G3 Overexposed on all outdoor shots

My G3 has suddenly developed this problem where all outdoor shots are very overexposed and completely unusable. I've tried setting the ISO speed to different values and been through all the other settings I can find. Even looked in the manual which does not cover this issue. Anyone else seen this problem?

What mode are you shooting in?

FlipsidE

It's telling you time to move up to a digital SLR.

It's happening on auto and p mode, but also in Tv - no matter what I set the shutter speed to.

Have you tried exposure compensation?

Yes I've tried exposure compenstation - but still everything is waaaay over exposed, totally washed out, and it seems to do it even in manual modes. Only outdoors though - indoor shots are fine.

Sounds like time for service - or replacement. Funny that the indoor shots are ok, would think that if the shutter speed was perhaps off (i.e. too slow and overexposing) or something funky with the aperture it would affect both out and indoors. Since its a recent development (I assume that you have had the camera for a while) seems unlikely to be a setting problem...

Peter,

How cold is it outdoors? It may be that something is "sticking" (is that possible with a digital camera?) Its the only way I see that you could have the discrepancy between indoors and outdoors. Possible remedies - service (expensive), move to warmer climes (very expensive), upgrade to new camera, DSLR or otherwise (semi-expensive)

K

This is not looking very good is it!

It's not cold outside - about 30 degrees Celcius - summer here in Toowoomba, Australia, and I'm NOT going anywhere hotter.

I guess I'll have to mail it to Sydney for a service.

Make it sure that you are not using SPOT-metering....

Are you sure that your outside scenes are not too bright for the camera to meter correctly under the settings you have choosen? If you set a higher ISO and a wider aperture it would be easy to exceed the cameras mimimum shutter speed (which I recall is 1/1250 of a second). The result would be overexposure... the camera should indicate this problem with a red indication on the shutter speed in the viewfinder.

Try setting ISO 50, and f/8 in Av mode and shoot the outside scene. You can note the shutter speed (to see if its slower than 1/1250) and then see if the exposure is correct.

Good luck.

Might be helpful if you could post an example. The EXIF data might have some clues as to what is going on.

Just as an experiment, why don't you set your aperture small like f8, shutter something really fast like 1/250 and keep your ISO at 50, and take an out door shot in filtered sunlight. That shot should be pretty much normal exposure. If not, I guess it needs to be looked at, unless you have changed a setting and forgot to change it back. Before you send it away, look at every setting on your menus.

Perhaps you could reinstall the latest firmware. That might do the trick!

Paul

Before doing anything....why don't you post some photos of this problem with some pertinent EXIF information and then we could diagnose your problem. If you feel shy, just PM me and I'll tell you how to do it.

Thanks.