7D review brightness bug?

I am running the latest firmware but something I have noticed a few times and caused me to take a second look.

I'll be shooting as normal and I look at the review image that comes up and it looks rather unexposed (guessing 1.5 stops) when I was previous shooting seconds before with almost perfect exposure in the same lighting. I go back and look at my images to make sure this wasn't happening to other images and the image is perfectly exposed.

It seems occasionally it will show an image underexposed during review, I can't put my finger on a pattern but I had it happen again to me shooting on Christmas. I was getting great exposures and all of a sudden one comes in 1.5 stops down, thinking I messed something up I press Play and go through my images and I don't see any issues. Go back to shooting and everything is fine again.

I haven't noticed it with mine and I am on the latest firmware. Perhaps reload?

hieu1004 wrote in post #11535497
I haven't noticed it with mine and I am on the latest firmware. Perhaps reload?

I can try that, I've had it happen a few times. It probably happens every 5-6 times I go to shoot, maybe more maybe less and usually only once during that shoot.

I would think it is just me and my eyes playing tricks, but I have had happen so many times I really believe it is happening.

Saxi wrote in post #11535471
I am running the latest firmware but something I have noticed a few times and caused me to take a second look.

I'll be shooting as normal and I look at the review image that comes up and it looks rather unexposed (guessing 1.5 stops) when I was previous shooting seconds before with almost perfect exposure in the same lighting. I go back and look at my images to make sure this wasn't happening to other images and the image is perfectly exposed.

It seems occasionally it will show an image underexposed during review, I can't put my finger on a pattern but I had it happen again to me shooting on Christmas. I was getting great exposures and all of a sudden one comes in 1.5 stops down, thinking I messed something up I press Play and go through my images and I don't see any issues. Go back to shooting and everything is fine again.

i noticed mine doing that yesterday ...as soon as the pic is taken and displayed it appears to be way underexposed but not every pic is that way... but when i open it back up to check again it is fine

Mine is working good. No misshapps sofar(5000 exp)

Maybe the camera or card is not rendering the image quick enough, does this happen single shots or multi?

TTk wrote in post #11535681
Maybe the camera or card is not rendering the image quick enough, does this happen single shots or multi?

Usually single, I use low speed continuous 99% of the time but the shot that happened at Christmas was single shooting in low speed continuous but I snapped two exposures with two individual shutter clicks within a second or less of each other.

I addressed this issue in another thread.

Basically, when you're taking a photo and have your face dead-smack in the back of the camera.. the ambient light sensor thinks you're in a dark room, therefore, the 2-second preview image will typically look darker (under exposed). But once you tap the review/playback button, when your face is no longer kissing the back of the camera where the sensor is... the LCD will adjust to the brighter ambient light and will often get you a brighter review image. That or just turn off "Auto brightness" and you won't have to deal with that problem (but then you'd have either too bright or too dim results when reviewing).

But... if that's not the problem you're having, and the images are actually coming out dark.. then well, your 7D has gone wonky.

We answered this question here two days ago, or so.

You have set your display to automatic brightness. When you take a picture, you face covers the brightness sensor at the back of the camera, and since the camera doesn't flicker back and forth with the brightness of the display, but keep it steady at the level that was appropriate when you turned it on (in this case at the moment when the picture was taken), the display will be pretty dim. When the review is over, and you press the "play" button, you normally don't have your face covering the brightness sensor. Instead, it's pretty likely that the back of the camera is facing the sky or lamps in the ceiling, and thus the camera cranks up the brightness.

You can easily test this by simply covering the brightness sensor when you press the "play" button. The image will look darker.
To circumvent this issue, press "play" then INFO until you see the histogram. It will properly reflect the brightness of your image, regardless of the brightness of the display.

Ha, Julian was one minute faster than me!
Happy New Year, folks!

jwcdds wrote in post #11535794
I addressed this issue in another thread.

Basically, when you're taking a photo and have your face dead-smack in the back of the camera.. the ambient light sensor thinks you're in a dark room, therefore, the 2-second preview image will typically look darker (under exposed). But once you tap the review/playback button, when your face is no longer kissing the back of the camera where the sensor is... the LCD will adjust to the brighter ambient light and will often get you a brighter review image. That or just turn off "Auto brightness" and you won't have to deal with that problem (but then you'd have either too bright or too dim results when reviewing).

But... if that's not the problem you're having, and the images are actually coming out dark.. then well, your 7D has gone wonky.

That sounds like it could be the problem, but my face usually up to the camera when I hit review, maybe there is a lag sometimes. Would make sense that was it.

apersson850 wrote in post #11535809
We answered this question here two days ago, or so.

You have set your display to automatic brightness. When you take a picture, you face covers the brightness sensor at the back of the camera, and since the camera doesn't flicker back and forth with the brightness of the display, but keep it steady at the level that was appropriate when you turned it on (in this case at the moment when the picture was taken), the display will be pretty dim. When the review is over, and you press the "play" button, you normally don't have your face covering the brightness sensor. Instead, it's pretty likely that the back of the camera is facing the sky or lamps in the ceiling, and thus the camera cranks up the brightness.

You can easily test this by simply covering the brightness sensor when you press the "play" button. The image will look darker.
To circumvent this issue, press "play" then INFO until you see the histogram. It will properly reflect the brightness of your image, regardless of the brightness of the display.

Ha, Julian was one minute faster than me!
Happy New Year, folks!

yeah I got that from Julian and it makes perfect sense.

I use the histogram and keep this up as my default review. I can't remember but I believe the histogram looked fine when I saw it but wanted to figure out if anyone else had the same issue.

I just posted this reply over on this thread. Might be related.

With my 7D the AUTO BRIGHTNESS no longer works. Except when I am in the menu adjusting the setting. At that point the ambient light level affects the LCD screens brightness. Once I exit out of the menu the brightness is locked in and never changes. I am not sure when this happened but it is recent. Wonder if it came with the v2.0.0 firmware upgrade.

Update: I found out that under changing ambient light levels the screens brightness only changes upon a screen refresh. So, you either durn the display OFF and ON with the INFO button, or preview an image with the PLAY button. Otherwise it won't change from it's current brightness setting.