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A55 underexposure

tom in mpls

Active member
After completing my review and processing of several hundred shots taken on our recent travel to Turkey, I have concluded that my A55 underexposes by 1/3 to 2/3 stop on most (90%+) of my shots. I was generally shooting P or A mode with auto ISO, single focus point, center weighted metering. I haven't had the opportunity to compare to Multisegment metering. As I was shooting RAW, exposure adjustment was simple, although required, for nealy all shots.

If interested, you are welcome to look at a hundred or so shots that I have posted here. Several pics, mostly shots that include me as a subject, were taken with my wife's Canon A95. Helpful criticism is always appreciated.

BTW I am a huge fan of this camera.
 

neilvan

Well-known member
You might want to get your meter checked by Sony. I have been very, very happy with my a55, in particular the metering. It has been spot on for me, much better than my a700 in fact.
 

Walter K

New member
Hello,

Interesting. I also noticed underexposure with my new A33. So i have fixed it with +0,33 correction. Only against sun i leave the value at 0,0.

Now here on a trip in Siberia, Russia i had to to more correction with much white + snow in motive...

PS: used multi-segment metering in most cases.

Best, Walter
 

Terry

New member
Tom
I haven't been out shooting much recently but I've been using the multi segment. Next outing I will try out the center weighted.
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
I would agree that dialing in some exposure correction to compensate seems reasonable and easy for the relatively small amount of exposure "error" you're seeing. It's a nice bit of fine tuning that the digital age allows. And, your metering technique with the center-weighted setting needs to be accurate as well.
 

tom in mpls

Active member
I would agree that dialing in some exposure correction to compensate seems reasonable and easy for the relatively small amount of exposure "error" you're seeing. It's a nice bit of fine tuning that the digital age allows. And, your metering technique with the center-weighted setting needs to be accurate as well.
True, the adjustment is easy. You are likely correct that my technique may be at fault as well; I use focus lock-and-recompose, but I don't use exposure lock. But wouldn't that introduce a "random" error, sometimes overexposed and sometime under?
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
That's true. Still, with lots of variables being controlled by the camera (i.e., P-mode and auto ISO) it seems to me that 1/3 to 2/3 stop is an acceptable margin for error. Especially when it's so easy to correct with the menu. But then, my tolerances for a camera's foibles might be different from yours.
 

tom in mpls

Active member
I don't find the underexposure to be a big problem. My major reason for posting was to see if others have noticed this.
 

pegelli

Well-known member
If you want to go a bit deeper into calibrating your exposure meter and see how it relates to the exposure headroom of the three colour channels this is a good reference.
 

e_dawg

New member
Noticed it too on my A55, especially in low light using any of the AE exposure modes (everything except M, obviously). I don't know if it's because the Auto ISO does not want to go higher than 1600, but i often need +1 to +2 EV for low light shots, and +2/3 to +1 EV for regular indoor shots.

Otherwise, in good light, it seems to meter slightly conservatively and requires +1/3 to +1/2 EV comp. The default conversion profile in LR seems to be very contrasty as well, so i often need to add significant amounts of fill light.

The good news is that the low read noise 16mp sensor takes underexposure extremely well and this can be used to preserve maximum highlight DR. Problem is that i think Sony's taking it a bit too far ;)
 

tom in mpls

Active member
Jan, are you saying they look properly exposed? These pics have all been processed and have had their exposure adjustment made if needed before I posted them. Sorry if I caused any confusion. I didn't post any "unprocessed" examples.
 
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