Disappointed with the Sony again

Today I took the camera out on a dog walk and decided to use it in manual mode as suggested by a couple of you, I set ASA at 400 and then tried using the sunny 16 rule as I would with my manual film cameras the first thing I noticed was it was over exposing a little ( I've always over exposed film a little to give me a bit more leeway for error) so I tried one stop down and it resulted in better exposure sticking to this the first thing I noticed was there was colour in the sky (but the images were a title dark) where in the past there would not have been. I tried a number of shots in forestry and on open farm land using the settings I would have used in the film cameras + one stop and they all seemed to work o.k ( not fantastic of course because these were setting worked out in my head after viewing the scene) This seemed to work with the Sony lens and the other two adapted lenses ( I much prefer these lenses with mechanical settings ) I also changed the auto focus setting with the Sony lens using ( and I forget the name for it) The centre focus setting where you put the centre of the lens over what you want to be in focus then hold the shutter part way down and then re frame. This also made a difference as before it seem to focus where it fancied. Using the manual lenses still seems to result in a sharper image but because of the crop factor it is sometimes difficult to get things in the frame. So at least using it in manual seems to work better. The images did not look to bad but I have had to up the shadows to make them look right so a shot straight from camera is still not possible under most circumstances, the dynamic range of the camera seems poor compared to film although it is supposed to be quite good. I tried a few shots in auto mode in a church just documenting a fairly local murder
story which was written on paper ( to read later) and these have turned out quite well this fairly close up use seems to be where the camera likes to be under it's own settings. The colours also appear a little on the pastel side of normal. The shots were just of random things as I walked around so not great to look at but I'm a little more pleased of the results although I'm still not 100%. Hopefully just using manual will mean that the camera settings will remain the same each time I use it rather than forgetting a setting I had left it in last time.


You might find this article useful

https://petapixel.com/2019/05/02/film-vs-digital-this-is-how-dynamic-range-compares/

There's pros and cons for each format and you need to find out how to get the best from your gear, I would take away from this article that film benefits from exposing to the right and digital exposing to the left. What I would suggest is try underexposing by a stop or two compared to what you're used to and have your jpegs set to raise the shadows a bit. For what it's worth I still prefer the aesthetic quality of film.

The last thing that I would say is that you are losing some dynamic range by setting ISO to 400. Digital cameras usually have maximum dynamic range at their base ISO (which I believe is 100 on the A6000?) so at ISO 400 you're losing highlight and shadow detail. This graph from DXO suggests that you get more DR at the expanded ISO but I'm a bit skeptical of that tbh,

Screenshot 2020-02-08 at 08.46.39.png
 
The last thing that I would say is that you are losing some dynamic range by setting ISO to 400. Digital cameras usually have maximum dynamic range at their base ISO (which I believe is 100 on the A6000?) so at ISO 400 you're losing highlight and shadow detail. This graph from DXO suggests that you get more DR at the expanded ISO but I'm a bit skeptical of that tbh,

I hadn't realized that Snerkler, I'll do as you suggest and keep it down as far as I can.
 
Just jpegs Lee in attempt to save editing.
 
Just jpegs Lee in attempt to save editing.

I don't think there is any need to go along the 'sunny 16' rule etc.

With the LCD showing you (roughly) what you'll get & using the histogram correctly exposure should be fairly straight forward. Unless of course, you have a scene that has too much dynamic range. WB is probably the one that will make the most difference to the look of the image & contrast/saturation etc can be set with 'picture modes' or whatever they are called.....!!

I shoot RAW. And I often shoot knowing how I'm going to edit the image & what type of look I want from it so I'll adjust exposure to suit. I also set a manual WB, CPL, manual focus & manual/Av exposure mode. I always adjust colour in PP & often dodge/burn but quite often my actual exposure/contrast/shadows/highlights/whites/blacks sliders are untouched. I do enjoy editing & spend a while (on & off) with a days images. I could equally edit them quickly & just bash them all on Flickr in one go if I wanted to.

If you want to do little/none of that, then take the time to learn how it all works & what it all does & hopefully you can get the camera set up to suit your style of images.
 
I don't think there is any need to go along the 'sunny 16' rule etc.

With the LCD showing you (roughly) what you'll get & using the histogram correctly exposure should be fairly straight forward. Unless of course, you have a scene that has too much dynamic range. WB is probably the one that will make the most difference to the look of the image & contrast/saturation etc can be set with 'picture modes' or whatever they are called.....!!

I shoot RAW. And I often shoot knowing how I'm going to edit the image & what type of look I want from it so I'll adjust exposure to suit. I also set a manual WB, CPL, manual focus & manual/Av exposure mode. I always adjust colour in PP & often dodge/burn but quite often my actual exposure/contrast/shadows/highlights/whites/blacks sliders are untouched. I do enjoy editing & spend a while (on & off) with a days images. I could equally edit them quickly & just bash them all on Flickr in one go if I wanted to.

If you want to do little/none of that, then take the time to learn how it all works & what it all does & hopefully you can get the camera set up to suit your style of images.
^^ this, the LCD and EVF show you what you're going to get so for landscape you can set ISO to base, set aperture to f8-11 and focus on the hyperfocal distance and then adjust the shutter speed until it looks right in the EVF/LCD and/or histogram.
 
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