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Sony a7rII flickering lines at concert
  • olli66olli66

    The other day I wanted to take some photos at a show. With silent shutter I always got lines in the images. With shutter sound activated: no lines. Could anyone explain this to me? Then I wanted to shoot a video but it was impossible. I never experienced something like this. I can only assume there were different lights on stage with different frequencies? There were lines running through the image like crazy. I tried shutter speedds from 1/30 to 1/120. I also tried chaning the camera from NTSC to PAL. 24fps, 25fps, 30fps. Nothing helped. It was impossible to take a video. Anyone knows the reason? Any workaround in a situation like this? Here is the video so you see what I mean:

    any hep/advice appereciated! thanks guys!

  • 10 Replies sorted by
  • Manu4VendettaManu4Vendetta

    WTF!?

    Can be by the electronic shutter.

    I have problems with some lights wit my GX8, but never have seen some similar.

  • olli66olli66

    never had problems with my GH4, have to check out my A6300, next time I carry both around... but I need to figure out what causes the problem I have paid shoots coming up in January and the a7rII should be my main camera

  • eatstoomuchjameatstoomuchjam

    This is probably a rolling shutter artifact. Depending on the type of lighting used, there are very short intervals when the lights are blanked out. Since rolling shutter works by reading the lines from the shutter sequentially, you can capture the majority of the lines with the lights in their on/enabled state and then some lines are captured during the brief (invisible to the human eye) intervals in which the lights are turned off.

  • olli66olli66

    ok ok whatever it is: does it mean I cannot film in this lighting condition?

  • SpottedDogSpottedDog

    You'll need a camera that has a "syncro scan" type of shutter setting... whereby the electronic shutter speed can be fine tuned. GH4 has this, as do Sony professional cameras. I don';t know about the Alpha series.

  • olli66olli66

    the Sony does not have a synchro scan option so it is useless for shooting in many scenarios? this cannot be? I always set my GH4 to 24fps and 1/48 shutter, when lights gave me problems I adjusted the value but I remember that the difference from 1/50 shutter (which the Sony has) and 1/48 never resulted in less or more flickering, there was no flickering at all, and like I said the Sony also makes pictures with lines when set to silent shooting. I am really in fear now because of upcoming shoots. I need to know that my Sony a7rII and a6300 can handle

  • caveportcaveport

    It's the LED stage lights causing the problem. Using a slower shutter speed may help.

  • olli66olli66

    I tried going down to 1/30s even knowing that 1/30s is too slow for the result I am aiming at. still, at 1/30 there was flickering, in the video you see the flicker at all the different shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/200...

  • eatstoomuchjameatstoomuchjam

    That stage might just have especially obnoxious lights. It sounds like you haven't seen the problem elsewhere. You might need to rent a different camera when shooting at that venue.

  • olli66olli66

    The lighting was terrible. I had such a great Spot. Could have taken a lot of fantastic photos but only managed to make one nice photo

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