Happily sitting here at the National Botanical Garden in Cape Town after photographing nesting African Paradise Flycatchers and Cape Sugarbirds
Anyway yes using electronic shutter and silent shooting as well
By the way is it okay to criticize Sony cameras and lenses? When I shot Nikon and Canon I could…and did and will. I’ll also point out the positives of the gear in question as well
I don't think people are saying you can't criticize Sony, but that you are seeming to have a problem that on one else is having.
I have no blackout on my A1 even at H+ speeds shooting birds, running dogs, etc. That seems to be the case for everyone as the camera was designed this way.
Only a guess, but maybe check the settings for how the viewfinder displays the shooting indicator (the box or other way you can tell exactly when the camera is firing). Some of these might give the impression of darkening the frame when shooting, but still nothing should look like an actual blackout frame.
And please post some more photos of those awesome birds!
rdcny wrote:
Happily sitting here at the National Botanical Garden in Cape Town after photographing nesting African Paradise Flycatchers and Cape Sugarbirds
Anyway yes using electronic shutter and silent shooting as well
By the way is it okay to criticize Sony cameras and lenses? When I shot Nikon and Canon I could…and did and will. I’ll also point out the positives of the gear in question as well
Regards from South Africa - what an amazing place
The Bob
I welcome any and all criticism as I do it all the time. I mean I started the "What the A1 broke thread" just a week after getting the camera.
But your blackout doesn't make any sense for a properly functioning A1 in ES. I can't tell if the camera is shooting or not and following a subject is the easiest thing I've ever experienced. I don't see a difference when just following along with the subject, AF engaged, compared to when I start pushing the shutter other than my Shoot Timing Display 2 setting.
Can you explain a bit more about what you are seeing? What is your EVF refresh set to? (although I don't think this should matter).
You are seeing an actual black frame inserted when firing the shutter? I know Canon R5 has a mode that does this on purpose as do the upcoming R3 and Z9 but I don't think the A1 has a mode like that. There is Shoot. Start Display which should be set to Off (Although that only inserts a black frame after the first shot taken).
The only way I can see blackout in the A9 or A1 is to go into mechanical shutter (or maybe Auto shutter...never tried it to see what situations it switches between MS and ES).
I'm also curious about your writing to card time issue. Do you mean you are hitting a buffer and FPS is dropping? What specific memory card are you using? What RAW compression are you using? What FPS are you shooting at? How many shots are you shooting at a time where the problem is cropping up? Is it some setting in camera you are trying to change while the images write to card (I know there are a few restrictions still but most restrictions are now gone compared to non-XR cameras). I'm shooting at 30FPS, Lossy Compressed (what Sony calls Compressed) and using Delkin Power SD cards (V90). I'm getting about 130 shots before buffer fills and I rarely shoot bursts for 5s so that just never happens. The A1 is writing ~260MB/s to card which is the fastest SD speed ever seen in a camera...so close to the max of 300MB/s. If you buy CFe-A then you should have no issues what so ever but even with V90 SD you really shouldn't be having many issues unless you are shooting Uncompressed, 30FPS and bursting for a long time each time the bird passes by.
I welcome any and all criticism as I do it all the time. I mean I started the "What the A1 broke thread" just a week after getting the camera.
But your blackout doesn't make any sense for a properly functioning A1 in ES. I can't tell if the camera is shooting or not and following a subject is the easiest thing I've ever experienced. I don't see a difference when just following along with the subject, AF engaged, compared to when I start pushing the shutter other than my Shoot Timing Display 2 setting.
Can you explain a bit more about what you are seeing? What is your EVF refresh set to? (although I don't think this should matter).
You are seeing an actual black frame inserted when firing the shutter? I know Canon R5 has a mode that does this on purpose as do the upcoming R3 and Z9 but I don't think the A1 has a mode like that. There is Shoot. Start Display which should be set to Off (Although that only inserts a black frame after the first shot taken).
The only way I can see blackout in the A9 or A1 is to go into mechanical shutter (or maybe Auto shutter...never tried it to see what situations it switches between MS and ES).
I'm also curious about your writing to card time issue. Do you mean you are hitting a buffer and FPS is dropping? What specific memory card are you using? What RAW compression are you using? What FPS are you shooting at? How many shots are you shooting at a time where the problem is cropping up? Is it some setting in camera you are trying to change while the images write to card (I know there are a few restrictions still but most restrictions are now gone compared to non-XR cameras). I'm shooting at 30FPS, Lossy Compressed (what Sony calls Compressed) and using Delkin Power SD cards (V90). I'm getting about 130 shots before buffer fills and I rarely shoot bursts for 5s so that just never happens. The A1 is writing ~260MB/s to card which is the fastest SD speed ever seen in a camera...so close to the max of 300MB/s. If you buy CFe-A then you should have no issues what so ever but even with V90 SD you really shouldn't be having many issues unless you are shooting Uncompressed, 30FPS and bursting for a long time each time the bird passes by....Show more →
+ Infinity
The Bob:
For an example of what it should look like I found this of someone who recorded the viewfinder while taking photos of tennis. Notice the only way you can tell photos are being taken is the buffer counter and the flashes of the indicator helping you know you are taking photos. This is with flicker control and them switching back and forth between full frame and crop mode.
There is something wrong with your settings or camera if you are getting blackout and the people on this thread can help you figure it out hopefully.
