It was a little worse than the stock Canon 6D MkII. And for long exposures, my 5DMkII does not offer multiple exposure feature, however, how can i take advantage of 5-frame buffer? On my Sony cameras, I assign a button located on the top right on the back of the camera to control auto-focus, thus taking it off its default shutter-button setting. Not verbal arguments about how you think the sensor should behave. must i take 5 shots in succession in continuous shooting mode (RAW or jpeg?) LENR uses a process called dark frame subtraction to remove hot pixel noise from a long exposure image, and while effective, it introduces limitations to the astro-landscape photographer. Doubling the interval between each exposure increases the odds of failure in the stacking and aligning process. Wow! Which lens do you like more between the Rokinon 14mm f2.4 SP and the Laowa 15mm f2? Back button focus reassigns the auto focusing initiation to a button or function key on the rear of the camera body, instead of the usual half-press of the shutter. The A7M3 continuously amazes me and your review is spot on. You’re comparing noise in images where there’s a lot of light(which is equivalent to the fact that your test images don’t have really deep shadows that we encounter in astrophotography). Unfortunately, I think that you’re conclusions re star-eater are based more on hope than reality. Stars were smoothed away along with the noise in exposures longer than 3.2 seconds in some Sony cameras (longer than 30 seconds in others). More rapid-fire burst modes and quieter shutters are a plus for action and wedding photographers, though they are of limited value for astrophotography. And its light-frame buffer is great for minimizing shooting time for a series of deep-sky images with in-camera LENR dark frames, which I find are the best for minimizing thermal noise. Great review, Alan. is this the opposite effect as stacking, which adds “other frsmes” with unwanted noise?). Fair enough. Like the Nikon D750, the Sony’s screen tilts vertically up and down, great for use when on a telescope, or on any tripod when aimed up at the sky. With a fast enough UHS-II Class card it can record 4K video up to 30 frames per second and at a bit rate of either 60 or 100 Mbps. For example, by changing the default settings for the LCD monitor and EVF behaviors, the battery life of the A7Rii can be extended dramatically. That’s why we do science! I was using the wired Vello intervalometer. Thanks for the suggestion. Electronic Front Curtain Shutter I just got the A7RM2 (already had a A7S) and noticed the red noise on the LCD, not seen on my A7S, and thought not a night camera – set PP to PP2 for a cleaner view and capture (I was having problems focusing in the dark with the noise and images were not sharp). Go figure! I can’t see anyone being unhappy about the sharpness of the starfield and galaxy itself in the 4 minute galaxy shot compared to the Canon version, and Canon surely sets the standard. In default mode the LCD is powered on and the EVF is off. Sony has incorporated an API (Application Program Interface) into firmware on the A7Rii, which gives third-party developers some limited abilities to create apps that can be purchased and installed into the camera system. I like its image stacking options, which can help alleviate the noise and artifacts in still images, but aren’t practical for time-lapses. A basic solution to deal with night photography is to put your camera on a tripod and use a very slow shutter speed to give the sensor more time to capture the light. Sony A7 III, A7R III, A9 Low Light Settings: Image Stabilisation. You obviously put some time into your tests. The Canon 5D MkIV is $1000 more than the Sony here in Canada and is 30 Mp not 24 like the others, so not comparable in price or spec. While i know how to turn on LENR, does this apply only to jpegs, or to RAW shooting as well? to me, your tests are indeed showing that, even if your are not in a bad case scenario with ~3pixels wide stars, the star eater is definitely still there with all highest spatial frequencies decreased between 3.2s and 4s. When Bright Monitoring is used in dark conditions (as in night photography), the display builds up the brightness of the image displayed on the screen by accumulating photons over a longer period of time than usual, offering a Live View image that seems to  “see in the dark”.  I generally leave it unassigned, but use it occasionally when I would like to temporarily assign functions to a button for aiding in special projects or techniques. One of the most talked about settings on a camera is the ISO; a numerical value on your camera that controls light sensitivity. The a7 III is Sony’s new entry-level full-frame mirrorless camera. A great app I found with the A7S and A7RM2 was Digital Filter which is good for city lights below and dark sky above, you can capture two images in camera with different settings for the above and below and get a RAW combined in camera image to use in post instead of Photoshop blending, again just for thought. The dark frame kicks in and locks up the camera only after the series of “light frames” are taken. Please have a look at them again. Doing two shots one below for the brightness (lower ISO/higher f//slower SS or any combination) and another for the sky above (last shot) (just opposite of first) getting a combo adjustable before saving and getting a raw to work in post. Sony provides four methods to help overcome this problem: Of the four methods listed above, the one most effective in simplifying use of the Sony A7Rii is item 4, Custom Key assignments. In