sonya200 brightness problem

hi
we have a problem with our sony a200 camera. We cleaned the sensor and now whenever we take a shot in any kind of daylight it come out completely washed out especially in auto. When I set it in manuel at a29 s 4000 it still comes out extremely bright. At night though the camera seems to take fine pictures even on a 30 second time lapse. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Can you be more specific about "cleaned the sensor?" Did you actually wipe it with something? Did you check the ISO settings to see if they got changed? They shouldn't have but your problem sounds like it could be the ISO setting.

we used a cleaning swab and cleaning fluid and a hand blower.. I have checked the iso tried it on auto and at 100 and problem still persists

What is "cleaning fluid"? - Terry

eclipse optical cleaning fluid. it says it is for digital sensors

That's scary. Other than blowing off the sensor with a bulb blower, I think the camera companies all discourage people from cleaning their DSLR sensors. I wouldn't do it. Do you see any streaks or spots on the sensor? My concern is the cleaning agent stripped off some sort of coating. I think this is probably going to require a repair. I actually had the same thing happen to a friend and the company that made the cleaning kit compensated him for his repair. Have you contacted the cleaning fluid company to see what they have to say?

I've heard of Eclipse being used often without problems (unless there vis more than one or one kind of Eclipse).

Can you see through the view finder OK? Does it auto focus OK? If you look in thr front with no lens, do you see the mirror or the sensor?

Terry

view finder fine. autofocus seems to work fine. I see the mirror not the sensor

I find it hard to believe that you damaged the sensor, but I'm having a hard time coming up with other ideas.

In your original post, you said "a29 s 4000" - I assume that's a typo and you mean aperture= f/22 and shutter speed= 1/4000 sec. (t ISO= 100).

You can check the exposure compensation, but it would be hard to get it off by that much. Can you check it with more than one lens?

Terry

yes i manually set f/29 shutter speed 1/4000 sec and iso 100and it was way to bright. Tried a telephoto lens and seem to have same problem. I have tried changing about every setting I can and still have same problem. I was backpacking the day pictures were horrible but pictures at night with a flash or using my headlamp as a light source came out great. i took one at f/3.5 30 second exposure iso 100 with a headlamp as light no flash and it came out as crisp and perfect as any picture i have ever taken yet next morning in early sunshine on auto a picture of a pond under blue sky came out completely white and on f/22 speed 1/4000 iso 100 very very bright. completly stumped thinking i am going to have to bring camera in hoping won't cost too much to fix that it is not worth it

http://i48.tinypic.com/2itonig.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/fnbvhw.jpg

sorry my son pasted the pictures below and they got cut off for some reason as did part of message but i think you cna get idea Hoping if i bring in to fix it will not cost more than it is worth

Yup, that definitely way overexposed. I'm pretty stumped with this one. The only other thing I can think of is you somehow damaged your shutter and it's not operating correctly. One last thing to try - did you reset all camera settings? Usually, somewhere in the menu, there's a way to reset everything. As a last ditch effort, before sending it in for repair, that's what I'd do.

If the sensor is damaged, I do think the repair is going to cost more than the camera is worth. If you were looking for an excuse to upgrade, this could be it. And Sony's new Alpha SLT cameras are really good. Trying to look for the potential upside here :)

Could it be that the lens diaphragm is not closing? The shot at night needs the diaphragm wide open and its OK. The shots in the daytime need the diaphragm partially closed and they are overexposed.

As this is happening with several lenses it looks like the control within the camera is not working (I don't know if it's mechanical or electrical).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Franglais

Could it be that the lens diaphragm is not closing? The shot at night needs the diaphragm wide open and its OK. The shots in the daytime need the diaphragm partially closed and they are overexposed.

As this is happening with several lenses it looks like the control within the camera is not working (I don't know if it's mechanical or electrical).

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Good thought. It is mechanical and I have read about it getting stuck.

Try setting it on Aperture Priority with the aperture set at wide open. Take a shot in conditions where the shutter speed is within it's range.

Terry

I was thinking it was the aperture diaphragm as well, but he said the problem persists on multiple lens'. If it was a diaphragm problem it would be much more likely in the lens than the body, and the camera would likely detect its own malfunction. Do a long exposure at an aperture like f/9, and look through the lens and see if the apertures closing. Usually though with aperture issues, you'd see a flashing F/0 on your metering controls, you shouldn't even be able to set an aperture.

Since this happened following your sensor cleaning, its hard to dismiss the relevance of that event. I'd speculate that the sensor cleaning somehow interfered with the shutter curtain and it can no longer manage the faster speeds, and this inaccuracy, being relative, is significantly mitigated or nonexistent among slower shutter speeds. If your aperture diaphragm is closing as it should, and your metering is accurate in normal environment and shorter exposures, I think that should sufficiently prove as a shutter curtain issue. This too, probably costing more than the cameras worth.

*edit - wow, looks like the A200 is going for only about $200 now.