Manually setting aperture on A37 with 18-55 f3.5-5.6 lense

[janothanc]

As a complete newbie and have recently bought (from Jessops unfortunately) an a37 with a 18-55 lense with my christmas and birthday money The lense has f3.5 - 5.6 written on it.

I am looking at setting manual aperture for playing with depth of field. Still learning how to use the camera.

The lense and sales bunf says it goes from f3.5 to 5.6 but when I adjust the setting manually in A mode and rotating the wheel it only ever goes down to 4.5 not any lower i.e. 3.5. This is the figure I see on the display.

Am I missing a trick somewhere.

[Si_1966]

Welcome to Sony forums and congratulation on your purchase, the A37 is an excellent camera.

What is the focal lenght set to when you see F4.5? F3.5 is only available at 18mm and as you move up the focal lenght towards 55mm it changes to F4.5 and finaly F5.6 at 55mm. I cannot remember where the changes take place, sorry.

Kind regards

Si

[janothanc]

Thanks for quick reply.

Even when I rotate the length to 18 it still wont go below F4.5 when I rotate it the other way it goes up to F25 (or more iI think) I am confused. Dad say maybe I need to find a Sony Centre and see if they will help. I cannot see any other way forward.

I'm looking at the F number at the bottom middle of the screen to the right of the shutter speed as in the manual.

[Si_1966 · Accepted solution]

Have you tried doing a factor reset, it is the initialise option under the setting menu accessed via the menu on the back of the camera. It is worth a try to start with. The other option is to remove the battery from the camera overnight so the camera forgets itself and put it back in. Also make sure that the contacts on the lens are clean and free from grease and dirt.

You might also want to check the firmware level of your camera to ensure it is at the latest level as that will be one of the first things Sony will check. The latest version is 1.03, if you are not on that then it is worth while upgrading first. http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/SLT-A37/updates

If the above fails take it back to where you got it, if it is not online, and get their help, but Sony will help as it is under warranty.

Si

[janothanc]

As Jessops have gone bust i will try the reset and check firware but looks like a trip to my local sony center and hope they will help.

thanks for you time

Message was edited by: janothanc

Dad just checked firmware its 1.02 so thats where I'll start

[cmosse]

you can also check the lens itself whether the aperture is fully opened or has some kind of mechanical failure.

Remove the lens and move the aperture lever gently to check whether the aperture closes and opens completely and "with a snap)

see image attached

[janothanc]

Just an update.

By strange coincidence someone else in village had bought same kit so swapped lenses. His lense worked fine on my body but same problem with my lense on his body. So appears lense problem.

Went to Sony Center and performed same with one of their display kits (a57 but with same lense) and yes my lense still wont go below 4.5 on a57.

So arranged to have lense returned for checking by Sony.

Unfortunately will have no camera for snow pictures for a while.

Thanks for all advice.