a7r ii level gauge is not accurate

[halfmonkey]

I recently bought the a7r ii. It's great camera and I'm super excited to be using it. Unfortunately, I just noticed that the level gauge is not accurate and was wondering if I'm doing something wrong if someone knows of a quick fix. I already called Sony support and they told me to re-initalize the camera. I did that and nothing. I also removed the battery and no change.

 

So what's happening is if I take a picture with the camera at eye level shooting straight ahead, the level gauge seems accurate. If I start to move the camera down, say to shoot something on the floor, as I move the camera down the digital garage indicates more and more that the camera is off level more and more as I tilt it further down. It's end up being that I would need to rotate the camera to the left about 45 degrees for the camera to be "level." It's the same if I shoot up. So as I'm shooting something up like someone on top of a stair case, the further up I shoot, the more the garage says I need to the tilt the camera to "level" it off.

 

Hopefully, you can picture what I'm trying to describe but it's a little weird. I've already got a case number and plan to send it into Sony for repairs but just curious if anybody has had the same problem and if they sent it in for repair or if they figured out how to fix it themselves.

 

Thanks for your help.

[christer]

The level gauge shows two different things:

 

1. camera tilted up/down (shown in the center of the gauge) and 

 

2. camera turned clock/anti clock wise around the optical axis (shown against the circle segment to the right and left of the center gauge).

 

Are you mixing up the two?

[halfmonkey]

The level gauge shows two different things:

 

1. camera tilted up/down (shown in the center of the gauge) and 

 

2. camera turned clock/anti clock wise around the optical axis (shown against the circle segment to the right and left of the center gauge).

 

Are you mixing up the two?

 

No. I do realize there are two gauges. One is level the camera up/down and the other is to level the camera as it rotates clockwise or counter clockwise( as you refer to number 2 in your response.) Again, I know this is difficult to explain but if you're standing up and taking a picture in front of you, the camera will show level on both gauges. If you start to look down say, you're trying to take a picture of a dog at your legs, the up/down gauges will start to show off center because you're now looking down and so it's not "level." Now as long as you camera is rotated a little clockwise or counter clockwise (still "level" with the horizon) the gauge with the "long arms" should stay even even if you're looking down at a dog. Mine doesn't. So as I start to look down at a dog, it says that my camera is no longer "level" and I have to rotate the camera counter clockwise to level it. It's the same if I look up and take a picture say of someone standing on top of a staircase.

 

Do you have an A7R ii? If so, can you check your camera to see if it's operating like mine or showing level?

[VTC]

My A7SII is incredibly accurate in both LEVEL (horizontal 9 & 3 of a clock) and azimuth (tilting lens up /down with 'level' being above or below 9-3 horizon). Verified this with the bubble level on a half ball leveling bowl and the bubble level of the fluid head that sits atop it. Test with a tripod and post phone video of the screen.

[halfmonkey]

My A7SII is incredibly accurate in both LEVEL (horizontal 9 & 3 of a clock) and azimuth (tilting lens up /down with 'level' being above or below 9-3 horizon). Verified this with the bubble level on a half ball leveling bowl and the bubble level of the fluid head that sits atop it. Test with a tripod and post phone video of the screen.

 

Unfortunately the video I took on my iPhone of 28 secs is too big to upload. Any other ideas?

[holmes4]

Upload it to YouTube and post the link here. You'll probably want to mark the video as Unlisted so it doesn't show up in public feeds.

[cws]

Just tested this on 2 x A7R2's, my own and my work's...

Using a stable small-bowl tripod, levelled with bubble, I can spin the head 360deg and maintain a green horizon  "level" line on both cameras.

Tilting test:

On my own A7R2, tilting up as much as the tripod allows and the camera seems to remain level to horizon.... however tilting down I get to about 68deg (using an inclinometer) and the level starts to dip to the left as you describe.

On work's A7R2, tilting up the camera gets to around 20deg and the horizon line starts dipping to the left.  Tilting down the camera also starts to dip left from around 60deg.

 

I'm glad I've got the better performing camera, which was a pre-quake model... my work's camera was a post-quake one.

So both show the effect you describe to varying degrees.  Not something I'd send it in for a "fix" for though..... good chance it would come back with more problems than started with.  

[halfmonkey]

I ended up going to a big box store that had a bunch of Sony cameras on display and did the same test with all of them. The first A7R ii I tested worked as I expected with no problems and so I thought this confirmed that my camera was bad. Well, I picked up an RX100 v and did the same test and it showed the same problem on my camera. I thought it was odd and so I picked up an a6300 and it showed the same problem. I thought it was weird and so I keep looking at the cameras and tilting them up and down. As it turns out, as I was tilting them up and down, I was inadvertently "turning" the camera so in other words, as I tilted the camera down, I was turning the camera left. I'm guessing because of the weight of the lens with the 35mm f1.4 so even though the camera looked level as in the flat bottom of the camera was flat, it was technically being turned of center and so the level meter was trying to get me back to even keel. I verified my findings with a tripod and now all is good.

[wildtypitch]

Well now, my A7R and A7RII might well be very accurate but there is a good deal of play (couple of degrees) in both axis before the virtual level shifts from it's green level confirmation position ( I tend to twist my geared tripod head to the points wjhere it loses level and then go to the middle, rather pointlessly ). It's obviously just meant as a handheld guide and not for accurate tripod/architectural work. You're much better off visually aligning verticals with the frame. Rather annoying. I wish you could set the sensitivity but then the sensor might not be that accurate. Absolutely forget about hotshoe bubble levels. A: the hotshoe isn't designed to be perfectly level with the sensor. B: the bubble levels themselves are not very accurate the mounting plane made from moulded plastic, forget it. Tripod bubble, again never very accurate and depending on your camera tripod bracket for accuracy and tolerances, nah. The in camera level is defo the way to go but annoyingly lacking in it's current form. Listen up sony

[quixotic]

I'd be interested if Sony had specs on how many degrees of arc was equivalent to seeing the horizon bar move up or down by one notch.  Seems like it's more precise than the "virtual horizon" on the Nikon Df (its specs are 5 degrees for each bit of movement of the level indicator in the display).  When I take the tape measure and trig tables out with the A7s, I get something closer to 2 or 3 degrees.  (I have an A7s with an old Nikkor shift lens and adapter, and I'm pondering whether to buy a Df).  

 

For those dissing the hot shoe bubble level, you can alway make little scratch marks on the level to calibrate it to the actual level when the camera is on a tripod, and pointed across the room to something that is precisely the same height as the lens.  (I did that with an old Mamiya 645).