A700 V4 available (officially!)

[Buttoneer]

Yes, thank you.

I've just done a search on another 'popular forum for Alpha users' and the solution for keeping the frame numbers running is to put your most recently used card back in and take a couple of shots, rather than keep the old stuff on the same card. It's a big card so I assumed that I could get away with it.

Or this:

Take a pic it will be called _DSC0001 or something close to that.
Put the CF card in your computer and rename the file to _DSCxxxx, where xxxx is the the number where you want to start numbering from minus 1. Put the CF card back in your camera and take a picture. And voila, you reset the counter to where you wanted.

[Buttoneer]

I did my own little tweak on this.

I copied off all files to my desktop from the CF card, copied the firmware across, updated, and then just copied the card contents back. Took a photo of my desk at work and voila! All sorted.

[Ivan Watkins]

Today I experienced the same white balance issue while using flash. When I got home I did a controlled experience to see if I could prove it.

My daughter was reading her book and I decided this would be a good test.


It was night time. The only light on her was from the ceiling fan (tungsten). I set my camera to expose her properly WITHOUT FLASH and I manually dialed in a kelvin temp of 2500k.

Here are the settings that worked with me setting everything.
ISO 3200 / F3.2 / 1/20th of a second manual dialed Kelvin 2500k


I've include unprocessed jpg's (just resized) and RAW files if anyone wants to see what I'm talking about.

MANUAL KELVIN DIAL IN
-----------------------------------
http://ivanwatkins.com/tempftp/images/b ... C00537.ARW
http://ivanwatkins.com/tempftp/images/b ... ms-100.jpg

Now here lies the problem. When I use flash my camera turns everything orange /yellow.

The first thing I did was to make sure that the ambient light was of no affect. I did this by reducing the light that was entering my camera by 6 stops. I adjusted my ISO and shutter speed.


Changed my ISO
From 3200
To 400

Changed my Shutter speed from
From 1/20
To 1/125


Total change in stops from ambient light setting is 6 stops when you combine the light reducing affect of changing the ISO and Shutter speed. A 6 stop difference will guarantee that no ambient light will influence my flash AWB test.

Here are the results when I bounce the flash off my WHITE CEILING and set the camera with V4 to AWB.

http://ivanwatkins.com/tempftp/images/b ... C00539.ARW
http://ivanwatkins.com/tempftp/images/b ... ms-101.jpg

To add insult to injury I ran into the shutter speed issues while shooting today and missed several People POSED SHOTS because shutter needed to be at 1/60th but jumped to higher and wanted to stay between 1/2000 and 1/8000th!!! (New problem for me since V4)

Dave, can you help me at all. I'm not making this stuff up and have no need to do so and that is why I included my RAWS so that you guys can see with your own eyes and software.

[Javelin]

When I compare both these shots at first I thought the wb was defiantly off in the second set (with flash) but then I saw the white square on the back of her book which looks like perfect white. if it's not my monitor and that square really is white then doesn;t that mean that the WB is spot on? also I start to look in the picture to see where the yellow is comming from and Is that room yellow? I know you said the ceiling is white but are the walls yellow? i wonder if the walls are reflecting yellow and making the picture look that way?

PS did you ever locate that DPR post with the dial problems?

[David Kilpatrick]

I don't see a problem - the page of the book in the flash shot shows that it is as near neutral as you can ever expect, with the bounce flash diffused round a room which clearly contains many warm colours. The eye always accommodates to tinted environments - rooms which may just be a bit green, or a bit yellow - but the camera does not. That's why in pro studios you won't find green or blue carpets, even the colour on the floor finds its way into the shadows. Also why wedding photographers will move a group so they stand next to concrete or gravel, at the edge of a lawn, and not right in the middle of the lawn - otherwise they get green under the chins and in the eyes etc.

The 1/2000th-8000th problem I do not understand at all unless you are shooting using synchro sun flash in bright sun, outdoors, without using HSS flash. If you use normal Fill In Flash or Auto mode, the camera will set 1/60 to 1/160th and may produce overexposed images. When the flash is not charged (between shots) the shutter speed will revert to the correct speed needed by the metered scene. If you set HSS flash, it can use the correct speed even if that is 1/2000th or 1/8000th and the flash will only provide a trace of fill-in. But that seems an extreme situation to me, if the speed was reverting to 1/8000th then you would be in a situation where non-HSS flash gave an overexposed image.

David

[Ivan Watkins]

I was never able to locate the front dial thread but I do recall reading within it a few months ago. Not only do I have problems with my shutter speed but also with viewing pictures. My camera will start cycling through the pictures very fast when I use the front dial to look through them. Even when I take my hand off the camera it continues going from one picture to the next.

As far as the flash is concerned this used to work without problem for me (in the yellow room). I'm not sure what is going on but something has changed. I can always work around the flash problem but the rouge front shutter is really troubling me. If I'm on a paid shoot where time/images is money I can't afford to not be able to adjust my camera (I shoot in manual mode).

I'm going to search more for that front dial problem.

Thanks guys..

[pakodominguez]

Hi Ivan,

The AWB will compensate not only the light but the general cast: that's why the second test (flash+AWB) looks bluish as you can see on the blacks and the skin tone, the white balance compensate the yellow wall as well as the bounced light, that haven't only hit the white ceiling, but the yellow wall...

the A900 and the Intelligent Preview will help us to understand this issues better

[pakodominguez]

Also why wedding photographers will move a group so they stand next to concrete or gravel, at the edge of a lawn, and not right in the middle of the lawn - otherwise they get green under the chins and in the eyes etc.

We used to handled this much better on film. Same issue mixing tungsten with flashes: we used to get a nice warm tone, specially with Fuji 400 or 800 ASA film. With digital, we lost that charm!

[Javelin]

Someone else posted about it (the wheel) and someone else found the thread I was talking about. the solution to the wheel problem was aparently electrical contact cleaner. it reportedly worked for a couple of people

I was never able to locate the front dial thread but I do recall reading within it a few months ago. Not only do I have problems with my shutter speed but also with viewing pictures. My camera will start cycling through the pictures very fast when I use the front dial to look through them. Even when I take my hand off the camera it continues going from one picture to the next.

As far as the flash is concerned this used to work without problem for me (in the yellow room). I'm not sure what is going on but something has changed. I can always work around the flash problem but the rouge front shutter is really troubling me. If I'm on a paid shoot where time/images is money I can't afford to not be able to adjust my camera (I shoot in manual mode).

I'm going to search more for that front dial problem.

Thanks guys..