No you didn't Debug & Logging on before you connected as I asked. Please do that, the log file would be big and contain all your camera properties.

Ok. Sorry

I bilieved to debug & logging before connection. Maybe i did something wrong

Now i'm out for work. i'll try another test in next days.

Thanks

Here's the log file.

this should be ok; i hope.

after connection i tried two different exposure:
2 s: ok.
1 s: crash. i must stop manually and no capture

So if you check the file yourself you will see no obvious property for pre-selected exposure times like 1/8000, but one drew my attention:
So it could be that it is set to 0 --> 16777215 which is 2^24 (BULB?) while the others are used for microseconds? I don't know, please ask around in GPhoto mailing list or elsewhere, find out which property listed in that file is the one used to select the shutter speeds and then I can update the driver accordingly.

Hi Jasem,

I asked in GPhoto mailing list. i had a reply to my post.

Could you help me? I think there is something strange in reply post: i believe that indi-ekos use last libgphoto2 but Marcus said that libgphoto2 2.5.6 and newer decode the "shutterspeed" option for Sony Alpha....

sourceforge.net/p/gphoto/mailman/gphoto-user/?viewmonth=201612

You can type this to know your libgphoto2 version:
I think you can also runand send that over to them. If the shutterspeed is decoded then it should show there as a property not as d20 or d21e..etc

Hi Jasem,

My version is 2.5.9, so should be ok...i wrote this to gphoto mailinglist and i'm waiting reply.

In gphoto website i notice that the latest version is 2.5.11 that seems to improve Sony Alpha features. Maybe the 2.5.11 can solve the problem.

I would like to upgrade my version but i don't know how.

hi Jasem,
i had not reply from gphoto mailing list so, with my friend's help i upgraded libgphoto (i think).
Now apt-cache policy libgphoto2-dev is
libgphoto2-dev:
Installato: (nessuno)
Candidato: 2.5.9-3
Tabella versione:
2.5.11-1 500
500 archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu zesty/main i386 Packages
2.5.9-3 990
990 archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main i386 Packages

in attachment the new gphoto2 --list-all-config where i can see Label: Shutter Speed.

I tried with new upgrade to take exposure <= 1 second but the problems are not solved. In attachment the log file.

Can you do something to solve the iussue with this new informations?

Thanks so much for your patience

Giuseppe

Ok, so please try to find out what GPhoto command you can now use to set the shutter speed settings and test it. As now I see this property:
But I'm not sure what the range means? It's unsigned 32bit number, is it in micro-seconds? or milliseconds? or what does it mean exactly? So take exposures, and try to set that property until you figure out how to properly take captures using gphoto2 command. Once you figured it out, let me know the command used, and the units of the shutter-speed property above and I'll incorporate it into the driver. Thanks!

At our public observatory we acquired a Sony A7S (12MPix) camera just 4 weeks ago. I got myself a Sony A7II (24MPix) We are still in testing mode with KStars/Ekos with the observatory hardware so we didn't even try to control the A7xx using Ekos. But we did some testing using gphoto2.
So here is some information about what we found out and what seems to work for A7S and A7II. (Btw the A7II registers as "Sony ILCE-7M2" with gphoto!)

a) gphoto2 support for Sony improved with version 2.5.10 and the newest 2.5.11. Current gphoto version with Ekos is 2.5.9.
For Debian the 2.5.10. version has been compiled from source by a colleague of mine. Same version comes with SUSe Leap 42.2 which I use for testing.

b) Version 2.5.10 supports some settings (--set-config) such as
gphoto2 --set-config imagesize=0 # 0="big format"; 10=middle; 2=small
gphoto2 --set-config- iso=1600 # 50 to 25600 (A7II); 409600 (A7S)
or use
gphoto2 --set-config-index iso=19 # 19=3200; 0= auto-ISO; 7=200; 10=400; 13=800;
# 16=1600; 22=6400; 25=12800
gphoto2 --set-config focusmode=0 # 0=manuell; 1=automatisch; 2=AF->C; 3=AF-A
gphoto2 --set-config whitebalance=1 # 1= Tageslicht; 0=auto; 2=shadow; 3=Wolkig
gphoto2 --set-config exposurecompensation=0 # 0=0
# flashmode funktioniert nicht MH 11.12.2016
# gphoto2 --set-config-index flashmode=0 # 0= "flash off"
gphoto2 --set-config f-number=4.0 # f-number in steps of 0.1
gphoto2 --set-config imagequality=3 # 3=RAW; 0=Standard; 1=fein; 2=???; 4=RAW+JPEG
gphoto2 --set-config aspectratio=3:2 # "3:2 oder "16:9"
gphoto2 --set-config capturemode=0 # 0=single exp; 1= multiple?!; 2=continuous
# 3= selftimer 2s; 4=selftimer 10s
gphoto2 --set-config shutterspeed=100/10 # 10s; from 1/10 indicate in n/10th!
# max.: 300/10 (=30s)
# bulb can be set manually at camera only!)!

c) short exposure (up to 30 s), for example 10 s:
set camera to manual (program wheel), then
gphoto2 --set-config shutterspeed=100/10
gphoto2 --capture-image-and-download --filename xxx.jpg

d) exposure times beyond 30 s
set camera to manual (program wheel) and manually set exposure time to "bulb" first, then
gphoto2 --set-config bulb=1 --wait-event=120s --set-config bulb=0 # exposure time 120s
(I have no idea why bulb=1/0 is needed; "gphoto2 --set-config bulb=1" for itself returns an error?!)

We succeeded controlling the A7xx with simple bash scripts (setting the config values and starting a do loop) such as taking 40 pictures with 30s exposure, or 20 pictures with 90s exposure using a separate laptop for camera control.
I guess more recent versions of gphoto2 are required for better control, but don't expect to much from gphoto since from what I read in other forums Sony is not a vivid supporter of open software control. (For example I doubt there ever will be a preview other than by the HDMI camera port; so I suppose there is no chance for auto focusing. Edit: This of course was incorrect, since focusing works on downloaded images, not on some kind of preview. USB-based preview probably will never be supported by Sony.

Thank you, that was very helpful. Can you list detailed info on the Sony shutterspeed widget from list config? It seems to be different to all other supported cameras now. Is 1/10 the minimum exposure time?!!

Hi all,
Nice to see another sony user.
Yesterday i made some tests so i have some news that i hope can help.
"gphoto2 --set-config shutterspeed=" works for change shutterspeed abd i have the list of all values (i'll post the list these evening because now i'm out for work); but i found something to fix:
- if i connect sony in bulb mode i can not change shutterspeed! The sony rest in bulb mode...
- if i connect sony in every other shutter speed i can use the command line to change shutterspeed. I can also use "gphoto2 --set-config shutterspeed= Bulb" to set bulb mode! But when in bulb mode i can not came back and re-change shutter speed... I must return manualy in other shutter speed using camera.

Could you fix this bug?

The best thing would be to use bulb for exposure > 30 s and the other shutter speeds for the exposure <= 30 s ( this will be great also for solve the star-eater of sony a7s).

The min exposure time is 1/8000