Live View Shooting Mode

Live View Shooting Mode is almost exactly what it says: you're seeing what the camera's lens is seeing, but you're seeing it on the camera's LCD. We say "almost" because you're seeing a video replay of the scene a split-second after the camera's sensor and memory have captured it. Live View enables you to view and compose the shot without looking through the finder, and it's ideal for situations in which you want to, or need to, hold the camera at an unusual angle or away from your body.

What sets Nikon's Live View apart from others are the two options—Handheld and Tripod Mode—Nikon provides for autofocus operation during Live View.

Traditional D-SLR phase-detection AF sensors are blocked whenever a camera raises its reflex mirror to expose the imaging sensor, which is what happens in Live View's Handheld Mode. Since the imaging sensor constantly streams data for the LCD display during Live View operation, the mirror must be continuously held up while Live View mode is being used. Consequently, there's a brief interruption to the Live View display as the camera drops the mirror, focuses and then quickly flips the mirror back up to shoot a picture, after which Live View resumes. This is fine for relatively static scenes, but the delay in focusing, not to mention the interruption to your view of the scene, can make it difficult to get a good shot if your subject is in motion or requires precise timing.

Live View Tripod Mode uses contrast-detect autofocus driven from the imaging sensor. Instead of flipping the mirror up, the camera reads data off the CMOS image sensor and evaluates how abruptly light to dark (or dark to light) transitions happen on the image plane, thus allowing focus without interrupting the Live View display. Tripod Mode is ideal when photographing still life images in a studio environment or for photographing landscapes.