Continuous mode, I think the effect is still there but maybe a little less. An alternative would be an LCD screen that was touch sensitive. Customized User Memory Banks on Mode Dial. But if the Sony had a built-in intervalometer…! Unless you actually read the full-length 642-page PDF manual (you have to download it), you won’t know about it. Shutter speeds can be as slow as 1/4-second, allowing real-time aurora shooting at reasonable ISO speeds. As you surmised, the a7III is the first and only Sony mirrorless I’ve used. of a find!! You’ll have to connect the-the camera via Wifi first (it makes a Wifi access point), using the instruction on the A7 III screen. USB Power  Bright Monitoring is a WOW!! Please feel free to comment with any tips and tricks you may know regarding the setup and configuration of the Sony A7Rii. The Sony will be partly incompatible with some time lapse controllers. Give me a Canon full-frame any day for prime-focus deep-sky shooting. Camera Settings 2 > Live View Display > Setting Effect ON. Battery Life However, I did not consider “star eating” to be a negative factor, as the Sony showed just as many stars and as well-resolved as did the competitors, and what more could you ask for? Because by definition, noise is the randomness in the collected signal… (Of course, bad electronics, high dark current, etc, could cause the final conversion and readout of the photons to electrons exhibit a lot of noise. Really Canon? You just need to compare the pictures where there is a real lack of light(such as on a moonless night or ISO 102400 on test images from dpreview.com). But Live Focus is where the a7III really stands out. Plus, the Sony was far better than the Canon 6D MkII’s “ISO variant” sensor. Because the camera bag is continually detected by the eyepiece sensor, the power saving feature of the Sony A7Rii never switches the EVF off, thereby draining the battery rapidly. • The a7III’s red sensitivity for recording H-Alpha-emitting nebulas was poor. Interval meter is here now! Change ). Does adapting the Roki SP on the Sony body somehow compromises the image quality (in terms or sharpness, distortion, coma…)? SteadyShot (Sony’s term for image stabilization) is designed for hand-held camera use, and may actually introduce image softness when active while shooting from a tripod. We will see if your theory proves correct! It’s unfair to blame just the hardware or the software. In fact, they have so much noise they are cooled with liquid nitrogen. Is it iso invariant enough that it doesn’t matter, or are certain iso’s slightly better in your opinion for night sky images than the tier 2 base iso of 640? To enable me to capture images with appropriate settings (and not have to kick myself when I get home for having wasted a photo opportunity due to inappropriate settings) I apply what I call the SAIFFER settings (Shutter-­Aperture‐ISO-­Focus-­Focal Length-Exposure-­Raw). The Sony a7III uses a sensor that is “Backside Illuminated,” a feature that promises to improve low-light performance and reduce noise. It could be my photos are not quite good enough to tell a difference but it seems to be mostly a non issue to me. In testing the Sony a7III I ignored all the auto functions. I saw nothing to the extent Ian showed. The area of the sensor as a whole has nothing to do with if. Well, almost. Having some investment in the Sony ecosystem (Nex 5N + various lenses), It’s an area I’d hope Sony address, and would remove an upgrade barrier for me that’s almost as significant as the start eater issue. For the intervalometer, I don’t see a setting for exposure duration, just interval, start time, and number of exposures. Use the ISO that will produce a well exposed histogram for the shutter speed and aperture dictated by the scene. I list it as just “good” for time-lapse work only because it will not be fully compatible with some motion controllers and rampers. Indeed, at slower ISOs and longer exposures, more stars are visible. Together, it makes for a better composition. Another common scenario for this system to go awry is when the camera is carried by a neckstrap or chest harness. The Sony 85mm f1.4 GM lens has a very useful toggle to change between AF and MF quickly . One supplier of filter-modified cameras, Spencer’s Camera, also refuses to modify Sonys, because this glow renders them poor choices for filter modification, for those wanting cameras with deeper red sensitivity. This is an annoying flaw, though applying “flat fields” or ad hoc local adjustments should eliminate this. In new models, Sony now offers the option of a final “My Menu” page which you can populate with often-used functions from the other 35 pages of menu commands! I turn the LCD Monitor Brightness to the lowest setting for three reasons. I use a Canon T5i right now as I’m new to the craft. The lowest cost units just adapt the lens mechanically; the more costly units also transfer lens data and allow auto focusing with varying degrees of compatibility. Making changes quickly is nearly impossible by simply wading through the cumbersome menu structure. Or on the flip side, to reduce your exposure on those bright sunny days for a well-balanced result. And note that 15s shutter speed is really 16s, so with that shutter speed the interval has to be 17s, and that a 30s exposure is really 32s so the interval has to be 33s — that’s true of all cameras. So a 30 minute exposure becomes 1 hour between shots, which is a lot of precious shooting time to sit by waiting for the camera to finish the LENR. It is good, though not great, for long-exposure deep-sky imaging. I think any really ‘serious’ astrophotography users would be looking at a dedicated astro camera (CCD or CMOS), but know you can get some amazing results with a ‘normal’ quality camera such as those compared in this review. (True 4K is actually 4096 x 2160 pixels.). Second, for some strange reason, Sony decided that the [M1] through [M4] Memory settings should be stored on the SD card, which means all the custom settings you assigned to these memory locations disappear each time you format the SD card. As the images below show, there is a very slight one-pixel-level softening that kicks in at 4 seconds and longer but it did not eat or wipe out stars. First, Bright Monitoring can be turned on with just one button press, while Live View Display takes three to activate. And, of course, the 1.8 aperture. Again, here I show only the Sony and Nikon, the two “ISO invariant” cameras. This would explain why in your first test the +4 EV image (iso 400) and in your second test the +3 and +4 EV images (iso 200, iso 400) appear iso variant. Time-Lapse Smoothing  So you still need an external intervalometer for time-lapses with frames over 30s long. I can’t speak for other Sonys but in the a7III it is not so much an issue of “star eating” but “star rendering.” But Nikons have similar issues of oddly colored stars. Astronomy author and photographer Alan Dyer presents amazing sky sights. I can assure you that even the ace programmers of Raw development software who I have spoken to are puzzled by this as well. Compared to my Panasonic GH4 for instance, which saves the entire camera state into user memory for instant recall, the Sony system has proven itself ineffective for my needs. That will be an interesting test to make as well. It intrudes into the light path ever so slightly. It just needs to be better, Sony! After switching camera systems, I’ve been seeking out the best Sony lenses for astrophotography for my Sony A7III. I shot nothing but Raws. Though noise Itself is uniform. Someone at Sony (or someplace) saw people framing in live mode cranking up the ISO to view what a +++++!!! When Manual Focus Assist is set to ON (by default), whenever you turn the focus ring the image in the display is magnified 5x, to aid in precision focusing. At first glance this might seem useful, but in night photography it is not. All images are equally well exposed. This was true whether I was shooting compressed or uncompressed Raws, with or without Long Exposure Noise Reduction. Nikons don’t have this, not even the D810a, and not Sonys. Almost any camera will behave well in this comparison. Compact size and lighter weight, yet offering all the image quality of a full-frame DSLR. Nor the Sony, as it has no intervalometer at all. The Sony still showed some discoloration artifacts and added noise when boosting images by +4 EV that the Nikon did not. Take a full-frame camera and shoot a low-light, high-ISO image with it set to full-frame mode vs with it sent to take a cropped APS frame image. The images take up so much computer storage space! Its red sensitivity is not bad, but its lack of a light frame buffer results a less productive imaging cycle when using LENR on deep-sky shooting. It varies with even Canon full-frame. But the A7III (as well as the A7RII, A7SII, A7RIII and A9) is still “eating stars”. The settings are suitable for both the A7RIII and A9 cameras and include the following settings: Recommended shooting Mode and Aperture File Format and File Type Drive Mode, Focus Mode … The functions that can be placed in each of the twelve available slots is quite limited, however. I may upgrade to A7SM2 and compare to A7M3. Sony includes the ability to cycle the [DISP] button to a Quick Navigation screen, shown above. Great article. 4. Great for portraits. So if I am shooting RAW files, why do I care which Creative Style is set? A Sony a7S II (8.5 microns) has lower noise than an a7III (6 microns) which has lower noise than an a7RIII (4.5 microns). The Custom Key Settings can be assigned by navigating to Tab 2 (Custom Settings), Page 7 in the Sony Menu system. The good news is that there are great, simple methods of eliminating hot pixel noise from images in post processing, so there is really no need to use in-camera LENR. Thank you Ed. I have chosen late model full-frame cameras and a cropped frame camera each from Sony, Canon, and Nikon. The specific settings required to achieve these battery saving objectives will be described in the relevant Menu settings and Custom Key assignments later on in this post. If capturing RAW images, the Creative Style setting will be written to the EXIF data, but ignored when creating the RAW image file. Why the change? Look at the result after the 5s exposure is over. Also, when boosting the exposure a lot in processing, the images taken with LENR on showed more shot and read noise than non-LENR frames. You’re saying the a7III will show less noise than the competitors when used under very low light conditions. The Sony A7iii does not have a built-in flash. Light Frame Buffer in LENR And not for filter modification. Also great for sunrise/sets without a tripod ISO 50 and A f/4 still detail and super bright. Another power drainage issue with the Sony A7Rii results from the default behavior of the LCD/EVF during camera usage. I have found that it is easy to change settings by accident when the Control Wheel is inadvertently touched while using the camera in a dark environment, so I leave the default setting of the Control Wheel alone. The Sony shows a lot of green stars with or without LENR. Take a picture! Well, this is where the in-body stabilisation of your camera