Jump to content

Settings when changing batteries


Guest Peter Kelly
 Share

Recommended Posts

Guest Peter Kelly

This afternoon a strange thing happened and I can't begin to think of an explanation, so suggestions will be welcome.

 

Yesterday I was doing some dog portraits outside and the last settings used, amongst others, were AF-C, Auto ISO, 1/500, f4, fill flash, live view effect on. So all pretty simple stuff.

 

Today, however, I was doing some product shots with my Bowens kit. The relevant settings before beginning were changed to DMF, ISO 400, 1/100, f10, wireless, live view effect off. Again, nothing outlandish.

 

So after several hundred shots (bored witless) I used a suitable gap to change my battery (I'd used a Meike grip up to now, but that has gone back owing to the fault). When I turned my camera back on the settings had reverted to those from yesterday! Every single one!!!!

 

Now, I could understand if, owing to a fault or a flat internal battery, that the camera reverts to default settings, but how can it forget just the most recent and remember those from a day, or a few hours, earlier?

 

It has me baffled, so please help ease my head-scratching.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mine does that at random too!

 

I mainly shoot in single frame and AF-S, and flexible spot-M.  Sometimes if I switch to continuous motor drive and AF-C and then change the battery, it goes back to to the single frame / AF-S settings.  It will even reset the location of the flexible spot to center if I had it way off-center.  It doesn't happen every time and I don't notice any specific settings that cause this behavior.  

 

Glad to know it's not just me.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest Peter Kelly

Just wondering if you took the battery out before you turned off the camera, or maybe if the battery was completely exhausted and just shut the camera off. That could have screwed things up. It shouldn't do that, of course. 

 

I'd made sure the camera had finished writing and then turned it off. Then I crossed the room to get the new battery.

Also, the exchanged battery was at 18% (I have a fantastic memory for details). I could have accepted the oddball behaviour except for my knowing precisely all that happened.

 

The really strange thing is that the camera reverted to the previous settings, not the camera defaults, or just random points.

I presume it has something to do with how it writes to the internal non-volatile memory and can only put it down to a firmware bug, but I'll certainly monitor it to see if I can work out the cause.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have used an a6000 for two years, and Im currently using an a7II. The a6000 did this once (repeatedly and suddenly) and I later found my memory card (SD, not internal memory) had a bad sector. After formatting the card, error went away. On the A7II I have not had this happen, but it does do a complete reset (goes back to date/time settings) every now and then between battery changes IF battery is out of camera for more than 5-10 seconds (switching from genuine Sony to generic or even to / from power adapter). If I switch batteries within 5 seconds, this reset never happens even if switching to / from genuine / generic / adapter.

 

Maybe try to format your card after next time you empty it (could be some sort of "syncing" problem between internal and SD?) And also change batteries "very quickly"? I suspect there is an actual timeframe in which you can swap power source without any Sony having time to reset / check for "genuine" battery or power source, but I could be wrong :)

 

Claus

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...