Raptor

Initially I rented a Sony A7iii for a photo workshop. I loved it and bought one...just in time for an astral workshop in Maine.I found some photographic situations in Maine to be quite challenging. Dawn photography for one. I am attaching two pics. One shows what the subject looks like before pressing the shutter, the second one shows the pic I captured. What confounds me is the histogram on the LED screen shows a "properly" exposed pic and the result is quite dark. My previous camera is a Sony a68. Wonderful crop sensor camera. I feel like I have to unlearn everything I know about exposure with this new camera. As a caveat, I fell while hiking in Maine and I hope I did not damage the camera. Can you shed some light on my confusion? Also, when I have watched utube videos about the camera, the presenter is mostly touting the amazing video capabilities of it, not the nuances of using it.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Turn on the preview histogram and compare that with the one after taking the picture. That's all that matters. I stopped looking at preview screens for exposure accuracy in 2006 when I got my first DSLR.

Christaylor

You should adjust your f-stop.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I've found that an lcd screen live view is not an accurate representation of what the exposure will actually be. I have often seen that in darker scenes, the lcd screen live view will look much brighter than the actual exposure.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

With mirrorless cameras? I've had excellent success with Olympus and Panasonic.

For the OP, make sure you have live view "setting effect" on. You'll find several discussions on this via a Google search. One:

"If you choose Setting Effect ON, the monitor and viewfinder will show you the real exposure of your scene, meaning it will preview the effect of your shutter speed, aperture, ISO and exposure compensation settings. Other parameters such as the Creative Style (colour profiles) and White Balance are also represented.

This is one of the main benefits of working with a mirrorless camera. The exposure preview is very useful to see right away if you’re over or under exposing the photograph."
https://mirrorlesscomparison.com/guide/sony-a7-a9-display-settings/#display-options

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Raptor

Thank you. I will try that. The mirrorless camera is so different from my other Sony.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Not for nothing but, what did your cameras light meter read? -1, 0 , +1 ?

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I thought preview screens were cute but unnecessary. Therefore, I haven't used one since 2010. That was the year I purchased my first digital camera.
--Bob

JD750 Loc: SoCal

It’s probably a setting you can change.

Which pic is before? The darker one or the brighter one?

What did it look like in the EVF before you take the pic?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Unfortunately, a huge dose of RTFM (Reading The *Fine* Manual) is probably in order.

I know that is asking a LOT of about 90% of the population, but since it was once a part of my job to read camera manuals and write training video scripts on how to use various cameras, I KNOW the benefits of suffering hundreds of pages of JEnglish (Japanese inadequately translated to English). Those benefits are substantial.

Modern digital cameras have many, many options. Usually, the only way to understand those options fully, and to choose the ones that matter TO YOU, is to read the manual and set up the camera as you go.

You mentioned that the A7III videos seem to highlight video features. Well, that's only natural when a YouTuber reviews a camera that records video! After all, they make videos, and probably don't record a lot of stills.

That said, there are plenty of reviews of, and tutorials for, the A7III and A7RIII, on YouTube, DPreview.com, and other sites. Keep looking. You can never get too many viewpoints on your camera! Some of those reviewers and trainers ARE still photographers.

Back to your problem... I'm not a Sony user, but my Panasonic Lumix does have settings that enable the electronic viewfinder and rear OLED display either to maintain a constant brightness, or to display the actual exposure that will be recorded. There are valid reasons why I might want to do either. See if you can find such a menu setting on the Sony.

I know I will use my camera in six distinct ways:

Raw capture of still images under any lighting conditions
JPEG capture of still images under controlled lighting conditions
JPEG PLUS raw capture under variable lighting conditions
Standard American video capture (29.976 fps, AKA 30 fps)
Filmic video capture (24.000 fps, manual movie mode, with variable frame rate options)
Time lapse video "intervalometer" mode (i.e.; automatically capture a frame at regular intervals for a period of time, with results automatically processed into video)

I spent considerable time creating "setup cheat sheets" listing ALL the initial settings needed for each of these situations, along with the variations I might use on each of them. Having a setup sheet makes it much faster to get the camera going for the work I'm doing. And since I share my gear with my twins, we rely on these to get each others' cameras to do what needs to be done!

Good luck... Don't give up! It's okay to want to quit, but not okay to quit.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Really? I had the a68 and liked it a lot. Then traded off to the a99ii. Then on to my a7iii. once set up to your personal desires... I find them the same. Yes there are a lot more choices in the menu on the a7iii but not insermountable. Get to know those options and you will have wonderful results. Besides You Tube there are many good photo guides out there to help. Happy shooting

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

deleated

Raptor

The brighter one.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

I guess it depends on the camera, but I have found the preview on some cameras to be nicely exposed if possible regardless of how the photo will come out. If you know your camera, you will know how to compensate.

MDI Mainer

This $8 on line course will explain the camera much better and more comprehensively than any YouTube video. Once you buy it you can watch some or all of it as many times as you want.

https://www.creativelive.com/class/sony-a7-iii-fast-start-john-greengo?via=autocomplete

Additionally, this book is an excellent reference guide.

https://www.friedmanarchives.com/sony-alpha-a7-iii/

Hope your fall didn't result in serious injury or turn you off to Maine!