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flicker on the ex3


Devindra Sooknanan

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Hello everyone, i'm shooting a short for a director and with a camera (sony ex3) i've never worked with before. he mentioned that we might have to finda a way to deal with flicker while shooting, but i said that since we weren't going to be using any lights that use ballasts (hmi's/kino's) or shooting Tv screnes it shouldn't be a problem. i'm reading the manual and its not really helpful in explaining what types of situations might cause this problem. so i guess the questions are

 

A) Does the ex3 just have strobing problems in general, or are there certain conditions that i should avoid other then those mentioned

B) is it an internal problem causing the flicker (camera setting of some sort)

C) what ways are there around this "problem"

D) does it only occur when the camera is run off of AC or does it happen with batteries as well

 

 

Thanks a bunch

 

Devindra S.

Edited by Devindra Sooknanan
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Biggest issue is with flashes which are faster than the shutter is and will ready only partly on the chip. For any flickerings there is a syncro scan in the menus called "flicker reduce," and you set it for 60Hz and flicker should go away. Never had a problem with my EX1 and flicker, here or overseas, and its essentially the same as the EX3 minus a few bells and whistles.

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If you set the shutter to ECS mode, you can manually tune to the correct frequency. With flashes, setting shutter to off reduces partial exposures a great deal. If you have little or no movement, setting shutter to SLS 2 stops partials almost completely. That's two frame accumulation, so you effectively halve your frame rate.

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Biggest issue is with flashes which are faster than the shutter is and will ready only partly on the chip. For any flickerings there is a syncro scan in the menus called "flicker reduce," and you set it for 60Hz and flicker should go away. Never had a problem with my EX1 and flicker, here or overseas, and its essentially the same as the EX3 minus a few bells and whistles.

 

hey adrian, did for the 60hz thing is that only when using ac or should it be set there when using the battery as well?

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I found some problems my self with flicker on EX1 and 3. first I noticed some flicker in 60p under tungsten domestic lights (50hz). you do get a flicker in any fps but 25 and 50 fps in 50hz tungsten, even 24fps. it is possible to eliminate the flicker by using an exposure time related to the AC frequency (1/50, 1/100,....). but using a setting of 24fps, 180' shutter will produce a "light" flicker.

I did try the same settings on different EX cameras using different sources, in different AC powered buildings.

now what I don't understand is why the camera reads a flicker in tungsten lights (that you would see eventualy in very high fps like 1000) and why you have more than one band of flicker ( I counted four).

my guess is that the scanning times on the sensor are not what they say and they read multiple times for a frame, obtaining something like multiple exposure, maybe used as hdr sources.

why else?

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  • 4 months later...
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I found some problems my self with flicker on EX1 and 3. first I noticed some flicker in 60p under tungsten domestic lights (50hz). you do get a flicker in any fps but 25 and 50 fps in 50hz tungsten, even 24fps. it is possible to eliminate the flicker by using an exposure time related to the AC frequency (1/50, 1/100,....). but using a setting of 24fps, 180' shutter will produce a "light" flicker.

I did try the same settings on different EX cameras using different sources, in different AC powered buildings.

now what I don't understand is why the camera reads a flicker in tungsten lights (that you would see eventualy in very high fps like 1000) and why you have more than one band of flicker ( I counted four).

my guess is that the scanning times on the sensor are not what they say and they read multiple times for a frame, obtaining something like multiple exposure, maybe used as hdr sources.

why else?

Indeed, I just shot with the EX1 set to PAL at 25p and experienced random flickers through out the day. I tried every combination of FLICKER REDUCER on or off, various shutter speeds etc. and could not control the flicker when it occurred or recreate it.

 

Here's a good thread about it from Creative Cow http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/142/859759

 

It seems to only ever happen while shooting PAL in the U.S. even under natural sunlight ?????

 

odd and annoying

 

the big question is does the firm ware update correct this?

 

f

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