OK! I see what the problem was/seems to be...I was trying to shoot at 20FPS and the blackout occurred/occurs because the camera is writing to the 2000x 128GB card i use. I suppose if had one of the superfast 160GB cards (the $450 ones) I would have zero blackout...but I'll stick with the 2000x speed ones for now.
When I dropped down to 15fps I don't seem to have this problem...but I was shooting stationary today...so I have to find some birds in flight again - back to the sewage treatment plant!
Thank You everyone! I solved my problem. Great camera but in the coming years they will sort out the glitches (wake from sleep takes way too long!)
Asian Paradise Flycatcher (male) with 200-600 zoom
rdcny wrote:
OK! I see what the problem was/seems to be...I was trying to shoot at 20FPS and the blackout occurred/occurs because the camera is writing to the 2000x 128GB card i use. I suppose if had one of the superfast 160GB cards (the $450 ones) I would have zero blackout...but I'll stick with the 2000x speed ones for now.
When I dropped down to 15fps I don't seem to have this problem...but I was shooting stationary today...so I have to find some birds in flight again - back to the sewage treatment plant!
Thank You everyone! I solved my problem. Great camera but in the coming years they will sort out the glitches (wake from sleep takes way too long!) ...Show more →
I think that card is a v90 right? That is plenty fast enough and a lot of people are using those instead of the more expensive CF-A cards. Something else is going on I think.
rdcny wrote:
OK! I see what the problem was/seems to be...I was trying to shoot at 20FPS and the blackout occurred/occurs because the camera is writing to the 2000x 128GB card i use. I suppose if had one of the superfast 160GB cards (the $450 ones) I would have zero blackout...but I'll stick with the 2000x speed ones for now.
When I dropped down to 15fps I don't seem to have this problem...but I was shooting stationary today...so I have to find some birds in flight again - back to the sewage treatment plant!
Thank You everyone! I solved my problem. Great camera but in the coming years they will sort out the glitches (wake from sleep takes way too long!) ...Show more →
Thank you rdcny for a gorgeous image of a beautiful bird.
I shoot my A1 with two of the fast 160 GB cards at 30 FPS and the electronic shutter.
Now for a number of days I filled up both cards twice per day,
that's about 12,000 images per day.
Well, I am trying to get time sequences of events to generate GIF animations of them.
Sometimes I shoot several hundred images without interruptions.
I may have filled up the buffer once, but never had blackout issues.
Why do I assume that I may have filled up the buffer once?
Well, I had one occurrence where the A1 camera reported a "write error" and
asked whether I wanted to recover the file or files, I don't remember which one.
When I said yes, it warned that I may lose some files already stored on a card.
I went ahead anyway.
Following are some GIF animations I generated from that session.
One sequence was about 300 images long.
Photoshop CC won't save that large a GIF clip on my Apple 16GB M1 Mac mini.
It warns “not enough memory”, although I can create the animation, but cannot save it as a GIF file.
Cooper's Hawk taking a bath. First an image, then Gif animations.
rdcny wrote:
OK! I see what the problem was/seems to be...I was trying to shoot at 20FPS and the blackout occurred/occurs because the camera is writing to the 2000x 128GB card i use. I suppose if had one of the superfast 160GB cards (the $450 ones) I would have zero blackout...but I'll stick with the 2000x speed ones for now.
When I dropped down to 15fps I don't seem to have this problem...but I was shooting stationary today...so I have to find some birds in flight again - back to the sewage treatment plant!
Thank You everyone! I solved my problem. Great camera but in the coming years they will sort out the glitches (wake from sleep takes way too long!) ...Show more →
I assume that is the Lexar 2000x card? I have a bunch of those, both from old Lexar and new Lexar. I do not get blackout shooting to that card even at 30FPS.
So are you seeing the blackout because the FPS is dropping and stuttering? I'm going to go test this out shortly to see if I can replicate what you are seeing. Likely the 2000x Lexar may not be quite as fast as my Delkin but it should be very close as those are V90 300MB/s cards.
As to my earlier question...what RAW compression mode are you using? I'd like to test with the same setting you are using to make my observations fair to your shooting experience.
So I tried out my Lexar 2000x SD card. I put my RAW into Uncompressed, 20FPS. Shot and ran it into the buffer and then just continued to pan around and shoot as the FPS stuttered along. I never saw any interruption in the live feed.
So no idea what other bizarre setting must be on on your camera? There is just no way I can get mine to show any type of blackout unless I go into Mech shutter.
My diagnosis of ALS has forced the purchase of a wheelchair-friendly townhouse, and the sale of our much beloved home on a very birdy 1/3 acre lot. We have three of these trusting little characters coming to our hands daily for their treat. They will make a particular call which gets our attention, and we dutifully keep a number of peanuts in our pockets to respond to their pleas. We will miss them more than anything else.
Colin F wrote:
Our little friend, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee.
My diagnosis of ALS has forced the purchase of a wheelchair-friendly townhouse, and the sale of our much beloved home on a very birdy 1/3 acre lot. We have three of these trusting little characters coming to our hands daily for their treat. They will make a particular call which gets our attention, and we dutifully keep a number of peanuts in our pockets to respond to their pleas. We will miss them more than anything else.
I am so sorry about your diagnosis, your forced selling of your home, and moving into a wheelchair-friendly townhouse. I hope that you will be able to partake in your loved photography as long as possible and to share your images for years to come here on FM.
