question using the Sony A7

[mdijb]

Two questions

1-When the 'Blinkies" are turned on, they appear in the viewfinder but the histogram does not show clipping.  What is the correlation between these two--it appears to be less that reliable?

2- When switching from auto focus to manual focus, one must turn he focus ring on the lens to magnify the image to fine focus- this changes the focus.  Is there a way to auto focus, then switch to manual and magnify WITHOUT having to use the focus ring on the lens to be able to check and see if the auto focus is accurate?

MDIJB

[Telecaster]

1-When the 'Blinkies" are turned on, they appear in the viewfinder but the histogram does not show clipping.  What is the correlation between these two--it appears to be less that reliable?

I assume you mean the zebra patterning. You can change its threshold. If you set it low, say at 90%, you'll get zebras in the EVF well before you start clipping highlights. This can be useful with video in particular. For still photos set the threshold higher. I have mine (A7r) set such that the zebras show the JPEG highlight ceiling with excellent accuracy. In some cases I'll take a duplicate photo with the exposure increased a bit since I know I've got extra headroom in the RAW data.

2- When switching from auto focus to manual focus, one must turn the focus ring on the lens to magnify the image to fine focus- this changes the focus. Is there a way to auto focus, then switch to manual and magnify WITHOUT having to use the focus ring on the lens to be able to check and see if the auto focus is accurate?

Dunno, I've never tried this. Without tweaking the focus ring after magnifying the image how can you know whether or not the focus is truly optimal?

-Dave-

[mdijb]

I set the Zebras at 100%.  Again today I see the zebras but the histogram is not showing any clipping

MDIJB

[deejjjaaaa]

I set the Zebras at 100%.  Again today I see the zebras but the histogram is not showing any clipping

assuming that you are talking about in camera post-shot-review histogram : you need to do more than play w/ zebra settings - you need to use ~UniWB and select a certain creative style (hence I for example have to use RAW+JPG mode) to align both and make them display clipping close to what is in raw...

[mdijb]

I am capturing raw files only.  The style is set to portrait.  What I see are blinkies in the camera viewfinder,  the viewfinder histogram shows NO blinkies and the post review in camera LCD shows slight blinkies.  When viewed in LR, no clipping occurs.

Mdijb

[Paul Roark]

I, frankly, find the zebra feature annoying and inaccurate, so I turned it off.

I also find the auto-magnification with MF annoying.  This  is  particularly because I do a lot  of dual-focus stacking.  I leave the camera on MF and AF only by using the button at the back -- the top button your thumb reaches.  Then I have the delete plus the button above  it  set up to call up the magnification; that is, it takes two sequential pushed  to magnify the image. 

Overall, the Sony takes some effort to set up to your  own particular liking.  Near the top of my wish  list  would be to have an easy, one-button magnification option, but  that  does not seem to be  possible  with the  current a7r.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

[deejjjaaaa]

What I see are blinkies in the camera viewfinder,  the viewfinder histogram shows NO blinkies and the post review in camera LCD shows slight blinkies.  When viewed in LR, no clipping occurs.

you need to use UniWB and do not use abominations like ACR/LR to establish a clipping in raw - there are tools like rawdigger or frv.

[deejjjaaaa]

I, frankly, find the zebra feature annoying and inaccurate, so I turned it off.

it is accurate if you tune it (verifying with rawdigger for example)

[mdijb]

I cannot find 'UNIWB".   where is this located?

MDIJB

[deejjjaaaa]

I cannot find 'UNIWB".   where is this located?

UniWB is a WB where raw channels multipliers are 1.0 (in real life sufficiently close to 1.0 within 1-2%) - using UniWB makes histogram based on OOC JPG to be closer to "raw histogram"... a lot of people do not like UniWB because naturally (with regular CFA) you get strong green/yellowish tint in your EVF, but if getting zebra close to the real situation is your goal then you need to use UniWB... alternatively (w/o UniWB) you need to learn what is the gap (in exposure compensation stops) between zebra and real clipping in raw and memorize that

you can google for UniWB