Remote firing of NEX6 bracketed shots

[molove]

Is there any way at all to shoot a set of bracketed shots using either an IR remote or self-timer or Playmemories mobile?

There appears not to be, and this is a huge oversight, there appears no way to be able to take a set of bracketed shots without a high risk of introducing camera shake, because you have to hold the shutter relase for the whole set of exposures.

I even bought the Bracket Pro app, but even this won't let you fire off the shots remotely either.

Please Sony fix this in either firmware (preferable) or within the Bracket Pro App (pretty easily, I would imagine, just add a option for a 2 or 10 second delay after pressing the shutter to allow the camera to settle)

Also is there any way of introducing some more functionality into the Play Memories mobile apps on smartphones? I would happily pay for an app with much more remote control features, comprehensive bracketing and intervalometer functions.

The NEX6 is a great camera and it's a real shame it is being let down by badly implemented software and firmware.

Thanks

Piers

[Mick2011]

Hi Piers, and weclome

It's always worth posting these suggestions up on the Forum, as Sony personnel do visit from time to time, and input here has been known to feed back into future product development.

In the mean time, the best suggestion I can offer is to use some means of support that will prevent this becoming an issue.

I carry an inexpensive, lighweight monopod that folds down to a pocketable size and provides a really good amount of stability. Something like that would hopefully help out while you wait

Good luck

Mick

[molove]

Hi Mick

Thanks for the reply. Hoping Sony will pay attention to this issue and, at the very least, update the Bracket Pro app.

The main reason I bought the NEX6 was because I have bad arthritic hips and the weight of my SLR and lens was too much for me to carry around. I have an Ultrapod 2 for support, which works well when the camera is fired remotely but is a bit wobbly when it has to cope with a button press especially a prolonged one. I did have success using it with my much heavier SLR but only because I could fire it with a cable remote.

I do have tripods that are sturdy enough to overcome this issue but actually getting them more than 20 yards from my car might be tricky! The only other workaround i can think of is bracketing manually by adjusting shutter speed or exposure compensation and then firing using either self timer, IR remote or Play memories mobile and just hope that the camera settled back into the same position after every adjustment.

It would be great if Sony released the software development kit so that independent developers could start writing apps for the NEX cameras, I think that we would then start getting really useful, functional apps. Sony could set up an app store along the lines of Apple's so that they can take a cut of every app sold. Independent developers tend to respond to feedback personally and quickly, resulting in regular updates and added funtionality.

Piers

[Superberti]

You're completely right here!

A few weeks ago I had a HDR photo session in a lost place without a lot of light.

Thanks to the mutual exclusive bracketing and remote/self fire options it was nearly impossible to get sharp images.

To make matters worse you have to press the shutter button the whole time for all three images!

Making HDR images is a quite common use of a modern camera so it is completely a mystery for me why Sony made the firmware work in this way.

I don't think the problem is too hard to be resolved in a firmware update. But Sony seems not to pay a lot of attention to their customers so I doubt we'll see this fixed soon.

For HDR photos, this is really a SHOWSTOPPER!

[jadra01]

Hi friends,

yes, yes not only Bracketing, but really also HDR is excluded after using remote or selftimer.

For me is this horrible finding which I found out only after NEX6 was bought.
Knowing this earlier, I would have consider this not cheap camera more carefully.
Dear SONY why all these options are in the same menu group? You didn´t notice that these options are mutualy eliminating?

I´m landscape shooter, low light is standard condition here and now I´m out of the play.

May I hope at least, that next firmware will fix this bug?

[cmosse]

did you use a stable tripod?

I can not imagine that a lot camera shake can be introduced when the camera is mounted on a stable tripod and you first half press the shutter and then press all the way down gently.

Sure Sony should fix the annoying drive mode&HDR / self timer issue but to say it is impossible to use HDR without self timer is not correct in my opinion

[Superberti]

A stable tripod may help but this can't be the solution for a simple firmware bug.

You're not always carrying a solid tripod around, especially not while hiking or

discovering lost places (this was the reason for buying such a small camera!).

These annoying details are well hidden from a new customer. Even dpreview hasn't

mentioned this for the Sony Nex series. Does that mean this is unimportant?

I don't think so because there are a lot of complains in other forums about

this unnecessary crippled firmware option.

I would greatly appreciate a solution from Sony and I think this is not too much

to ask for in respect to the rather high price of this camera.

Bye,

[cmosse]

yes it is true. We have to hope for a FW update to make the self timer/IR remote available with other drive mode settings.

BTW: it seems the new NEX (3n etc) as well as the cybershot (HX50) and the SLTA58 all feature the new Multi USB interface and can all use a wired remote control. So Sony does change and improve things, imaginge you can use the same remote on all different camera types.

[nickdaquick]

I also learned about this issue after i bought the nex6. I really hope sony gets aware of this issue and patches it with a firmware update. It makes me angry each time i'm bracketing, because it's such a low hanging fruit for the firmware developers. There's just no technical reason to not have the option of delayed bracketing - please fix this sony.

[ghunter82]

I am devastated that after 8 months of having this camera I have just found out about this lack of functionality.

Are there any sign of sony updating the firmware or the bracket pro app any time soon to accommodate the lack of timer once in bracket mode? You might as not rule out HDR images for this camera if you can’t use the self-timer or IR.

I can understand how modifying the firmware might be a head ache for sony but surely making the change to the bracket pro app should be simple enough. I will definitely not be buy another Sony camera going forward if this is not rectified.