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Fix For Over Sensitive EVF Sensor!


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 I have now owned both a Sony a7 and an a7II.
 One of the very few shortcomings, as noted in practically all reviews on these cameras though, is the fact that if you want to use its LCD finder on the back, and hold the camera down at waist level, which in many cases shades the camera's eyepiece sensor heavily, the sensor within the EVF's rubber hood thinks the camera is being held to your eye and turns the LCD completely off in favor of the EVF only. Of course, there's the menu setting on the camera to set one or the other SOLELY, but this is a hassle when you need to switch back and forth frequently .
I finally discovered a simple fix to remedy this very aggravating situation using a product called Light Dims, which are little  inexpensive, stick-on pre-cot pieces of a neutral gray shading material actually made for putting over glaring, bright LED's that are overly bright and irritate you at night or in dark places.

By simply cutting a 3mm X 5mm piece of this material and applying it over the left half of the EVF sensor window, the sensor functions perfectly and the LCD remains on even in very low light, plus the EVF still switches on again automatically when the camera is held up to your eye! This is an incredibly simple fix that many Sony a7 users have wrestled with for months and have hoped and hoped that Sony would correct via a firmware update! It seems to work for all the Sony a7 models including the a7, a7R, a7II and a7S. These little gadgets are available on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/LightDims-Original-Strength%C2%AE-Minimal-Packaging/dp/B00CLVEQCO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428490110&sr=8-1&keywords=lightdims) or directly from the company at: www.lightdims.com

I am in no way affiliated with the company and have no vested interest. I just discovered this from another post on a Sony a7 forum, tried it and was super impressed.

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I might have to try this out.  This is a frustrating item for me on my NEX6/a6000 cameras, too.  I shoot from the hip a lot when doing street photography, but always have to hold it out away from my body for the LCD to remain on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As soon as I read this I ordered the LIghtDims. It took me a while to receive them (shipped from the USA, I live in Italy), but today I managed finally to try this hack.

 

It works beautifully!!! Finally the rear lcd works as it should have from the start (I wonder: does someone at Sony actually use the cameras for a while??? BTW, the same goes with other manufacturers, Nikon among them).

 

I've put a LightDim on the A7r and that has been fairly straightforward; I just had to put the strip (actually I used the smallest squares, they seem to fit better) like in the picture above.

 

On the Nex 7, on the other hand, it took much more finesse (but in the end it worked as well). With the Nex 7 you will want to cover, as in the picture above, the bottom half of the sensor, BUT leaving a small strip along the left side uncovered. It took me several attempts, because it is a matter of fractions of a millimeter.

 

If you just cover the bottom half you will have a situation in which when you will be using the viewfinder it will switch back to the rear lcd as soon as your eye will move even a small bit too far back. Quite annoying if you are using any kind of eyepiece, or worse still glasses. Like I said, when you nail the position of the LIghtDim instead it will work perfectly.

 

Many many thanks to the OP for a really great hack!!!

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  • 5 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Is there something special about the LightDims, or would any gray transparent material work?

 

Given I live in Italy, and the LightDims were available only from the USA, I tried first various materials. None worked, because they ended up triggering the eye sensor (like I was shielding it with my face or a hand).

 

So my guess is that the LightDims filter some specific spectral frequency, probably IR. I don't think it has just to do with the transparency though: I tried completely transparent pieces of clear plastic and they still triggered the eye sensor.

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Saw this video, and decided to try some electrical tape before buying the LightDims

 

 

It works! I taped over on the RIGHT side of the sensor, as opposed to the left with LightDims (not sure if the left side would also work). Only taped about a third of the way in, not halfway. It takes a bit longer for the EVF to come on when I put the camera to my eye, but nothing I would have noticed if it came like this from the factory.

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I also applied lightdims on the left of the sensor as shown above. Works like a dream! I tried all sorts of material before I ordered the lightdims, but nothing worked. They cost next to nothing, just €7 including postage. One sheet of lightdims can probaly fix a few hundred cameras :-)

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I finall got my Light Dims today. Used the smallest circle and put it on the left side of the sensor.

You have to look twice to see it.

 

I nearly had a little tear in my eye as i tried it the first time ;)
Thats the missing piece to make the camera nearly perfect and definitely worth the few dollars.

 

But - i think i can understand Sonys intention to make it so sensitve:

Changing from monitor to EVF takes a little moment - not a second, but you will notice.

I think for Sony the seamless changing and user experience on that side is more important than "some" users who hold it very tight to their body.

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  • 7 months later...
Guest Peter Kelly

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this rather annoying niggle is that the problem exists at all!

 

It is very obvious and you would wonder why Sony haven't addressed it (build a sensor with the equivalent of a light dim fixed in place?).

Surely, they must have noticed, or is that too simple and naive?

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Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this rather annoying niggle is that the problem exists at all!

 

It is very obvious and you would wonder why Sony haven't addressed it (build a sensor with the equivalent of a light dim fixed in place?).

Surely, they must have noticed, or is that too simple and naive?

 

 

To avoid this problem the best solution I've seen so far is the one implemented by Olympus: there is an internal switch that activates when the LCD is even a tiny bit tilted; at that point the EVF gets deactivated for good.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

Opaque gaffer tape ? Heck, it's simpler 

to just go into the menu and shut off the 

auto-sensing, assigning either always 

EVF or always rear monitor. With gaffer 

tape thaz the same  result you will get,

depending whether you blind the LED 

or the sensor [or both] :-) To keep some 

degree of automatic switching you need 

to dim ... but not totally blind ... the auto 

switching device. IOW you desensitize 

it partially, but not fully disable it. 

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  • 1 month later...

The auto EVF / LCD switching on my A7ii is unusable out of the box. The LCD switches off every time I try to use my camera at waist level.

I saw no change with the last firmware (4.00), so I decided to google the problem and I found this interesting thread.

Before ordering Lightdims, I decided to try a piece of a laser printer label. Covering the sensor for about 1.5 mm at left or at right gives decent results. Now the LCD switches off when the camera is at about 10 cm / 4 in from my waist. I don't use the camera much closer at waist level.

It's a shame that Sony doesn't provide a user-friendly solution for this shortcoming. A manual EVF / LCD switch on a custom key would be great.

a7ii-evf-lcd.jpg

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  • 3 months later...

Update: I had to service my A7ii under warranty for a shutter problem and since the repair I don't need to mask the sensor anymore to get a usable LCD/EVF auto-switching. It switches to EVF at approximately 10-12 cm from my body, like before with the partial mask. The a6000 I bought since my previous post shows approximately the same behaviour.

The parts replaced include the main board (SY-1049), a mount (DL-1003) and the shutter unit (AFE-3360).

But I still think the best solution would be a toggle switch on a custom key.

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