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A7r need view finder help.

gurtch

Well-known member
We are on vacation for several days in Wildwood NJ. Very wide and bright beaches. I find it near impossible to see the finder in bright light. I am left eyed, and must use my left hand to shield the finder with my eye up to it. To make matters worse, I was shooting at f11 and f13 for enhanced depth of field. This is what I discovered ( using both Zeiss FE 35mm and 55 mm lenses): When I look through the finder, the lens aperture appears to be at it's smallest opening, making viewing almost impossible. When I push the shutter release half way to focus, the lens stops down or opens up to SHOOTING aperatue. In this case it went to f13, and I could no see to compose. How can I use this camera like my DSLRs, i.e., compose and focus WIDE open, then have the lens stop down the instant of pressing the shutter release? I am completely frustrated......am I missing something?
Thanks in advance......Getting ready to use my DSLR for traveling!
Dave
 

JMaher

New member
This is not normal. I have been shooting on the beaches in Florida with no problem being able to see through the EVF. The only time I see this issue if I am shooting in a very dark area (studio) without adjusting the setting for that. Maybe someone else will have an idea but to me there seems to be something wrong with your camera.

On another note - I grew up in NJ and the Wildwood beaches are fantastic.

Jim
 
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tn1krr

New member
We are on vacation for several days in Wildwood NJ. Very wide and bright beaches. I find it near impossible to see the finder in bright light. I am left eyed, and must use my left hand to shield the finder with my eye up to it. To make matters worse, I was shooting at f11 and f13 for enhanced depth of field. This is what I discovered ( using both Zeiss FE 35mm and 55 mm lenses): When I look through the finder, the lens aperture appears to be at it's smallest opening, making viewing almost impossible. When I push the shutter release half way to focus, the lens stops down or opens up to SHOOTING aperatue. In this case it went to f13, and I could no see to compose. How can I use this camera like my DSLRs, i.e., compose and focus WIDE open, then have the lens stop down the instant of pressing the shutter release? I am completely frustrated......am I missing something?
Thanks in advance......Getting ready to use my DSLR for traveling!
Dave
To compose and focus wide open regardless of chosen aperture: go to Menu, "gear", tab 2 and set Live View Display to "Setting Effect Off".

For left eye use I recommend an addon soft eye cup, it will block excess light better. Since there is not Sony replacement part available I use a Nikon DK-19 soft eye cup. It wraps just fine around the standard Sony one and stay in place without issues. Here's the link to an ebay seller

New Unused DK 19 for Nikon Rubber Eyecup Viewfinder Eyepiece Hood D800 D4 D3 | eBay
 

gurtch

Well-known member
Thanks tn1krr. I set it to "OFF". It did not help. I may have a faulty camera. No matter what I do, the lens is always stopped down to minimum aperture. Upon pressing the shutter release half way, the lens stops down to shooting aperture, and if that is f 11 or f16, the finder is dark. Also it is auto focusing at stopped down aperture, rather than wide open, making accurate focus problematical.
Thanks
Dave
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Dave just for a test. Try this turn effects back on. Than go from widest to stop down. Your looking for a slight jump in exposure as you stop down. That would be normal. If not something is wrong
 

gurtch

Well-known member
Thanks Guy. I did as you suggested. This is what happens: I set the lens wide open (f2.8). The lens diaphragm was wide open, looking at it from the front. I then stopped down using the thumb wheel. The lens actually stopped down, and the shutter lengthened. I kept stopping down using the thumb wheel. The lens diaphragm physically stopped down, and shutter speed changed appropriately. When I finished, the diaphragm was at f22, and stopped down to pin head size opening. The view through the finder was appropriately dark ( useless in bright light). Is this normal?
Thanks
Dave
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Does not sound it you really should be viewing as normal in the finder as with the effect on it should compensate as you stop down. Basically it should be adding gain to the finder and it should look the same unless your in a really dark room and your running out of the gain
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Thanks Guy. I did as you suggested. This is what happens: I set the lens wide open (f2.8). The lens diaphragm was wide open, looking at it from the front. I then stopped down using the thumb wheel. The lens actually stopped down, and the shutter lengthened. I kept stopping down using the thumb wheel. The lens diaphragm physically stopped down, and shutter speed changed appropriately. When I finished, the diaphragm was at f22, and stopped down to pin head size opening. The view through the finder was appropriately dark ( useless in bright light). Is this normal?
Thanks
Dave
I may be off base here, but it sounds like you have the camera set to Manual metering.

With Setting Effect ON in the menu, what you see is what you get in the viewfinder. Low light at f/22 will be pretty much a black viewfinder.

With Setting effect OFF in the menu, it acts like any other DSLR. This is needed if you are using strobes in a dark studio with Manual settings that would make the viewfinder too dark to see anything.

If you are using Aperture Priority metering, you still get what you see except it should provide a reasonable exposure when you set the aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed to expose properly.

- Marc
 

gurtch

Well-known member
Thanks Mark and Guy. I normally use Aperture preferred exposure, so I guess maybe that's why the lens is stopped down to f11 when that is what I select. Not to my liking at all. Reminds me of pre-set lenses in my old film days. View wide open, manually stop the lens down, everything goes dark, then take a picture. I will keep messing with it to see if I can get a method of shooting that I like.
Also I will check out the Nikon eyecup
Dave
 

JMaher

New member
Dave,

It really seems your camera is not working correctly. Yes, the camera will adjust the aperture with your choices in Aperture Preferred. It will also adjust your shutter speed to match and the viewfinder displays the combination as it will be reflected in the photo. Unless you are shooting at f11 in a very dark area (studio with manual flash) the viewfinder shows a bright image = to your final image. This is completely unlike pre-set lenses from the film era that would act as you describe.

I would have the camera checked out. Your results do not appear to reflect what you are doing or what the camera should show you.

Jim
 
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CharlesK

New member
Hi Dave,
I was at first very much against the EVF on the Sony A7's, and I had discussed my issues in detail about the A7r with 50 Cron DR and not being able to see properly, with the very bright sunlight we have in Australia.

Having both A7r and A7s, they are both setup with the EVF on MANUAL rather AUTO, and set at +2.

I would suggest having the Creative Style, Standard with CONTRAST set to -3. I leave the setting effects ON, unless I need to turn it off when I am under exposing.

Also I have custom set my LCD, to have the wheel, bottom (6 o clock) with quick access for setting for monitor brightness on MANUAL or SUNNY WEATHER. For all outside work, I set it to SUNNY WEATHER for when I need to review images and check focus points. All inside work, I set to MANUAL 0 on the LCD, and I rarely change the EVF set on MANUAL +2. If I need to see the exposure effect, I might change the EVF back to AUTO. Usually for exposure, I check the RGB curves.

I think it is finding the settings that you suit you best in bright sunlight. In other normal to low lighting the default settings work great :)
 
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