon would have moved away.
[MENTION=6277]Don Kuykendall[/MENTION] Nice shot of the moon. I'm so used to being in full Manual everything at night but will give this a try. On my D7000 I could zoom in and focus in Live View and with the Sigma 150-500mm @ 450mm the focus ring is so sensitive that just a touch to far and the focus goes off very fast. I'll give your suggestion a try though. This is what I managed on the D7100 so far.

@wornish I was using Matrix same as on the D7000. I could try Spot but I still don't think this will make a difference on the Live View screen.

@MartinCornwall I just found this on dpreview.

How to shoot moon with D7100 Live View?: Astrophotography Talk Forum Forum: Digital Photography Review

I have a D800 which is going to be different but see what these ideas might lead to with your camera.It sounds like the live view is doing an exposure preview, and that you are also set to matrix or center weighted metering. Maybe if you switch to the spot pattern and aim the focus point at the moon this will tame the displayed image.
On the D800 hitting the OK button during live view toggles exposure preview on and off, give that a try.
If you have 2 live view modes (still and video) try the other mode.
If you can zoom the display in live view to a very high magnification that would be another way for the unwanted auto exposure function to become limited to just the bright part of the frame.
I tend to use manual exposure mode for moon shots, and some of the techniques listed above would work best in manual.

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[MENTION=9753]Scott Murray[/MENTION] Thanks for that Scott. Just had a read and will give those suggestions a try. I'm in full Manual at night so don't usually worry about what the metering is set to. I changed the shutter speed from 1/400th to 1/8000th and still the live view image remained the same over exposed white blob. Will have to wait for clear skies to try again.I'll have to rebuild my D7000 for the moon shots