Shutter Speed problems on K200D

[Arries]

I bought a new K200D about a month ago and enjoy every moment working / playing with it. This past Saturday I was at my children's athletic meeting trying out the continuous shooting at the javelin, when the exposure time suddenly seemed to get mixed up. I was shooting on Moving Object with the Focal length set to 32.5 mm, Aperture on F5.6 and Sensitivity on 400. I had already used the camera for more than 100 shots that morning, when suddenly the shutter speed started shortening. One shot was on 1/250, 3 seconds later it was 1/1000, 2 seconds later it was 1/1250, 2 seconds later it was 1/2500, and 3 seconds later it was on 1/3200. Otherwise nothing had changed. Needless to say, the last shots were all under-exposed. I made contact with the dealer who suggested that I reset everything to their default values, but even shots taken in bright sunlight are still slightly under-exposed. But now I find that when I take shots in my garden in the direction of a bush or a tree which has only slightly more shade than the lawn, then the flash jumps up as if there is not enough light.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? The camera is obviously still under guarantee and will have to be returned, but I was just wondering if anyone might have some advice on what could be causing this erratic behavior..

[Mr Guy]

That is very odd. Where you shooting in full automatic mode with your exposure compensation set to +/- 0?

[Arries]

I'm still a bit new at using this camera, so I was experimenting. However, to answer your question, in both the shot which was exposed correctly and the ones when the changes started happening, I was shooting with a +1.3 shooting compensation. All the other settings are exactly the same, except for the exposure time that started changing. I was using the "Moving Object" setting as well as the "Continuous shooting" setting in drive mode. The point is that everything was working fine for more than 100 shots and then the exposure time just seemed to go mad and everything afterwards were totally under-exposed.

[Mr Guy]

Hmm, I'm not familiar with the mode settings on the K200D. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the camera detecting excessive shake or motion and trying to compensate in sports mode. Does the same thing happen in other automatic modes? Also, are you using a kit lens? Do you have another lens to try?

Does your have auto bracketing? is it turned on?

[Arries]

It seemed to be having the problem in all of the automatic modes. I was using the kit lens at that stage when the problem started but swopped to an older 70-210 zoom lens which I had previously used on my K1000 and it still seemed to have the same problem. As I said, I was using it in Continous shooting mode when the problem started. My dealer also wanted to know whether I was using it in auto bracketing mode, but of course you cannot use it in auto bracketing mode when it is in continous shooting mode.
Thanks for the attempts to find a solution. I was hoping that someone else may have had the same problem. I'm going to experiment tomorrow in Program mode and see if I can get it working properly. The frustrating thing is that it does not seem to have the problem all the time. I guess I'll have to return it to the dealer and hope that they can detect some problem.

[Arries]

OK, just a report back on what happened today. I took some shots in my garden in light shade. I took a shot on Auto Picture mode (Green on the dial) and the photo was totally under-exposed. These were the settings calculated by the camera (the ISO was set to Auto: 100-400):
Shutter Speed: 1/160
Aperture: F11
Sensitivity: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0

I then took 2 shots in manual mode which both were exposed correctly. For the first shot the ISO was left at Auto: 100-400:
Shutter Speed: 1/25
Aperture: F5.6
Sensitivity: 100
Exposure Compensation: 0

For the second shot I set the ISO to 400:
Shutter Speed: 1/80
Aperture: F5.6
Sensitivity: 400
Exposure Compensation: 0

According to my knowledge and my previous experience the camera should have been able to make these calculations correctly when shooting in Auto mode. I know that I will be shooting much more in manual or program mode than in Auto mode, but there are times when I don't have 5 seconds extra to set the camera manually and when I want to know that Auto mode will work correctly.

Is my assumption correct that in Auto mode these settings should have been chosen correctly and if so, am I correct in thinking that either the camera's light meter is faulty or the computer calculating the settings is faulty?

Thanks for your patience.

[Mr Guy]

Can you set up a flickr account or attach the result pictures here? The settings you're posting are almost counter intuitive. It makes me wonder if your SENSOR is what's failing. F/11 @ 160 in bright shade sounds like the settings I'd pick initially, so I'm not surprised it came up with those; they are very in line with the traditional "Sunny 16" rule. The fact you had to let in so much more light makes me wonder whether you've got a sensor problem.

[Arries]

Thanks. Great idea. I've uploaded the photos to my Flickr account. I took some shots of my daughter's remarkable pet hen - the tamest chicken you've ever seen. (And the sad news is that the hen died today - not because of the photos but because she was sick.)

The under-exposed photo you can find at http://tinyurl.com/ct7g8g
The manual photo taken on Auto ISO can be found at http://tinyurl.com/b8mcs7
The shot taken on ISO 400 can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/d9f8bw

[Mr Guy]

First, I'm very sorry for your daughter's loss. I hope she's taking it well.

Hmm, very interesting. What metering mode are you in? That particular example is an excellent example of what you'd call a "black dog in white snow" demonstration of when zone based metering may not give the desired effect, or at least the exact opposite. What's happened is that you've got a very bright, very reflective white center and a very dark area surrounding it. For that concrete example, it appears how it does because it's attempting to average out the bright white and the shadows around it to a consistent gray. You'll notice comparing the image series that you've actually blown out the highlights badly on your manual attempts. The fully automatic version is a little dark, but the manual versions are very over exposed. In particular, look at the detail in the dark version in the feathers and the shiny reflections on the grass then compare to the white mass and yellowy blob of grass on the bottom right.

Do you have other examples? It's possible that it's a matter of choosing the correct metering mode and then knowing when to use exposure compensation.