How to turn off viewfinder auto-adjustment on Alpha 77?

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Oleg Volk

A friend lend me Sony Alpha 77 to try out. I noticed that the viewfinder brightness is proportional to the exposure. If the ambient exposure is insufficient, the viewfinder turns black. The camera doesn’t know that I have studio flash set up. Since the hot shoe is the Minolta type, I will have to plug in the radio controller into the PC socket on the side. I read the manual, but still not sure how to make the viewfinder look bright regardless of the exposure that I select? Does anyone know?

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6 Responses to How to turn off viewfinder auto-adjustment on Alpha 77?

  1. SeanCYoung says:
    January 24, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    My a57 has a menu setting called “Live View Display” that I use with off camera lighting. The a77 should have something similar. I am looking to upgrade my a57, so please let us know what you think of the a77. I have a case full of great minolta af glas
    s that I picked up for next to nothing on craigslist.

    • Oleg Volk says:
      January 24, 2014 at 9:41 pm

      Thank you. “Live View Display –> Setting Effect OFF”

      • Oleg Volk says:
        January 24, 2014 at 9:49 pm

        And furthermore, the implementation is still retarded — the same change also turns off metering completely. No way to get exposure preview in manual mode at all. Sony interface seems to be oriented towards auto-everything users.

        • LarryArnold says:
          January 25, 2014 at 3:39 pm

          Life was a lot simpler before our gadgets were intelligent.

        • Flint says:
          January 26, 2014 at 1:11 am

          There’s a preview button for that. The full-brightness view lets you frame things, and the preview button gives you the actual view with all the adjustments in place (including lens correction, if you have a supported lens).

          It should be available in the menu page just after the one where you found “Live View Display.” Find out what button “preview” is connected to, and you’re set.

          One of the big advantages of the camera is all of the settings that are available. One of the big disadvantages of the camera is all of the settings that are available.

  2. SeanCYoung says:
    January 24, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    I set the preview button (just right of the lens mount near the bottom on the a57) to show a shot preview. The button was originally set as a focus magnifier.

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