Sony A1 A1 Strange Behaviour

[yyjDennis]

I suspect I'm doing something wrong to cause this, but my A1 is acting weird. I have one of my custom modes set to "Bird Mode". That is manual, auto iso, 1/4000 sec shutter speed and wide open aperture. When I first switch to this mode it works fine, and I can use the back wheel to change shutter speed. But after a while the camera will start changing both shutter speed and aperture when I turn the back wheel. It's almost acting like it's switched itself to some kind of program mode. At that point I have to use the mode dial to switch to another mode, and then back to my custom mode.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Does anyone have any idea what's causing it?

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[Ralph]

I can't help you but I had the same thing happen to me and I looked up on Youtube about it and there was a setting that fixed mine.
I have got the Sony A7iii so it could be the same thing but it could very well be totally different. But this is my advice and its youtube it.
This has helped me out a few times but I can now go out and totally reset my camera out bush. And I have done so.
One time the top switch was half on manual and half on the next one. And my shot would not come good. So I done a reset.
Only to then discover this switch was not right and that was the easy fix but it was too late.
So I am not sure if this can help but this is what did happen to me.

 

[Reciprocum]

I suspect I'm doing something wrong to cause this, but my A1 is acting weird. I have one of my custom modes set to "Bird Mode". That is manual, auto iso, 1/4000 sec shutter speed and wide open aperture. When I first switch to this mode it works fine, and I can use the back wheel to change shutter speed. But after a while the camera will start changing both shutter speed and aperture when I turn the back wheel. It's almost acting like it's switched itself to some kind of program mode. At that point I have to use the mode dial to switch to another mode, and then back to my custom mode.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Does anyone have any idea what's causing it?

Thanks,
Dennis

Save your settings to a file and post a link to it here. I will set my A1 with your settings and see if I can replicate that behavior.

 

[yyjDennis]

Save your settings to a file and post a link to it here. I will set my A1 with your settings and see if I can replicate that behavior.

Ok, hopefully this works:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kj87m00sclovpq5/CAMSET01.DAT?dl=0

That's the settings I was using before it started acting weird.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[Reciprocum]

Ok, hopefully this works:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kj87m00sclovpq5/CAMSET01.DAT?dl=0

That's the settings I was using before it started acting weird.

Thanks,
Dennis

My A1 refuses to load your file, says "This file cannot be loaded !".
Maybe we have different firmware versions and the DAT file is only compatible with the same version it was recorded/generated on ?

I am at v1.10
Edit: peeking at the content of both DAT (yours and mine) files there seems to be a slight diference in the heading (other than the diff file name).

If you are at v1.00 and plan on upgrading to v1.10 or v1.20 do load your "suspicious" settings onto your camera prior to that as I suspect it might refuse to read/load them after the firmware upgrade (as what happened to me with your DAT), then you re-save it.
Once we both have the same fw ver (I will upgrade to v1.2 if needed) and your funny symptoms/behaviour persists we will repeat the test with a freshly saved DAT from you.

 

[yyjDennis]

I updated to 1.2 when it came out, so that file is from 1.2. Unfortunately that didn’t resolve the problem.

 

[Reciprocum]

I updated to 1.2 when it came out, so that file is from 1.2. Unfortunately that didn’t resolve the problem.

OK, then I will update my A1 to 1.2 to sync versions with you then I will try again to load your file.

Won't do it immediately as today is CaptureOne 22 release day and I need to update that also

 

[Reciprocum]

OK, Just updated my A1 to v1.20 and now I can (and have) loaded your settings. What should I do to replicate ? User mode "2" on the mode dial (That's the only one that corresponds to your description of M 1/4000s) and then what ? What lens were you using ?

I put the 200-600 G (the only one of my lens kit fit for birding) on my A1 and went out for a couple of random shots.
Drive mode: single shot.
With the lens at 600mm. f6.3 varied the shutter wildly from 1/32000 to 1/30 and the only thing that changed was the ISO (all the way down to ISO50 at 1/30 and with the zebra banding going off and the EVF preview fully overexposed, even then the aperture remained constant, did NOT stopped down).
Then I repeated at 200mm f.5.6, same results, behaviour was 100% as expected as per the settings: aperture never changed.
Cycled the power OFF/ON a few times too in between shots to see if anything would change, nope.

Were you at burst drive? fps ?

