Sony A7RII Screen darkens when recording 4K video

[tellure]

https://youtu.be/fAHGsw_ca9A

 

TL, DR: Jump to 0:38 to see the issue!

 

The issue is that the screen (and EVF) on the A7RII darkens significantly whenever recording 4K video, even with the monitor set to "Sunny Weather".

 

I'm quite happy with the camera overall and it does a lot of great things, but this particular issue is causing me a lot of problems as it becomes incredibly difficult to frame a shot while recording in bright sunlight (e.g. when shooting at the beach) when you can barely see what is on the screen.

 

Note that this also occurs with the EVF (not shown in the video, it's hard to get a clean shot of the EVF display).  I can get a recording of this if people want to see it though.

 

Note that this screen darkening does NOT occur when recording in 1080p, as shown in the video.  According to a fellow member here (Rickmotionpic) this issue also occurs when recording 4K video on the RX10 Mark 2, and was done to prevent overheating.  This makes sense given how the A7RII has well-documented overheating issues when recording 4K video.  

 

At the very least Sony should give us an option to disable the screen darkening.  I shoot a lot of short clips and would probably not be overheating even with the screen running at full brightness, but at least I would be able to see what I'm shooting!

 

Note that this screen darkening also occurs with Live View Display: Setting Effect OFF.  That setting only seems to affect stills.  Not that this would be a good solution even if it did work on video, because then you wouldn't be able to preview your exposure, which is pretty critical when setting up a shot.

 

Notes on the settings used:

- Lens: SEL50F18 (APS-C), recorded in Super35 mode

- XAVC S 4K / 25p / 100Mbps

- Manual mode, 1/3200, F10 / -1/3 exp comp / ISO auto

- Metering multi, Zebra 100

- Picture profile off, SteadyShot On

- Monitor brightness: "Sunny Weather"

- Live View Display: Setting Effect ON (issue also occurs with this set to OFF)

- Video was shot with a Sony A6000 with Sony Zeiss 24mm f/1.8, AEL was locked to prevent exposure compensation from kicking in when the screen darkened.

[seventn29]

I haven't noticed that and probably because I go into video mode for recording video. You say its hard to compose your shot with a darkened screen...but its even harder to compose in 4:2 (M mode) that in real 16:9 (video mode).

[Asmundma]

Hello, can confirm the issue. there may also be an issue with zebras, as you get a warning, but the histogram does not show clipping. Taking a picture and look for clipping, it seems it warns too early, there is no clipping in the picture. 

[tellure]

seventn29, you are correct, it does also occur on the live view image when in Movie Mode.  And yeah it is hard to compose without the proper aspect ratio, but at least they should let us compose properly while recording by being able to see what's on the screen.

[seventn29]

seventn29, you are correct, it does also occur on the live view image when in Movie Mode.  And yeah it is hard to compose without the proper aspect ratio, but at least they should let us compose properly while recording by being able to see what's on the screen.

 

Sorry but I was saying that I haven't noticed it in movie mode. I just tried it and it doesn't happen in movie mode. In fact, in M mode, it does the opposite of what you are saying; my image get brighter not darker. So not sure whats happening on your end.

[apasquini]

Yeah this issue is pretty annoying! I really REALLY would like to shoot in Stills mode, for the advantage of better magnification tools and... to be able to shoot a still, but Sony have made it such a pain the arse to do, that i'm not sure it's worth it. No crop marks until record, no audio meters until record. And this rather more pressing issue of exposure. Made a quick example of what it's doing...

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[Zé De Boni]

Using an external monitor may be a solution for this. It should be interesting to make a test to check it.

[storyteller]

Can't say I've ever noticed this on the A7S and I only shoot video in stills (M) mode. 

[tellure]

Seventn, are you sure you're recording in 4k? This issue doesn't occur when recording in 1080p.

 

Apasquini, what is your zebra level set to? You shouldn't see clipping on the histogram unless you have your zebra set to 100+.

[apasquini]

Zebra was at like 70% or something. Just wanted to show the difference between them.

[apasquini]

When you adjust aperture in video mode whilst on standby the iris of the lens will physically open/close to correspond to your choice. Whereas in stills mode the iris will remain wide open regardless of the f stop setting. This meaning the camera itself is 'guessing' the exposure look. Until you hit record.

 

Also even setting to wide open at 2.8 (on the lens I had) the moment you hit record the physical iris comes into action and the exposure shifts.

 

There must be a really basic explanation to this?!

[slothead]

 

https://youtu.be/fAHGsw_ca9A

 

TL, DR: Jump to 0:38 to see the issue!

 

The issue is that the screen (and EVF) on the A7RII darkens significantly whenever recording 4K video, even with the monitor set to "Sunny Weather".

 

Notes on the settings used:

- Lens: SEL50F18 (APS-C), recorded in Super35 mode

- XAVC S 4K / 25p / 100Mbps

- Manual mode, 1/3200, F10 / -1/3 exp comp / ISO auto

- Metering multi, Zebra 100

- Picture profile off, SteadyShot On

- Monitor brightness: "Sunny Weather"

- Live View Display: Setting Effect ON (issue also occurs with this set to OFF)

- Video was shot with a Sony A6000 with Sony Zeiss 24mm f/1.8, AEL was locked to prevent exposure compensation from kicking in when the screen darkened.

 

Tellure,

It looked from your video like the IBIS was off.  I noticed that SteadyShot was on, but is that the same as the IBIS? (IBIS = In-body Image Stabilization, SteadyShot = lens stabilization, correct?)  So was the IBIS off (and for that matter what is the advice on using both the IBIS and the OSS at the same time?

[tellure]

Sony uses the term SteadyShot for both IBIS and the lens stablization (Optical SteadyShot, or OSS).  There is only one SteadyShot setting in the menus, which turns IBIS on and off.  According to the manual: "When a lens with a SteadyShot switch is attached, the settings can be changed only by operating the switch on the lens. You cannot change the settings on the camera."  Not quite sure how I would turn off OSS on my Sony 50mm 1.8 OSS or Sony 10-18 F4 OSS, neither of which have a switch on the lens..