My A7 keeps failing me (Not?)

While the title of this post may be blaming my Sony A7 for failures, I probably am the one to blame for not completely learning the camera. I am just so used to using my Canon 5D and my ability to control it quickly. I am trying as hard as I can to like this A7 but I can't seem to figure out settings quick enough in a situation where I need to get shots now. It performed awesome in the few situations where I didn't need it fast. In those situations I had time to think about my shot and look and see what my settings were.

Tonight was a perfect example that made me feel disappointed in the A7. I had some thunderstorms off in the distance with a nice gust front moving in. The down side is that it was starting to get dark quickly. It was a good situation to set up the camera on a tripod and use the Time-Lapse App that Sony sells for their camera. I knew with it getting dark that I needed the ISO to be automatic otherwise the exposure will be longer than the timer for the next picture and I knew it would have a hard time focusing due to how dark it was so I would have to keep it on Manual Focus set to Infinity.

I make sure the ISO is set to Auto and the Focus is set to Manual and at Infinity. I bring up the menu and load the Time-lapse application in the camera as the Gust Front is moving towards me pretty quick. I chose the "Clouds" theme in the application and it starts to take pictures. I go to grab my other tripod to get my 5D setup to try and grab lightning shots and notice that something is off with the A7. I go back over and notice that the application has switched the ISO back to 100 rather than Auto. So I try to change it back and the app wont let me make any changes to the camera unless I turn off the application. So I exited the application and go and make my changes again and see there is a "custom" theme in the application. So I set it to custom and make some adjustments and start to take pictures again. I go back to my 5D and get that all setup to take pictures of lightning with a lightning trigger on it. After that was all setup and running, the gust front was very close and I notice the A7 is taking very long exposures. I tried to see what was going on and noticed it was back to ISO 100 again and I also notice that the focus was set to auto as well so I had been taking out of focus pics on top of it. I decided to stop using the Time-Lapse application and just manually press the shutter every few seconds. After the gust front passed the lightning, which was pretty docile, ended completely. I decided to pack up and head home. There were a few more storms inbound on the radar but also looked like they would have the same fate as this storm.

After I got home I looked through the camera and noticed all the pictures taken via the Time-Lapse app was not on the camera at all. Lack of knowing the application, I have now learned that the application takes each picture and puts it to a movie right away and if you close the application prematurely then it will delete everything. So all was lost except for the pictures I took manually. Here is me scrolling through those images to do a lazy mans way of creating a time-lapse :)

I do want to learn this camera. It has a lot of great features but they are not features you should be learning in a quick thinking situation. I have seen some good quality pictures with the A7. I am going to bring it with me to Dallas next weekend and not bring my 5D so I will be forced to learn some of its features.

Labor Day Weekend

Have a nice extended weekend with the holiday. I have lots to do though. I have house chores to catch up on but I am also way behind on picture editing from my trip to Florida, Atlantic City airshow and New Garden airshow. 

I emailed my Christmas light supplier in China to check the status of my order and he said he will have it shipped out today. We shall see. I look forward to getting this project started mid-September. I have a few more things to order to make sure I am covered. I saw a wire framed star in a catalog for work that I need to order. Would work great to strap these LEDs on to and make some good effects from it.

Lots going on..

Well I have decided to go to New Garden rather than Lehigh Valley Airshow tomorrow. Lately I seem to have been leaning towards the smaller shows rather than the bigger shows. I still enjoy the big shows but with the small shows I don't feel as much pressure. Little more relaxing and enjoyable. So my batteries are charging up ready for a fun day.

Today I received the a FM transmitter that I ordered to broadcast christmas music that is going to synchronize with my christmas lights..

I use a Raspberry Pi to send out the data to the controllers and I will be able to put the music on the Raspberry Pi as well and plug it into this transmitter. More on the lights as I move along with putting everything together.

Last and definitely not least, I was invited to go to see my favorite football team on opening day at home. I am sure some of my philly fans friends will throw virtual snowballs at me, but I will be going to Dallas, TX to see the Cowboys vs 49ers in AT&T stadium on Sept 7th. I feel so blessed and appreciate the great friends in my life. Thanks Ron and Faye! Go Cowboys!

New computer

I got my new windows computer in today.. It's a small machine but should run beautifully. 

It's a 3ghz Core Duo, 8gb of mem and 120gb SSD. This will just run the software to program my LED lights. Went to hook it up but I could not find a VGA cable so I will have to take it into work tomorrow just to set it up and have it prepared for Remote Desktop. 

Vixen 3.1.0

Well I saw exciting news this morning. Vixen 3.1.0 will have FPP (Falcon Pi Player) export abilities. Last year when I first started doing this, I tried Vixen 3 first and actually liked it. I built a nice little sequence and it went together very easy and then I went to export it and noticed there was no ability to export. So that sent me to other sequencing software and I have not liked any other software since. I already have a sequencing computer on order. Just an Off-Lease 3ghz, 8GB and 120GB SSD computer in an Ultra Small form factor. I will get it set up and then put it to the side and use Remote Desktop to get into it from my Mac.

My Mac has been great and I have been able to cover just about all the software I need but have two hobbies where no one seems to be willing to build software on the Mac. One is christmas light sequencing and the second is Police scanner editing software. Other than that, my Mac is great!

UPS cant take a hint

I am not sure what is wrong with UPS.. They keep canceling our account. We do not do a lot of shipping. We are not looking to be extended credit, but you cannot ship without making an account. Today I had to schedule a pickup of our server from our collocation facility in Florida. I put in all the info and get an error that it's an invalid account. This is the 4th time they canceled our account due to lack of use. So now instead of making a new account I decided to go to Fedex, who we use less than UPS, and our account is fully active and scheduled a pickup through them.. Sorry UPS, won't get my business anymore till you fix this auto deleting of accounts. #drivingbusinessaway

New Garden or Allentown..

I have been short with Airshows this year. I have decided to go to one next Sunday but am having a hard time choosing which one to go to. New Garden is a small show I have been wanting to go to for the past few years but have been unable to make it. Allentown is a fairly new show but has a great lineup. Most of my friends are going to the Allentown show or are splitting the weekend between both shows. Both are about 2 hours away drive time. decisions, decisions..

Christmas in August?

I know its mid-august, but I have christmas on my mind. Since I have returned from my Florida vacation, when I have had time, I have been trying to figure out my christmas display for this year. I have to start early in order to get all the components I need. The LED lights I usually get direct from China so I have to give some time for it to get here. Last year I used Spotlights and RGB Strips.

It came out ok. It took a lot of work to get the strips waterproofed in PEX tubing. I am thinking about removing the PEX and strips though. Over time, the PEX has started to curl up and is no longer straight on the facia of the house. I have decided to change the roof line to have these Technicolor pixel bulbs instead.

I will be able to control each individual bulb. I will have to figure out how I will repurpose the LED strips on the roof line now. I have a few ideas but I am not sure how to implement them. I will be adding more posts on what I am doing all the way till its complete. Hope to have many of the fixtures in place by Halloween to do a little display for that and then shift to christmas stuff.

Decided to make a blog

I have tried a blog in the past with just my airshow adventures but eventually I stopped updating it because I felt like I was saying the same thing about every airshow I went to. I am going to do a blog different this time. I am going to just use this like a journal. I will really post about anything and everything that I feel like I want to share. Doesn't matter what it is as long as it involves me and my thoughts. Some posts may be short and some may be more extensive. I am not a writer (despite my name) so some posts may lack excitement or substance and also may not have the proper grammar or punctuation. But I will do my best.