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Suitability of Sony A7S for time lapse

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#1 keksi
Hi guys,
I am currently checking out the suitability of the A7S for time lapse. It may be a great time lapse camera for holy grail stuff and night time lapse due to its electronic shutter and its high ISO performance. Actually there seem to be some mysterious software flaws done by Sony that make me worry and need some clarification before i invest the money.

For example either EVF or Screen will be on any time. Nobody knows why. Does Sony know? However, its draining the battery, but it can be overcome with a large enough external battery. There are several solutions described in the net.

But what worries me much more: Its known that the electronic shutter doesn't work when the internal time-lapse app is activated. Nobody knows why. Does Sony know? Actually there are external timers available, but i found mixed rumors about the availability of the electronic shutter when a simple external timer is used. Does anybody know more about this matter?
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#2 bwana
Silent shutter mode on the A7S works well with a wired/wireless remote timer.

However, silent shutter mode creates a downgraded RAW file format, i.e.: a couple of bits less than normal.

Electronic 1st shutter works just fine...

bwa
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#3 keksi
Thx bwana!
I have cleared some other issues, seems the A7S is a very good holy grail camera!
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#4 bwana
Glad you're getting a few items resolved.

I've always viewed Silent Shutter mode on the A7S as something Sony added at the last minute. It didn't show up in any of the original specs or rumors, and simply appeared when the camera hit the market. As a result it has not been that well integrated into the other features of the camera...

bwa
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#5 photon_trap
My A7S and (Rokinon 24 f1.4) will arrive next Tuesday. It will be used mainly for nightscapes, TL, and will also get a piggyback ride on my GM8 for stills. Waiting patiently for support from Promote Control (and MaxIm DL)

Does anyone know if qdslr dashboard supports it yet? I looked on the their website and was unable to find a list of supported cameras... but maybe I missed something
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#6 bwana
Software is something the Sony A7 series cameras are somewhat lacking, at least for astrophotography. It doesn't really bother me much since I prefer not to use a laptop when imaging. I simply use a wired/wireless intervalometer or the various in-camera apps for the A7 series. I also use TriggerTrap in conjunction with their iPad app.

bwa
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#7 photon_trap
bwana, have you had good luck with Trigger Trap and the a7S? (fwiw, I'm on android anyway)
I have read it is less than reliable in some applications.

Oh also, have you found Focus Peaking/MF Focus Assist to be of value on night sky?
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#8 bwana
(2015-07-12, 16:51)photon_trap Wrote: bwana, have you had good luck with Trigger Trap and the a7S? (fwiw, I'm on android anyway)
I have read it is less than reliable in some applications.

Oh also, have you found Focus Peaking/MF Focus Assist to be of value on night sky?
I've only used TriggerTrap with the A7R. I works adequately for astro-imaging, i.e.: shooting a sequence of 30-60 sec. subs. I've also tried it with the A7 II for a cloud time lapse. I haven't tried any of many extra bells and whistles in TriggerTrap. I normally use a wired intervalometer for astrophotography image capture.

Focus Peaking is actually quite good for getting a reasonable focus on stars; however, if you're using a fairly fast lens, the A7S will also autofocus on star fields. I normally use one of two ways to get a good focus for astrophotography:
1) Use a bright star and a Bahtinov mask; fast and accurate, see: Bahtinov In Focus
2) With a telescope or manual lens adjust the focus manually (w/o focus peaking) until the most stars are visible, i.e.: stars will fade in and out on both sides of a good focus. Adjust until the most are visible. This method is also quite accurate but takes a bit of practice.

Clear skies!

bwa
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#9 keksi
I have got my A7s with a Zeiss lens now. Electronic shutter works fine with a simple external timer. So there is no shutter wear and you can get flicker free footage at any exposure time! Thus the A7s definitely IS a great time-lapse camera! :-)

Focussing to stars is easy, focus is right when stars look smallest. And the A7s is clearly sensitive enough to see the stars well when focussing.

The only remaining issue for me is now, that the camera doesn't work longer than about 3 hours with an external battery. I have bought a power bank + an adjustable DC/DC converter that should last for about 24 hours of operation.
At 7.6 V the displays shows only about 50 % battery charge, i have to increase the voltage to 8.3 V to get 100 % charge status in the display.

But for any strange reason the battery charge status goes down to 0% within about 3 hours even there is no change in the supplied voltage. If I disconnect the camera from the battery for a second, the charge display status will return to 100 %. Somehow the camera believes that a battery MUST get empty after a certain time. Not nice, not clever, but possible to live with that, though i will get less sleep when shooting all night...

Or does anyone know a way around that issue?
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#10 bwana
(2015-07-13, 22:04)keksi Wrote: ...
At 7.6 V the displays shows only about 50 % battery charge, i have to increase the voltage to 8.3 V to get 100 % charge status in the display.

But for any strange reason the battery charge status goes down to 0% within about 3 hours even there is no change in the supplied voltage. If I disconnect the camera from the battery for a second, the charge display status will return to 100 %. Somehow the camera believes that a battery MUST get empty after a certain time. Not nice, not clever, but possible to live with that, though i will get less sleep when shooting all night...

Or does anyone know a way around that issue?
Same problem. I simply ignore it. Same with the A7R.

bwa

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