I've just spent 3 weeks in Europe having only shot my new A7IV around home to get accustomed to it after having a A77II for many years. I shot almost 2K images on our trip. Exposure was challenging going from white buildings in and out of shade to darker narrow streets. I was constantly adjusting the rear wheel to see images that were bright enough. I could not lock the rear wheel in any reliable spot, and I could not look at the arrow at the bottom of the screen (finder or rear screen) and settle on a constant exposure to use.
As I was beginning to see I had this challenge to keep images from being overall too dark or light and having to make these adjustments I noticed the arrow location that shows where the value of the over or under exposure adjustment is at as the rear dial is turned was actually one large arrow and 4 smaller arrows. (Not just one simple large arrow.) I was shooting in program mode trying to get the camera to do its best and making adjustments on top of that, rather than shooting in A mode like I used to do the most of with the A77II. Most of my shots were buildings and nice sharp images were my main concern. So I used F5.6 as a set aperture to lean a bit towards brighter images and that seemed to be sharp enough. To confound the large and 4 small arrows, the adjustment at the bottom of the rear screen seemed to show an average of all the 5 arrows with only one value (like .3, .7, 1.3 as I set the camera on thirds for that setting.)
I am looking to find out what the large and 4 small arrows are and are doing. For a short time I set the camera in Auto just to see how some shots would come out. It did fairly well, but still needed to make adjustments though a little less often. But I want to keep learning to use the camera in A and P mode.
There were times I would put the finder to my eye or look at the rear screen and see it was totally blown out or totally black with a few colored lines as if the lens cap was still on. The only way I was able to get out of this and see an image clearly was to turn the camera off and back on.
I was able to get pretty good exposures, though I often took 2 or 3 and then decided on a keeper. I don't wish to keep doing that. Since it is likely the camera is doing what it is supposed to it is probably up to me to understand better what it is doing.
Can someone straighten me out on using exposure adjustments and why so many arrows are showing the value of the adjustment? Thank you.
Also could someone help me find the setting where I can reset the time the cameras uses to turn itself off after so many seconds or minutes to staying on.
Thanks again,
As I was beginning to see I had this challenge to keep images from being overall too dark or light and having to make these adjustments I noticed the arrow location that shows where the value of the over or under exposure adjustment is at as the rear dial is turned was actually one large arrow and 4 smaller arrows. (Not just one simple large arrow.) I was shooting in program mode trying to get the camera to do its best and making adjustments on top of that, rather than shooting in A mode like I used to do the most of with the A77II. Most of my shots were buildings and nice sharp images were my main concern. So I used F5.6 as a set aperture to lean a bit towards brighter images and that seemed to be sharp enough. To confound the large and 4 small arrows, the adjustment at the bottom of the rear screen seemed to show an average of all the 5 arrows with only one value (like .3, .7, 1.3 as I set the camera on thirds for that setting.)
I am looking to find out what the large and 4 small arrows are and are doing. For a short time I set the camera in Auto just to see how some shots would come out. It did fairly well, but still needed to make adjustments though a little less often. But I want to keep learning to use the camera in A and P mode.
There were times I would put the finder to my eye or look at the rear screen and see it was totally blown out or totally black with a few colored lines as if the lens cap was still on. The only way I was able to get out of this and see an image clearly was to turn the camera off and back on.
I was able to get pretty good exposures, though I often took 2 or 3 and then decided on a keeper. I don't wish to keep doing that. Since it is likely the camera is doing what it is supposed to it is probably up to me to understand better what it is doing.
Can someone straighten me out on using exposure adjustments and why so many arrows are showing the value of the adjustment? Thank you.
Also could someone help me find the setting where I can reset the time the cameras uses to turn itself off after so many seconds or minutes to staying on.
Thanks again,
