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Controlling the Exposure Time and ISO (Gain)
This feature was introduced in version 1.0.0.26 - as of writing, Exposure and ISO information for most models is unknown. As people contribute the info they gather (see below) others will get the benefit without having to go through the discovery process.
| App | Exposure Time Adjust | ISO (Gain) Adjust | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| APT | ⚫ | ⚪ | Update in the works to get this functioning |
| NINA | ⚫ | ⚫ | See note re ISO weirdness |
| SharpCap | ⚫ | ⚫ | |
| ? | ? | ? |
⚪ Not Supported ⚫ Supported (limited testing)
Recently a change was made to NINA whereby the ISO values are no longer displayed, and instead a number from 0..n is shown. https://bitbucket.org/Isbeorn/nina/src/105d83c6a89099285778643a4d3710fa9668665d/NINA.Equipment/Equipment/MyCamera/AscomCamera.cs?at=master#lines-77
This makes it hard to pick an ISO :)
You can get a list of the ISO values using the "SonyCameraInfo.exe" utility by running it with the "/i" parameter.
c:\program files\common files\ascom\camera\sonycamerainfo.exe /i.
Note that the list is printed starting at 1 - NINA wants numbers starting at 0, so subtract 1 to get the NINA value.
Hopefully the NINA people will correct this issue soon.
The "out of the box" behavior of the driver is to assume the camera is set to BULB mode, and all images are taken using a timer within the driver. This works fine for longer exposures (more than a couple of seconds) because the extra overhead added by Windows and USB is only a few 10's of milliseconds. However, when trying to take FLAT or BIAS images, those 10-20 mS can make a huge difference and your exposures are all over the place.
This feature requires the supported exposure times to be known by the driver - see the section below about checking/learning them.
- In the driver setup dialog, select the
Driver Settingstab - Check the box next to
Use BULB mode for any exposures longer than [ ] seconds - You'll get a popup referring to this page
- Enter a number in the box. Any exposure time LESS THAN this value will cause the camera to switch out of BULB mode and find the nearest exposure time. Any exposure time GREATER THAN (or equal) to this value will cause the camera to switch to BULB mode.
Note 1: The camera could take a number of seconds to switch exposure times - there is no way to specify '1/8000" please', it has to cycle down to that speed.
This feature requires the supported ISO values to be known by the driver - see the section below about checking/learning them.
- In the driver setup dialog, select the
Driver Settingstab - Check the box next to
Allow applications to adjust ISO setting via Gain control - You'll get a popup referring to this page
- You may need to restart your AstroPhotography software to see the feature activate
Note 1: The camera could take a number of seconds to switch the ISO value - there is no way to specify '1600 please', it has to cycle down to that speed.
Note 2: Although the driver does make the current ISO available to the app, NINA seems to default to "(640)" and will force that setting unless you override it.
As users contribute this data to the project, this will become more of a "check" task. Until then, I ask that you run the steps, and if the application doesn't immediately print the results (could take 10-30 seconds) please use Copy|Paste to send me the data. The next user will thank you.
First, we're going to get to the directory that contains the file we need
- Open Windows Explorer (Windows+E)
- Find
This PCin the left side-bar and ensure it is open (click the>to the left of "This PC" to change it into avif needed) - Find
Local Disk (C:)under the side-bar and click on it. The right-hand pane will update with a list of the files and folders on the C: drive - Find the folder "Program Files" (not "Program Files (x86)") and double-click to open it
- Find the folder "Common Files" and double-click to open it
- Find the folder "ASCOM" and double-click to open it
- Find the folder "Camera" and double-click to open it
- Double-click on "SonyCameraInfo" to run the utility
If all goes well, you should eventually see something like (this is what my camera prints):
Sony Camera Info
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Loaded 'turbojpeg.dll' from 'C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\turbojpeg.dll'
Loaded 'libraw.dll' from 'C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\libraw.dll'
Loaded 'SonyMTPCamera.dll' from 'C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SonyMTPCamera.dll'
Product Name: Sony MTP Camera Driver
Product Version: 1.0.0.28
Scanning for Cameras
1 portable devices found
--------------------------------------
Device #1
Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
Model: ILCE-6400
Connection: Connected
Get Info:
Manufacturer: Sony Corporation
Model: ILCE-6400
Device Path: Sony Corporation\ILCE-6400
Preview image width: 1024px
Preview image height: 680px
Full-size image width: 6024px
Full-size image height: 4024px
Full-size image width (Cropped): 6000px
Full-size image height (Cropped): 4000px
Available Exposure Times:
0, 19660810, 16384010, 13107210, 9830410, 8519690, 6553610, 5242890, 3932170, 3276810,
2621450, 2097162, 1638410, 1310730, 1048586, 851978, 655370, 524298, 393226, 327690,
262154, 65539, 65540, 65541, 65542, 65544, 65546, 65549, 65551, 65556,
65561, 65566, 65576, 65586, 65596, 65616, 65636, 65661, 65696, 65736,
65786, 65856, 65936, 66036, 66176, 66336, 66536, 66786, 67136, 67536,
68036, 68736, 69536,
Available ISO Values:
16777215, 100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640,
800, 1000, 1250, 1600, 2000, 2500, 3200, 4000, 5000, 6400,
8000, 10000, 12800, 16000, 20000, 25600, 32000, 40000, 51200, 64000,
80000, 102400,
If it takes more than 1-2 seconds to appear, or your hear your camera taking a photo, please use your mouse to select all of the text in the window and then COPY, and PASTE into an email to retrodotkiwi@gmail.com. Please don't take a photo or a screenshot - I have to type all of that info into the code, and having it as text will improve the odds that I'll get it right.