Help Sony a7III Interval shooting mode - Forums

Topic starter

Apr 26, 2020

Hi everyone !

Last week i've been imaging NGC6960 and had a weird problem with the internal interval shooting mode of my a7III. Every now and then (sometimes after less than 5 pictures, sometimes never without changing any settings) the camera stopped taking pictures and went back to idle mode. This means i had to check every 10 minutes that it was still working (which is really bad for the amount of pictures and sleep i wanted).

I thought about sd card problem but i think it won't stop before the buffer was full (which is at least 20 pictures), someone suggested to me that the sensor might have been overheating but i don't think that was the case (it was around 5°C and shutter speed at 30s). I can't think of anything that would cause such a random thing to happen.
Do you have any idea where this issue comes from ?

Thanks a lot to everyone who could give me any information or advice

Engaging

Houlon Sébastien

Topic starter

Apr 26, 2020

I think i've found where the problem comes from, so i'll leave the post here just in case someone has the same problem.

I was using a canon 200mm L f2.8 lens with an adapter to the sony E-mount system, and this adapter is just a tiny tiny bit loose, i never had any issue with it but i found out that when you remove and put the lens back, the interval shooting stops, so i guess this super tiny gap was enough to make the camera thinks that the lens has been disconected…..

I hope it's the right solution, because i've been scratching my head with this problem since few days and i don't have any other idea…..

Helpful

Matt Schulze

Apr 26, 2020

Why don't you run a test in the daytime, before you go out at night to shoot.
Use exactly the same settings but put the lens cap on. If the camera takes more than 5 pictures and keeps going you know that you've solved the problem. If it behaves the same then you have to keep investigating.
Matt

Helpful

Houlon Sébastien

Topic starter

Apr 26, 2020 · Edited: Apr 26, 2020

Matt Schulze:
Why don't you run a test in the daytime, before you go out at night to shoot.Use exactly the same settings but put the lens cap on. If the camera takes more than 5 pictures and keeps going you know that you've solved the problem. If it behaves the same then you have to keep investigating.
Matt

The problem was, as i said, that sometimes i was able to take more than 60 pictures without any problem (sometimes it stopped at 2/10/20/whatever number), But i'm quite confident that the problem was what i've described before, and next run, i'll use my telescope mount which fits really well and doesn't have any contact pin, so nothing should happen and i should be able to take a lot more pictures and sleep a lot more ;) I just tested it, even tried to remove it while the camera was running and it continued taking pictures, where with the lens it stopped.