New firmware feature request for all A7, a remedy for dust ?

[thomas81]

Hello folks,

 

Aren't you also annoyed by dust on the sensor ?

 

What about a new firmware feature that close the shutter before you change the lens ?

 

That could be implemented by pressing a button when you shut down the camera ?

 

 

Might be not the 100% remedy for dust but if you already avoid half ...

 

Best regards from France and best season's greetings !  

 

[Golem]

Sounds like a great idea and

most likely can be done.

 

Unlike most of the "critique"

comments, yours in not really

a complaint but simply a good

suggestion and it may be well

received if you email to Sony.

[addicted2light]

Nice idea!

 

The Mamiya 7 used to have a similar solution to keep light from hitting the film when changing lenses (it wasn't the camera's shutter, but a manually operated "shutter").

[jayteepix]

Hello folks,

 

Aren't you also annoyed by dust on the sensor ?

 

What about a new firmware feature that close the shutter before you change the lens ?

 

That could be implemented by pressing a button when you shut down the camera ?

 

 

Might be not the 100% remedy for dust but if you already avoid half ...

 

Best regards from France and best season's greetings !  

And Season Greetings to you too Thomas!

Not sure I'd like looking at a closed shutter as so much else nasty could happen to that with no lens mounted. TBH since way back when I had my Canon 5D Classic it was acknowledged that charged Full Frame sensors attracted a lot of dust and you just got on and dealt with it. Then self cleaning arrived, but invariably you often had to do a wet clean on such big sensors. I don't find my Sony a7r2 to be any worse than the others and just live with it. 

Jamie 

[thomas81]

Thank you guys,

 

I'll try to communicate with sony, any idea how can it be done ?

 

Best regards,

 

Thomas

[yali]

Why not just make it so that the shutter always closes when turning the camera off. And then a menu option to disable that if you want to clean the sensor, or don't want the sound or whatever.

And if they could make it so the shutter closes a little slower than when exposing so it isn't as loud. That would be a really nice feature to have!!

[speclegacy]

I think the reasoning is that the shutter mechanism is actually more delicate than the sensor itself, so it makes sense to make sure the shutter is open when changing lenses because there's no mirror to add some protection anymore. Also, I think any dust that finds its way onto the closed shutter would still be likely to get on the sensor whenever the shutter opens back up, anyway.

[Mike2000]

I don't think a shutter rated for 500.000 actuation isn't solid. I own cameras rated for many less actuations and still work after 10 years of use and the shutter is rock solid. When you buy your Sony A7x and remove the body cap for the first time, you can notice that the shutter is pulled down covering the sensor. So it is possible and Sony is the first that use this technique as factory default.

 

I'm relatively a new user of Alpha system but I didn't notice dust on my sensor yet (A7RII, swapping lenses really frequently).

[jayteepix]

I don't think a shutter rated for 500.000 actuation isn't solid. I own cameras rated for many less actuations and still work after 10 years of use and the shutter is rock solid. When you buy your Sony A7x and remove the body cap for the first time, you can notice that the shutter is pulled down covering the sensor. So it is possible and Sony is the first that use this technique as factory default.

 

I'm relatively a new user of Alpha system but I didn't notice dust on my sensor yet (A7RII, swapping lenses really frequently).

Well my last Canon body had an estimate of 300,000 shutter actuations and when I went into manual cleaning, all that happened was the mirror locked up so you could clean the sensor (because you had sensor cleaning to do and quite possibly a wet clean). Now if the OP wants to 'prevent' dust on the sensor and is happy to add to his shutter count every time he changes a lens so be it, but I for one would not enable such a function as has been stated previously "I think the reasoning is that the shutter mechanism is actually more delicate than the sensor itself," and I think Sony would dramatically reduce the 500k estimate were this to make it into a firmware fix. Surely there are more important requests to make regarding possible firmware upgrades than this?

As I stated earlier, BIG Full Frame sensors attract dust fact of life, and BIG Full Frame Sensors that are ACTIVE all the time you have the camera on (as in Sony Mirrorless as opposed to DSLRs which charge the sensor only when you take the shot) are potentially more susceptible to dust though I think I read Sony had some feature to minimise this - and anyway you should power off the Sony when changing lenses for this very reason..

So my vote is NO - I don't want to see a closed shutter when I change a lens and will deal with dust the same way I have always done on all the Canon bodies I've had, albeit only one was Full Frame (5D Classic)

 

[addicted2light]

BTW, as a former Canon user, maybe I was unlucky, but I used to have to remove from my 5D mk II more dust in a week than from the A7r in 6 months...and yes I'm still taking pictures in more or less the same locations, and even with some of the same (adapted) lenses.

 

And it's not a matter of brand alone. It is possible Sony uses some kind of "stuff" on their sensors to reduce the bonding with dust, that with time wears off a bit. This would explain why my Nex 7, that at first seemed simply insanely good at keeping its sensor clean, at some point started to get caked in dust even just keeping the camera in the cabinet and not using it.

[AZWolf]

As long as we're talking firmware requests what about lossless compressed RAW?

 

I'm thrilled Sony finally added an uncompressed RAW option but there's no reason to have every file be 80+MB for uncompressed RAW. Canon and Nikon both have lossless raw compression which saves 20-40 percent or so on file size. I'm guessing it can't be a huge deal for Sony considering they were able to add uncompressed RAW... if this has already been posted, pardon my redundancy.

 

Cheers,

Joel

www.joelwolfson.com

[howgus]

What a boon lossless compression would be.  Faster performance all around, both in camera and out.  I think Sony must begin dealing with the benefits the new competition offers, which will become substantial in the eyes of the market.  These little things can start adding up.