Sony A7 IV Trouble with auto-ISO

[Checksix]

I am shooting wildlife with a new A7 IV and FE 4.5-5.6 100-400mm GM OSS lens set to shutter priority at 1000-1500th of a second. I am using auto-ISO. Until very recently it worked perfectly from very bright sunlight to very deep shade and other low-light conditions. Now even in mid-day shade the image in my viewfinder is so dark I can't see the subject. It's as if it's not choosing a high enough ISO. I have ISO range limit set to 50-2048000. I'm wondering whether I inadvertently changed one of my settings on either the camera or lens that is causing this. It's very frustrating since I've had to stop using auto-ISO because I'm missing too many low-light opportunities, which in turn is requiring me to use a higher ISO than necessary when the lighting is good. Any ideas to fix this are most appreciated!

 

[iamdlewis]

If the same happens when you adjust manually then it is most likely one of two things. Either you have set the exposure compensation to -2 or your screen brightness is set low: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2110/v1/en/contents/TP1000640849.html

 

[Unframed Dave]

I would second the above, most likely viewfinder brightness.

For wildlife, I wouldn't personally set those limits. Unless you live on the equator, I would have the lower limit at 400 and the upper, nowhere near where you have it. I won't specify an upper limit, because I don't process and keep iso as low as possible. I therefore have no experience of denoise software.

If you are shooting moving birds, you're shutter speed is on the low side, I'd go for 1/2000th. Again, I like to choose everything myself and the benefit to me is, if the bird is static, in a tree for example, I can go lower, allowing a much lower iso.

Different strokes for different folks.

 

[Checksix]

If the same happens when you adjust manually then it is most likely one of two things. Either you have set the exposure compensation to -2 or your screen brightness is set low: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2110/v1/en/contents/TP1000640849.html

Thank you for the quick response and excellent suggestion. However, checking these settings I see I am set to +1 exposure compensation and my viewfinder brightness is set to auto. Even if I set the manual viewfinder brightness to the max at +2, it's still too dark. Because it was working correctly until recently, either I've changed a setting somewhere or the camera is not functioning correctly. The former is more likely. There are so many settings!

 

[Unframed Dave]

Thank you for the quick response and excellent suggestion. However, checking these settings I see I am set to +1 exposure compensation and my viewfinder brightness is set to auto. Even if I set the manual viewfinder brightness to the max at +2, it's still too dark. Because it was working correctly until recently, either I've changed a setting somewhere or the camera is not functioning correctly. The former is more likely. There are so many settings!

What aperture are you using?

 

[Checksix]

I would second the above, most likely viewfinder brightness.

For wildlife, I wouldn't personally set those limits. Unless you live on the equator, I would have the lower limit at 400 and the upper, nowhere near where you have it. I won't specify an upper limit, because I don't process and keep iso as low as possible. I therefore have no experience of denoise software.

If you are shooting moving birds, you're shutter speed is on the low side, I'd go for 1/2000th. Again, I like to choose everything myself and the benefit to me is, if the bird is static, in a tree for example, I can go lower, allowing a much lower iso.

Different strokes for different folks.

Thanks for the response. I also do landscape photography, hence the lower limit. I realize I can save different settings for different shooting situations, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I do shoot at 1/2000th for birds when the situation requires it, but thanks for that suggestion. I live in the Pacific Northwest, where birds and animals often go from bright sunlight into deep shade in an instant, so I don't feel like I have the option to manually change the ISO without missing the shot. I do post processing, and find the higher ISO isn't so much of an issue. Typically it doesn't go much higher than ISO 1600, but I want to keep my options open in case I'm shooting in deep shade in the evening and I see a wolf! I can always dream...

 

[Checksix]

What aperture are you using?

I thought on shutter priority it will automatically choose the aperture.

 

[Unframed Dave]

I thought on shutter priority it will automatically choose the aperture.

Exactly!

Look at the data on some of your dark shots and see what it has chosen.