A7R II - How to fix massive delay while zooming when reviewing photos

[Kyron]

Hey guys,

 

I stumbled across a fix for one of the most annoying things about this camera. When you click the magnify button when reviewing pictures, it can can take anywhere between 3 to 5 seconds for the camera to respond to check critical focus on photos. Its the worst when you're trying to be fast!

 

The fix is to set your camera to RAW&JPEG and then set the Image size to "S: 11M" (Camera settings page 1)

Now when you take a photo you will get the full 42mp RAW, but  the camera now uses the Small Jpeg for the preview and there's virtually no delay!

 

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[Jamooche]

3-5 seconds seems really long time to check the magnification.  There is a delay on mine, but it's definitely not that long for RAW compressed only.  Are you using a slow memory card?  Maybe a faster memory card will speed it up.  

[VTC]

HAS to be a card speed issue. Magnify is almost instantaneous on my 128 & 256 Class 3 cards.

[pflapf]

I have the same issue. First pressing play button to show the image and then C3 to magnify. Takes 3 to 5 seconds until the magnified image is displayed. The red light is on for about half of the time. SD card is a 64GB Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s SDXC U3.

[Kyron]

I'm using SanDisk 128GB Extreme Pro UHS-I SDXC U3 

Love to know what cards you guys are using? Set your A7RII to Raw only and uncompressed and see how long it takes.

Uncompressed is nearly 5 seconds for me. Compressed is 4 seconds.

[Wesley]

I think this is a hardware issue. Sony went cheap on the innards...I mean it writes slower than it's megapixels. 35MB~ max per second

Just goes to show how slow it is internally.

[reyh66]

I have extreme pro 250MB/s Sandisk and I dont have that delay in raw + jpeg @ 42M:L, it is instant magnification

[K2Kevin]

Correct me if I'm wrong.  If you are only shooting RAW, then no preview is generated (So your camera has to generate the JPG preview on the fly).  If you do RAW+JPG, the JPG preview is generated and thats what you will see in previewing your images, a pre-processed JPG.

[reyh66]

yes it uses the jpg for preview.. even it is set to 42:L there is no delay, but for raw only, there is a 1 sec delay..

[Johndizzo15]

Let me preface what I'm about to say with the fact that I fully understand that the files are higher resolution than most cameras and that I accept that it will be slower than others because of this.

 

The issue of annoyance for me is the whole process of chimping. In the past and currently with all of my other bodies, I have been accustomed to being able to fire off shots and click the play button immediately following the last shutter actuation without having to worry about being told that the files are still being written to card. With the A7R2, I am unable to do that even after one actuation. Sure, the delay is only an additional second before I can press play. But it's just not something I have ever really been able to get used to. Take that in conjunction with the lag involved in zooming in to check for critical focus and you easily have a 3-5 second delay when chimping in this fashion.

 

For reference, I'm using a 64gb Lexar 2000x 300mbps and a couple of 128gb Lexar 1000x 150mbps cards which are both either at or near best in class speed-wise as shown in multiple tests around the web.

[Kyron]

In any case, for those of us who can't afford the super high speed cards, we can utilise this little fix to alleviate some of the frustration that this causes.

 

I know it drove me bonkers for the two weeks I've owned the camera so far!

[reyh66]

higher speed cards wont help much, the write speed on A7R2 is crippled to 35MB/s .. Probably on all A7 series.. the only time it will help is to get a high speed reader and cuts your time tremendously transferring to your computer..

[Johndizzo15]

Exactly. The problem is even if you have less lag in zooming during review, you still can't click play immediately to get into review mode to begin with without that fixed amount of write lag time.

[MLWolfe]

Thanks! I use fast sandisk extreme pro cards, too, and this delay drives me nuts!!

[kazooless]

I have this same problem. I use a Sandisk 95mb/s card but don't do RAW+JPG. I'm not to thrilled with the idea of adding the second JPG but it would be better than the delay.

Some people in this thread seem to think this isn't normal, like @VTC. Is this with RAW only? Any ideas besides card?

[wordplanet]

The first Sony A7Rii I purchased had a button jam after about two weeks, right after I had sold off most of my Nikon equipment and I hadn't yet figured out how to use the magnify button as I was learning so much else about the camera, and cold gray days and general work kept me from shooting as much as I would have hoped. When I got the second one, I started worrying that something was wrong with it, since I have to push the magnify button three times before it zooms in ... I'm also using the 64GB Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s SDXC U3 - I bought two of them at the recommendation of the pros at B&H - I've been shooting RAW uncompressed so I'll try out the jpeg suggestion. Makes sense -  even with this fast card the camera seems slow compared to what I was used to- but of course the files it is writing are enormous. I was using a 12MP D700 and a 16MP D5100 as backup - and really of late mostly shooting with my 16MP Olympus E-1, so it's really no surprise that 42MP files take longer to write - but even shooting 9 continuous bracketed shots yesterday, the wait wasn't really too bad if I think about the file sizes. 

 

I love the quality of the photos I've shot so far, the low light performance on the first camera (I just received the second one and am just putting it through it's paces), how light it is, and the three lenses I've purchased to use with it - along with keeping my Nikon 20mm after reading blogs by many A7Rii users (a big savings as I was considering the pricey 21mm Zeiss Loxia) which I'm using with a manual Vello adapter - all feel like great choices as I rebuild my camera collection - but it does seem flimsily built compared to my Nikons and even to my Olympus OMD E-1. 

 

Still, I really love the quality and the ability to get a full frame camera in such a small package. I've gone with 4 primes for now to keep the weight manageable. 

 

So glad I found this forum in searching for an answer - and so relieved that it's not broken - I would not want to be waiting for camera #3. 

 

I look forward to learning more here. Thanks so much for the suggestion. It certainly makes sense. 

[DanArt]

Might be the card speed. However I will admit that is when writing to a specific card. There is no delay in preview. Only to select zoom and then select a next photo. That is perfectly understandable and the camera has it's limitations. It is not a full onboard computer and have yet to see a reason to burn another $3000 on a second camera.

 

Otherwise the memory cards might be fast but they have different read speeds as well. So copying from memory card to USB2.0 is not really helping and sending a file is not really a problem at all. Otherwise I have found no problems and do not mind a slight second to zoom into any image at all.

[Gunslingor]

I have the same problem... sony a7r4a, best overpriced memory cards. 

The issue is likely no previews as others have suggested... but ming a small jpg in addition to raw isn't the right solution either, you might as well zoom in on a different imagine.

The right solution is probably to program the camera not to zoom in all the way... instead zoom 50% in to the max,  should  cut delay in half... but no setting exists... crazy how inflexible a $5000 camera is compared to a $300 smartphone.

[Olaf W.]

You are aware of commenting after some years in a thread of a different model? Welcome anyway!