Sony A7R - Holy Grail acts like Timelapse wo. adjustements

[Knud]

Hi,

I did the first test of the Holy Grail function with the Unleashed this morning and set the settings as I would normally do for Holy Grail. I failed straight away.

The recording series begins with the start values and retains these until the end despite the set limit values. I would have expected this with Timelapse, but not with Holy Grail.
The Sony is configured according to the Foolography "get starts" settings, the control runs via an Android 14 and the Unleashed runs on A3.3.0 / B 3.3.0 / C3.3.1.

Settings and results are attached (no aesthetic motif, it was just a functional test).

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Knud

[mopperle]

Having exactly the same issue on my Canon EOS R when trying to do a Sunset Holy Grail.

[Knud]

Hi Mopperle,

at least for Sony, Follography stated in their last known bug update from September last year:

Quote: [Fixed in FW 3.0.1] Holy grail does not ramp any settings
Fixed -> Thumbnails cannot not be retrieved via the usual command so luminance was not parsed. Implemented ramping based on the embedded JPEG thumbnail in the original image. Also camera settings cannot be changed that fast, added a delay for that.

Maybe they reused the old code <3.0.1, maybe the JPEG thumbnail is still too big, maybe something new was invented and doesn't work. I didn't reduce the JPEG files in the settings (mine are 60M), maybe that does the trick. When using QDSLR Dashboard, it always helps to use the smallest JPEG file available to measure the brightness. But that was primarily because of the slow wifi connection. Lets hope Oliver will give a hint and then we can try one or the other to pin down the cause.

BR
Knud

[mopperle]

Maybe they reused the old code <3.0.1, maybe the JPEG thumbnail is still too big, maybe something new was invented and doesn't work. I didn't reduce the JPEG files in the settings (mine are 60M), maybe that does the trick. When using QDSLR Dashboard, it always helps to use the smallest JPEG file available to measure the brightness. But that was primarily because of the slow wifi connection. Lets hope Oliver will give a hint and then we can try one or the other to pin down the cause.

Thats why I asked in another topic about using RAW+JPEG or JPEG only. The tutorials doesnt mention anything about this except for Sony.
I also used qDSLR until now, but since a while my old Andorid device is sometimes not working. With qDSLR Holy Grail was very easy and qDSLR also used the smallest JPEG I coud setup in my Canons.
I hope we will get a solution from Foolography ASAP.

[Knud]

A short update:

The good news ....
Yesterday it was starry and I set the camera to the lowest possible JPEG quality and size. I set the interval to 5 minutes, which felt like enough time for unleashed to interpret and adjust the data. And tata: It worked, the day-night Holy Grail adjustment from sunset to night worked, as you can see on the first picture attached.

So it seems possible in principle, although with very stretched limits in terms of resolution and, above all, interval. In all exuberance, I recorded a night to day Holy Grail while maintaining the general conditions and....

The Bad News ....
There was an adjustment, but it was far too defensive, which ultimately made the recordings unusable. The second picture shows an overview from the moon setting in the south to dawn.

The smaller JPEG size and / or the interval of 5 minutes instead of 30 seconds seems to ensure that a regulation takes place, in contrast to the series of shots for which I opened the thread. Whatever was the decisive factor. However, the control is not sufficiently adaptable with these settings.

@Oliver, with qDSLR there is an area of interest that can be used to control image sections instead of the overall brightness. Perhaps something analog could ensure that the file size can be further reduced to speed up the algorithm. It would also be great if a traffic light could be implemented to show whether the control algorithm is keeping up with the current resolution and interval. And if you could give an indication if this is the as expected behavior, I would be thankful.

[Knud]

And Oliver, as you are back from your business trip and may have a look into this post: the way the holy grail algorithm is adjusting the images is a little strainge. It should have adjusted the exposure time first, not a mixture of apperature, ISO and exposure time.