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A55 Defective on AUTO with flash?

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In early a-mount cameras (from Minolta up through the A700), the camera would never select a shutter speed below 1/60 when flash was used unless the user selected one of the night scenes on those cameras with scene selection or pressed the AEL/Slow Sync button, or used S-priority mode.

Many users, particularly those new to the alpha system, complained about this and commented that Canon had a way to set slowsync in the custom functions (or it defaulted to that unless the custom function turned it off.)

In the A900 and later cameras Sony added a slow sync flash mode that did not require pressing AEL. However, in the manuals they do not indicate if Auto uses slow sync or 1/60 minimum speed.

I think the OP was unfortunate enough to give us the answer. It appears that in AUTO the camera does default to slow sync, while in PASM the user can select to use slow sync or not.

I will say I am surprised that AUTO would default to slow sync. The Minolta USA service manager explained to me once that Minolta did what they did essentially to protect the user from inadvertent mistakes. The user had to deliberately select slow sync. Since AUTO would normally be for the less experienced user, surprises should be avoided.

tom
 
Biu said:
The camera decided to use a lower shutter speed [ and high ISO setting ] because pictures would usually look better with capturing more ambient light.
Click to expand...
That's essentially what I said.
Biu said:
Otherwise, if the camera just make use the full power of your powerful flash, all your photos will only show the subject in a dark background.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. You might be bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling or using a diffuser/reflector, so you really want your flash to provide most of the illumination. Another reason why you can't just trust the camera to make those decisions.
 
tom said:
In early a-mount cameras (from Minolta up through the A700), the camera would never select a shutter speed below 1/60 when flash was used unless the user selected one of the night scenes on those cameras with scene selection or pressed the AEL/Slow Sync button, or used S-priority mode.

Many users, particularly those new to the alpha system, complained about this and commented that Canon had a way to set slowsync in the custom functions (or it defaulted to that unless the custom function turned it off.)

In the A900 and later cameras Sony added a slow sync flash mode that did not require pressing AEL. However, in the manuals they do not indicate if Auto uses slow sync or 1/60 minimum speed.

I think the OP was unfortunate enough to give us the answer. It appears that in AUTO the camera does default to slow sync, while in PASM the user can select to use slow sync or not.

tom
Click to expand...
Yes the Canon system does default to slow flash sync' unless you overide it in custom mode to say 1/200 on EOS 5D for example, I prefer the Minolta, Sony way by using the AEL button.
“I prefer my Sony A-7xx, to be made out of wood” ;-)
 
I never use Auto mode but my wife does. I let my wife use my A55 on full auto with flash and everything came out perfect. Apparently something is wrong with your camera.
--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/
 
Well, I wasn't expecting someone who decided to use Auto for wedding would know bouncing or diffuser. Even bouncing has its limitation. In big ball rooms or banquet halls, ceiling is out of reach. Even if there is one, I am sure one will need full power so the A55 or any camera will use the full power of it anyway.

Diffuser won't help with the dark distant background if you use small aperture, fast shutter and low iso to force full power of the flash. It will be less harsh but backgrond the same.

The message is don't expect professional result for all scenario by just pressing the shutter button. If it is that easy, wedding photographers will not charge you that much.
sybersitizen said:
Biu said:
The camera decided to use a lower shutter speed [ and high ISO setting ] because pictures would usually look better with capturing more ambient light.
Click to expand...
That's essentially what I said.
sybersitizen said:
Otherwise, if the camera just make use the full power of your powerful flash, all your photos will only show the subject in a dark background.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. You might be bouncing the flash off a wall or ceiling or using a diffuser/reflector, so you really want your flash to provide most of the illumination. Another reason why you can't just trust the camera to make those decisions.
Click to expand...
 
I don't think the camera is in slow sync mode. If it was, the OP won't just get one out of four pictures with small ghost shadow. The ghost shadow would be very bad. If the subjects are moving and ambient light is relatively bright, 1/60s or 1/30s will be long enough to cause a ghost shadow shift. (especially most likely the camera will use something like iso400)
 
VisualFX said:
Wow you people above me just didn't read his post. He stated he did NOT use AUTO mode!
scottjweber said:
I wasn't shooting in AUTO+. As my post stated, we concluded that the camera makes this random low shutter speed selection in that mode as well as AUTO.
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Click to expand...
He said he wasn't shooting in AUTO+. His header said he was shooting in AUTO . They are two different shooting modes.

--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/
 
tbcass said:
I never use Auto mode but my wife does. I let my wife use my A55 on full auto with flash and everything came out perfect. Apparently something is wrong with your camera.
Click to expand...
How can you say that? Does your wife also shoot with an HVL-F58 flash? The first line of his first post says:
tbcass said:
I just shot my first wedding with my A55 and HVL-F58 flash
Click to expand...
--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300
 
Well everybody is so sure the camera is the problem. The 58 is not just your typical flash. There could have been some setting wrong on it. You don't just pop it on a camera and shoot. Also some times you have to tell the camera that you want fill flash. Which should have been done here regardless. I think some mistakes were made in the settings of the camera and the flash that led to this. The OP did say that he was new to this system. More information really is needed. I don't think the camera was set to fill flash. Maybe the flash wasn't either. Only the OP knows. This is just a guess because it happens so often. :-)
--
Glenn

I'm kinda partial to video, but I'm hangin!
 
JusLookN said:
Well everybody is so sure the camera is the problem. The 58 is not just your typical flash. There could have been some setting wrong on it. You don't just pop it on a camera and shoot. Also some times you have to tell the camera that you want fill flash. Which should have been done here regardless. I think some mistakes were made in the settings of the camera and the flash that led to this. The OP did say that he was new to this system. More information really is needed. I don't think the camera was set to fill flash. Maybe the flash wasn't either. Only the OP knows. This is just a guess because it happens so often. :-)
Click to expand...
Not me, I think it is user error.

--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300
 
I agree partially with both sides. You should not shot a wedding in AUTO, but also you should be able to and get proper exposure most of the times should you choose to :)

Forget the "lack of contrast" and "bad" EVF BS some like to nag about all the time :) From what I have seen (read), there might be a problem with the a33/a55 and flashes - the shutter delay included. This should be easily fixed with a new firmware?
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evangelos_k/
 
Condor99 said:
tbcass said:
I never use Auto mode but my wife does. I let my wife use my A55 on full auto with flash and everything came out perfect. Apparently something is wrong with your camera.
Click to expand...
How can you say that? Does your wife also shoot with an HVL-F58 flash? The first line of his first post says:
Condor99 said:
I just shot my first wedding with my A55 and HVL-F58 flash
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
But subsequently he said:

"what we concluded was that on either AUTO or AUTO+ my camera does not recognize that the built in flash is raised and ready to fire or that I have an external flash mounted.

That's what I was commentating on.
--
Tom

Look at the picture, not the pixels

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25301400@N00/
 
:-)
--
Glenn

I'm kinda partial to video, but I'm hangin!
 
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