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Limited shooting mode- A7RM3 + FE100-400 in manual mode only allows 10 second delay?


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I've been using this camera and lens for a while now with am very pleased with both camera and lens. Last evening I wanted to shoot the super moon, needed to shoot manual due to brightness of the moon, and needed full control. However, with lens (or camera) set to manual focus, Exposure set to manual, I lost access to shooting mode. Only way the camera would take a picture was 10 second delay. I normally use 2 second delay, so was surprised at this. I have use this setup for night shots in the past, but not sure I was shooting "Full manual". I often use Aperture preferred and make corrections with exposure compensation, but with the bright moon I needed more than 3 stops of adjustment. Has anyone else seen this? Seems a bug in the firmware to me. Or, did I have some other setting at odds with this combination?

Any help and or comments would be appreciated.

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I too was out shooting the super moon with my tripod mounted a7rIII (firmware v2.10), using a 24-105 f4. In roughly the following sequence I turned off lens OSS and AF, selected M mode, dialed in speed and aperture, selected a specific ISO and using the left side of the control wheel to select 2 second delay for shutter actuation. Worked as expected.

I doubt that the sequence is important and don't immediately see why the 2 second delay selection was not available for you.

Wish I could be of more help.

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Hi Bokehbobo,

Thanks very much for your input. I'm suspicious that this is unique to the camera/lens pairing. I also noticed the I cannot get "BULB" mode. Prior to updating the A7RM3 firmware (v2.10), this worked as expected.

One other indirectly related comment: In "BULB" mode (according to the help guide) RAW images are only processed at 12 bits. This is also disappointing, but I can still shoot up to 30 seconds in Aperture preferred, and use exposure compensation to make some adjustments. I'm shooting multiple frames (50+) for stacking, so this is not ideal, as the shutter speed could change midway through the series. For the moment this is adequate, but as I improve my use of my Skyguider Pro I hope to get up to 60 second exposures, so from my point of view both of these issues need to get fixed.

I will check the Sony site and see if I can request clarification from them.

Thanks again. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, I finally did go to the menu to find "Drive Mode", and there was able to change the drive mode from 10 sec delay continous to single shot (or other options as well). That seemed to "unlock" the camera, and the left side rocker button now worked to access drive mode (previously "locked out"). I guess "all is well", except for the 12 bit limitation. Guess I will experiment with Aperture preferred at 30 seconds, and then compare with bulb mode 30 seconds and see what is lost.

Thanks again,

Edited by johnrsims43
add comments about solution.
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On 2/21/2019 at 10:36 AM, johnrsims43 said:

Well, I finally did go to the menu to find "Drive Mode", and there was able to change the drive mode from 10 sec delay continous to single shot (or other options as well). That seemed to "unlock" the camera, and the left side rocker button now worked to access drive mode (previously "locked out"). I guess "all is well", except for the 12 bit limitation. Guess I will experiment with Aperture preferred or manual at 30 seconds, and then compare with bulb mode 30 seconds and see what is lost.

Thanks again,

I've ask this question about 12 bit limitation on the Sony Community web site, and did get feedback from Zac, who indicated that as of now there is nothing expected in the next firmware release that will address this. He did indicate that he would note my concern for future developments. Oh sure"-)

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Shoot manual, fix ISO, select aperture, adjust shutter speed based on histogram, use a remote shutter release. Then take your shots. No exposure compensation, that's for some other situation. 

For a normal moon the shutter speed will be very fast. One technique is to quickly take 20+ images and then stack the results to get better resolution. Or shoot a video which generally gets better results anyway ... there is software for processing video which gets impressive results.

 

Bright moon use base ISO (100?), dull/blood moon, well, unless you have a tracking mount then raise the ISO to keep the shutter speed reasonable (under 10 second?).

 

That's been my experience. For a bright moon shoot video (or use an Astro camera and take 50+ shots for stacking), for a dull moon, up the ISO and extend the exposure time.

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sixzeiss, Thanks for your comments.. The original issue was that my camera blocked access to shooting mode via the left rocker button, and the only shooting mode available was 10 second delay. This, in turn, blocked access to BULB mode, so my shooting options were very limited. I eventually did go to the menu, and was able to change the shooting mode to 2 second delay (or any other mode as well), which solved that issue. A secondary issue (now primary for me) is that BULB mode limits the camera to 12 bit data. Since I am using a tracking device, I hope to get up to 60 second exposures without star trails. I would also expect to be taking over 60 exposures for stacking. This is mainly for astro photography (messier and nebula objects, milky way, etc....) where I would like to get improved differentiation of faint objects. I believe 14 bits would improve these results. Can you comment on this? 

Additionally, even for shorter exposures, BULB mode would be convenient since I could let the intervalometer control the shutter speed. I can workaround this by setting the camera to a specified shutter speed, and then setting the intervalometer to a couple of seconds higher.

Thanks

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