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NEX-7 Contrast Bug
In the course of making a lens comparison under controlled lighting conditions, a disturbing bug was noted in the image quality: a severe flare-like haze over the entire image causing a huge degradation of image quality.
I was able to establish several facts over an hour or so:
- Firmware version 1.0.2 (May 2013).
- All camera corrections of all kind were disabled including DRO/Auto HDR. Creative Style standard, white balance Shade, ISO 100.
- The effect is not related to aperture; the entire f/1.8 through f/16 aperture series frames all show the same degradation.
- The effect is not related to lens choice; it happened with both a Sony 35/1.8 and a Zeiss Touit 32/1.8 Planar.
- The effect came and went: shooting a 2nd series a bit later made it go way (then it would reappear for no apparent reason).
- No filters were used, and there was absolutely no possibility of lens flare.
- Everything shot in raw format.
- The effect was seen on the very first series immediately after turning the camera on. Therefore it cannot be related to the sensor getting warm. Furthermore, the alternating behavior (bad, then good) also rules out a overheated sensor.
- The camera was not powered on and off; therefore it is a bug that comes and goes while the camera remains on.
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