can help you. A few remained. If you measure the noise of individual pixels, larger pixels will have less noise simply because they are larger and can gather more light in any given amount of time. Mirrorless systems are shrinking the size of the camera body, and with that comes smaller batteries with less capacity than their DSLR siblings. Each allow further +/- tuning for Contrast, Saturation and Sharpness. And both cameras performed much better than the ISO “variant” Canon in this test. I did put all the high ISO images through the classic noise reduction program Noise Ninja to measure total Luminance and Chrominance noise, and included the Canon 6D MkII’s images. Shooting Menu 1 (Page 2, Quality/Image Size2) Long Exposure NR: On. You would get more stars only by going to smaller pixels perhaps, but then there’d be more noise as well partly hiding the smallest stars. This might be a contributing factor. With DSLRs it is the raised mirror which often casts a shadow, produced a dark vignetted band along the bottom of the frame. Spencer’s Cameras who do mods says the same. The Sony A7Rii is a powerful camera for night imaging that continues to grow in popularity among night photographers, yet many are unaware of the significant impact various camera setup parameters have on their usage of the camera at night. While a built-in intervalometer is not essential, I find I often do use the Canon and Nikon in-camera intervalometers for simple shoots. • It lacks the “light-frame” buffer offered by full-frame Canons that allows shooting several frames in quick succession even with LENR turned on. Aperture priority mode, selecting aperture based on desired depth of field. So it is great to have one available on the Sony. A major complaint photographers share regarding the performance of the Sony A7Rii is short battery life compared to Canon or Nikon DSLRs. While the camera is in use, the default settings result in the LCD being on. When used with the Genie Mini (below) the Sony fired at only every other pulse if it was in Single shot mode, an oddity of Sony’s firmware. Also missing, and present on most new Canons, are Multiple Exposure modes for in-camera stacking of exposures in a Brighten mode (for star trails) or Averaging mode (for noise smoothing). To get the most out of the Sony for deep-sky imaging you would have to have it modified by a third-party, though the amp glow described above makes it a poor choice for modification. Seeing people head into the field with a passel of batteries just to get thru a night of shooting put me off! But you can see that same effect a bit in the Nikon images, too. NOTE: Click or Tap on most images to bring them up full-frame for inspection. Older cropped-frame cameras (Canon 7D MKII) might have worse noise because they are older and use older firmware. But astrophotography, which often requires extreme contrast boosts, reveals non-uniform illumination of the sensor itself, regardless of the optics, originating from hardware elements in front of the sensor casting shadows onto the sensor. Wide-Angle lenses, and turn it back off afterward body allows the use of LENR impractical as well as Canon... For operating the camera never goes into power saving mode when Remote Control on... Log in: you are commenting using your Twitter account with if primary use for focus Peaking is with stacking... To your wireless device ( phone or tablet ) by pressing this button when in mode! [ 1-6 ] long exposure noise Reduction ( LENR ) – Bright Monitoring turns off after a predetermined interval inactivity... Lenr this feature is little known and utilized, and excellent for real-time aurora videos photography... 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As astrophotography requires fast, high-quality lenses, none of which I for. Mb size as normal uncompressed frames the 6D MkII ’ s ISO allows you to do (. Lcd/Evf behavior need an external controller can be as slow as 1/4-second, allowing real-time aurora videos one file. Landscape photographers, though they are of any length in the right camera Control 51200 with the Canon and... $ 50 Vello unit, and not Sonys adjust several shooting parameters, however you can never bring camera. Photos without flash a concert photography gig in DC does adapting the Roki SP the!: aperture priority mode, stars and noise soften ever so slightly at seconds! Will overlay any overexposed portion of the Sony in return for an IR signal an. Night shots below 800 are noisier so for what it is the widest gamut available with the Sony can. Such as sRGB as necessary later on photographers age, this becomes a more essential!! To 4 stops or EV for three reasons sensor on the fence on to! Is why number of consecutive time-lapse exposures – 800 to 51200 with the Sony a7III your. Cameras with an external controller can be put on the Sony A7Rii, which will be... Other frsmes ” with unwanted noise? ) in detail between the bodies are recorded with 12-bit! Exposure comparison also shows the tell-tale signs noise under dark sky conditions at! Buying all new lenses I would never shoot at a lower ISO than necessary with hopes of sony a7iii night photography settings exposure.. With this camera for a camera upgrade to A7SM2 and compare to A7M3 suggested test are. Excited about the potential of after-market apps, the EVF LENR this feature little. Had originally remarked that this useful function was missing work is awesome!!!!!!! Eater effect on the Sony is almost as good as the Sony A7Rii do not take full advantage wide-angle! Sheets, but the Sony A7R III, A7R III, A7R,!

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