Maybe @Aussie 's hint is a valid one and you have some dust/sand on your dial mode that makes it jump (internally) to other mode without you touching it ?
I see that your custom mode "3" (next to "2") is A priority..., were you wearing gloves ? Was the mode dial properly locked ? Maybe is the dial mode lock that is defective ?
Has the camera got any rain/snow recently ? (the mode dial does have a mini-pool ring depression shape where rain would accumulate and sip down through the dial axis ...)
Do you keep it in a humidity controlled cabinet overnight ? (that would have helped slowly drying out any internal moisture)
Try setting your custom mode "3" to M as well to see if it still happens in mode "2", if it stops happening then you have a semi-short developing between mode "2" and "3" positions on the dial and this strange behavior is bound to become more frequent especially now in the winter.

 

[Reciprocum]

I can't help you but I had the same thing happen to me and I looked up on Youtube about it and there was a setting that fixed mine.
I have got the Sony A7iii so it could be the same thing but it could very well be totally different. But this is my advice and its youtube it.
This has helped me out a few times but I can now go out and totally reset my camera out bush. And I have done so.
One time the top switch was half on manual and half on the next one. And my shot would not come good. So I done a reset.
Only to then discover this switch was not right and that was the easy fix but it was too late.
So I am not sure if this can help but this is what did happen to me.

Save you frequent settings on a separate SD card (the smallest/oldest/slowest card you have laying around will do) and always carry it with you (not in the camera). This way you can quickly recover from any forced resets the camera throws at you, even out in the bush.

 

[yyjDennis]

OK, Just updated my A1 to v1.20 and now I can (and have) loaded your settings. What should I do to replicate ? User mode "2" on the mode dial (That's the only one that corresponds to your description of M 1/4000s) and then what ? What lens were you using ?

I put the 200-600 G (the only one of my lens kit fit for birding) on my A1 and went out for a couple of random shots.
Drive mode: single shot.
With the lens at 600mm. f6.3 varied the shutter wildly from 1/32000 to 1/30 and the only thing that changed was the ISO (all the way down to ISO50 at 1/30 and with the zebra banding going off and the EVF preview fully overexposed, even then the aperture remained constant, did NOT stopped down).
Then I repeated at 200mm f.5.6, same results, behaviour was 100% as expected as per the settings: aperture never changed.
Cycled the power OFF/ON a few times too in between shots to see if anything would change, nope.

Were you at burst drive? fps ?

Maybe @Aussie 's hint is a valid one and you have some dust/sand on your dial mode that makes it jump (internally) to other mode without you touching it ?
I see that your custom mode "3" (next to "2") is A priority..., were you wearing gloves ? Was the mode dial properly locked ? Maybe is the dial mode lock that is defective ?
Has the camera got any rain/snow recently ? (the mode dial does have a mini-pool ring depression shape where rain would accumulate and sip down through the dial axis ...)
Do you keep it in a humidity controlled cabinet overnight ? (that would have helped slowly drying out any internal moisture)
Try setting your custom mode "3" to M as well to see if it still happens in mode "2", if it stops happening then you have a semi-short developing between mode "2" and "3" positions on the dial and this strange behavior is bound to become more frequent especially now in the winter.

I'm shooting at Hi frame rate, which I think is set to 20 fps. Maybe it is getting itself into mode 3. I'll try duplicating mode 2 to mode 3 and see if that resolves the problem. I'll also try locking my mode dial. I haven't been locking it thus far.

I haven't shot in the rain, so water seems unlikely.

Like you, I'm shooting the 200-600.

Thanks for your help.

Dennis

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[AlphaWorld]

I'm shooting at Hi frame rate, which I think is set to 20 fps. Maybe it is getting itself into mode 3. I'll try duplicating mode 2 to mode 3 and see if that resolves the problem. I'll also try locking my mode dial. I haven't been locking it thus far.

I haven't shot in the rain, so water seems unlikely.

Like you, I'm shooting the 200-600.

Thanks for your help.

Dennis

Thanks,
Dennis

Er, you can't not lock the mode dial. It's "press and hold down to rotate" - when you get to the new mode it should lock into place. If your mode dial isn't locked, then either it's not fully in the right mode (which might explain the problem), or your mode dial lock isn't working.

The only unlockable dial is exposure compensation. The mode, drive, and AF dials are all "press and hold, turn" dials. (I'm happy enough with that; others are not)