Severe overexposure Canon 5d Mkii

Discussion in 'Canon EOS Digital SLRs' started by Alan Bate, Nov 28, 2022.

  1. Alan Bate

    Alan Bate New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2022
    Messages:
    3
    Equipment:
    Canon 5d Mark 2
    I recently purchased a Canon 5d Mark 2 second hand from a professional photographer. I am just a keen amateur, nothing more. When I try to take photographs in anything other than Manual, the photos are always nearly white due to overexposure. The histogram is always heavily loaded to the right. When I shoot in Auto the ISO is ALWAYS on 3200, even though it should be on 400. When I shoot in Tv or Av the ISO always seems to be incorrect, resulting in a heavily overexposed photo. Even dialing down exposure compensation the photos are over exposed. IN Manual and provided I change all the settings and ignore the exposure bar readings, I get great photos. For the life of me I cannot figure out why.

    I have reset all settings (using the Clear all Camera Settings) but this does not help.

    Has anyone ever had this problem or know of a way to correct it?

    Thanks
     

  2. johnsey

    johnsey Site Moderator Staff Member Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2017
    Messages:
    2,120
    Location:
    Fargo, ND
    Equipment:
    5dMk4, 5dsR, 5dMk2, 20D, 70-200 2.8L IS, 100mm 2.8 Macro USM, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 17-40mm 4.0L, TS-E 24mm 3.5L II, Rokinon 14mm 2.8; Pixma Pro-100
    In Manual; Does this mean you have to dial in setting by trial and error until it exposes well, and your meter is still not reflecting anything near 0 +/- for exposure when it looks good??

    I think some examples of good and bad shots in different modes would help here, but including the meta data for the file either via screenshot or just pacing the raw file in a one-drive so we can look a examples. I would be helpful to compare all the settings across sample images. Normally I would expect exposure compensation or auto bracketing to be at fault but neither sound like the case here.

    Did you reach out to the guy you purchased from? He may have had insight into the issue. Also are you on the latest firmware?
     
  3. Alan Bate

    Alan Bate New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2022
    Messages:
    3
    Equipment:
    Canon 5d Mark 2
    Thanks for the reply.
    Yes in Manual I have to set all paramaters and to get any decent photographs the meter reads a -2 just to be visible. It's the same on all settings. I updated the firmware yesterday and the problem remains.

    I did contact the previous owner and they claim to have not known to it was an issue as always used Manual mode. They offered to refund fully but I negotiated a great price and would never get another one at the same price.

    I'll try and upload some photos in the morning.
     
  4. johnsey

    johnsey Site Moderator Staff Member Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2017
    Messages:
    2,120
    Location:
    Fargo, ND
    Equipment:
    5dMk4, 5dsR, 5dMk2, 20D, 70-200 2.8L IS, 100mm 2.8 Macro USM, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 17-40mm 4.0L, TS-E 24mm 3.5L II, Rokinon 14mm 2.8; Pixma Pro-100
    My first concern is that the sensor is toast if your not using exposure compensation or bracketing. If -2 is barely giving an image that means your likely a good 7 or 8 stops off not just the 2. MY question is if you get a really good exposure is the meter accurate, your original post sounded like a +/- 0 reading was not providing a good image, nor was a good image on 0. Now it sounds like you simply cant get it anywhere near 0, so the meter is good but your exposure cant get there because of some other issue.

    Are all shots testing outside or inside etcc...... ??? I'm just to assert the testing situations You could have something like a broken lens which is shooting stuck wide open at say f2.8 for everything and but registering the aperture you had it set to for example f8. That could account for over exposure, but if you actually tested with it set wide open then the image would look good. and expose at 0. If that makes sense. I'll wait for some different examples to be posted and see if anything makes sense from them.
     
  5. Alan Bate

    Alan Bate New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2022
    Messages:
    3
    Equipment:
    Canon 5d Mark 2
    My shots are all taken inside under artificial lights.

    I have attached some example photos. The Full Auto as you can see is just a white nothingness, as is the Av mode. The Manual photo is OK but the meter arrow was right down at the bottom (at -2 exposure compensation even though the exif shows Exposure 0)
     

    Attached Files:

  6. johnsey

    johnsey Site Moderator Staff Member Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2017
    Messages:
    2,120
    Location:
    Fargo, ND
    Equipment:
    5dMk4, 5dsR, 5dMk2, 20D, 70-200 2.8L IS, 100mm 2.8 Macro USM, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 17-40mm 4.0L, TS-E 24mm 3.5L II, Rokinon 14mm 2.8; Pixma Pro-100
    You have all the meta data stripped out of the jpgs....The raw files would have been preferred as I mentioned, the meta data is important here, there should be a pattern between the files.
    upload_2022-11-30_9-45-39.png
     

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