Help! Just getting started.

I have a Sony a7sII and a Sony a7rIII and want to learn the Holy Grail method. What I have read about qdslrdashboard and Sonys made me think I should try to the manual method of changing shutter speed, aperture and then ISO manually, while looking at the histogram, as described in Mr. Wegner's book. I would be doing that on the camera manually by touching the controls, I assume.

I have a Hahnel "Capture" intervalometer. When I programmed it to shoot every 4 seconds, and tried to practice changing the shutter speed or aperture while the intervalometer was operating, I could not get those parameters to change. They just stay on the original setting. They seem to be locked.

The camera is on manual focus.

I must be overlooking something quite obvious, or am confused as I am a beginner. Or, this may be something peculiar to either the camera, its settings, or the intervalometer?

What am I doing wrong or not understanding?

Thanks for any help to this beginner.

George

I guess it might be the intervalometer, blocking the camera. Check out this post: https://lrtimelapse.com/news/intervalometer-hack/

I've never tried to do it manually on the cam, as this might have an influence on the picture.
With the Sony A7R III I use Sony's PlayMemories Mobile App to control shutterspeed, aperture and ISO manually, according to the histogram on the camera.

This post was last modified: 2018-09-21, 16:22 by Gunther.

You should try to use qDslrDashboard as explained in this video from a sony-user: https://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-l%C...tion-qdslr
The Sony app is not made for Timelapse.

Just wanted to help him with a 'better' manual solution without touching the camera.
qDslrDashboard is an exciting app, however, it is very difficult to get it to work stable with a Sony cam.
Sometimes it works, most of the times it loses the connection.
I could do short timelapses with qDslrDashboard, but never longer than an hour, therefore I used the manual solution with the Sony App ...
However, if someone finds out, why the connection is so unstable, I'll give it another try.
Something I already found out: On Samsung devices like the Note8, Apps can search for WiFi connections, and they always try to connect to an Access Point, interrupting a direct connection from Handy to Camera.
This default behaviour can be changed within the settings.

Thank you. That is what I deduced and I may try to alter a cheaper intervalometer in the way you suggest. This still leaves me touching the camera though, which I don't want to do.

I will try the two solutions of the people who were also kind enough to respond here.

There is something I don't understand in your book. You say the order of changing exposure is shutter speed/aperture/ISO.

Here is the confusion: In day to night, when you are gradually upping the exposure by looking at the histogram, do you make gradual changes in shutter speed until you have exhausted that possibility (several stops); then gradual changes in aperture until you exhaust that possibility (several stops); and then move over to ISO?

OR, is is 1/3 stop shutter speed; 1/3 stop aperture; 1/3 stop ISO; 1/3 stop shutter speed; 1/3 stop aperture; 1/3 stop ISO; 1/3 stop shutter speed, etc?

Sorry for these basic questions!

I have two Sony alphas and therefore really want to make your Holy Grail method work without touching the camera.

Thank you,

GLP

Okay, maybe this video from a sony-user might help setting up qDslrDashboard with sony: https://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-l%C...tion-qdslr

thank you. He seems to be able to get it to work and I may try that method, first on my I-phone, unless people say it does not work with qdslrdashboard.

I will also try Play memories app, and then the manual method as well.

Thank you!

Are you saying that you can indeed manually change shutter speed, aperture and ISO from the Sony app, -- all while an intervalometer is working? That would be good enough for me, as the LRTimelapse software should be able to do the rest. I don't mind manually changing things, and it is even better if I can do it without touching the camera.

That's exactly how I made it with my intervalometer and the Sony App.
You have the histogram on the display, so you can evaluate, when it's time to open/close aperture, change shutterspeed or ISO.

However, I'm going to give qDslr another chance. Thanks for the link, Gunther ...