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Archive 2014 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

OntheRez
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I've always been a manual kind of guy so it's a bit strange, to me anyway, that I've started using Auto ISO. It began in the last HS baseball/softball season as both fields are oriented east/west. As the game reaches towards evening (no lights on either field) the shadow of the mountains to the west begins to walk across the field. Thus I'd find myself in the situation say shooting the 1st base line of snapping shots of the batter in full sun (looking for action, contact, emotion). On contact the batter of course runs to 1st and passes from brilliant sun into evening shade. I can adapt fairly quickly but I'm not good enough to switch Av/Tv in 90' with a player running at full speed.

I started using Auto ISO in these situations and have been rather amazed at how well it seems to work. My overall critique is that it tends to go to a higher setting than I'd probably use giving a slightly washed out feel to the image. This is generally easily corrected in post. Once in a while <5% it is wildly wrong and I can see no pattern for the complete misses.

I'm going to be gearing up for football in a month or so and am wondering about Auto ISO with flash particularly on ETTL. The field is horribly lit (20%+ of the 60-year old lighting system has bulbs out) and a real challenge to get good action images. I'm generally shooting at max aperture (f/2.8).

So I guess the question is how many of you are using Auto ISO? What are your thoughts on it relative to sticking with complete manual control? And finally, has anyone tried it with flash? Obviously I can and will run my own experiments but it would be helpful to me if others could offer their experience.

Thanks,
Robert

Jul 24, 2014 at 01:54 PM

Shutterbug2006
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

Auto ISO is for weenies.

Jul 24, 2014 at 02:16 PM

dhphoto
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

OntheRez wrote:
I'm going to be gearing up for football in a month or so and am wondering about Auto ISO with flash particularly on ETTL.

If it's like all the other Canons it will simply default to 400 ISO with flash, it's what they all do (maybe the 1Dx is cleverer, I don't know)

Jul 24, 2014 at 02:29 PM

Herb
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I will have to look at my recent data for the shots I took Tuesday night. I had my 1Dx in manual mode, flashes (6, two groups of 3 each), AUTO ISO, HSS.

Loved the results that I got. I will share. This was in a swimming pool so not any action. But I liked the results.

And yes, I am a weenie, but you know what? I don't care! (All 6'3", 300 pounds of me!).

Jul 24, 2014 at 02:38 PM

schlotz
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

Robert,

I've been using Auto ISO on my 1D-X in complete manual mode along with adjusting EC now for over a year and have grown to really appreciate what it can do. My main venue is soccer and have found Auto ISO to be quite stable. My personal preference is to add 1/3 stop EC while in manual mode which the latest firmware allows you to do. The lights are probably better than what you've described at your stadium but in the end its all relative. Games right now start out at ISO 200-400 but end up close to 16,000 by the 10pm mark. SS is set to 1600 at the beginning of the game but at some point in the second half I dial it back to 1250. Examples can be found on the my www under IndyEleven.

Matt

Jul 24, 2014 at 02:39 PM

johnctharp
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I thought Auto ISO was how it's done when you're shooting action with variable lighting...

Jul 24, 2014 at 02:41 PM

jcolwell
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I don't use Auto-ISO, yet I'm still a weenie. What's up with that?

I'm a sort of slightly scaled-down, 6'1" version of Herb.

Jul 24, 2014 at 02:44 PM

ggreene
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I tried it out and found similar behavior to what you describe. It tends to set the ISO too high for my taste. I just feel more comfortable doing it manually. Shoot enough games and it becomes second nature.

I'm an upscale version of Herb at 6'6", 325 pounds. I envy how skinny you are Herb.

Jul 24, 2014 at 06:03 PM

EB-1
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

schlotz wrote:
Robert,

I've been using Auto ISO on my 1D-X in complete manual mode along with adjusting EC now for over a year and have grown to really appreciate what it can do. My main venue is soccer and have found Auto ISO to be quite stable. My personal preference is to add 1/3 stop EC while in manual mode which the latest firmware allows you to do. The lights are probably better than what you've described at your stadium but in the end its all relative. Games right now start out at ISO 200-400 but end up close to 16,000 by...Show more →

I thought there was no compensation in auto ISO.

EBH

Jul 24, 2014 at 06:05 PM

OntheRez
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

Okay, I may be short but I used to beat up my 6' brothers on a regular basis

Of course that was a while ago and now we'd have to have a beer or two in order to try to remember what it was we used to fight about. As for weenie, guess I should go back to my Speed Graphic with flashbulb. What's with all this auto focus, in viewfinder light meter, changing ASA in the middle of a roll. Speaking of roll, where did my film rolls go?

dhphoto: Well looking over this spring's kept pix (about 5%) of those taken I have ISO from 200 to 3200, that is if Lr is reporting the metadata correctly so it doesn't seem to be defaulting to ISO 400. Frankly the early evening shots at 1/1250 would never have made it at 400.

Herb: would love to see what you've got. My most recent swim meet was in the Sonoran sun at 107º (F) and no clue what the humidity around the pool was. Boy did I get toasted. I can only use on camera flash for football and that was a major concession that took 3 years of work.

John: Yeah, that's how I read it in the manual and thought it might be useful. Still yields a completely unaltered RAW file so I'm trying to see how it takes away from the pix. Of course for anything not in varying light and not moving I control all three major parameters plus focal length. Maybe I'm just not a good enough photog

Jim: We al know you're a weenie. I've been an egghead (that was a while ago), a dweeb (never sure what that was), plus other assorted not as nice labels. Hard to see the point in labels when the goal is information.

Robert

Jul 24, 2014 at 06:08 PM

Lauchlan Toal
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I actually tested Auto-ISO on my camera today (not a 1dx by any means) and I can't say I'm too pleased with it. Even with spot metering it tends to get slightly off exposures, might as well just leave it on manual and get mostly perfect exposures with a few slightly off than have all of them a bit messed up with auto. Maybe for scenarios where the light differences are fast and drastic auto might help, but I don't think I'll be using it again any time soon. Might work better on the 1dx, so best wishes to your flash attempts!

Jul 24, 2014 at 06:10 PM

skibum5
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

OntheRez wrote:
I started using Auto ISO in these situations and have been rather amazed at how well it seems to work. My overall critique is that it tends to go to a higher setting than I'd probably use giving a slightly washed out feel to the image.
Robert

That is why it's nice that they added EC for AutoISO in M mode. You set the aperture you want for the proper DOF and the shutter speed you need, the two creative aspects, and then the camera just sets ISO as needed and you add in EC as needed (hopefully it is mostly over or under exposing and not going all over the place, the latter can happen in some scenarios).

(sadly Canon treats this as some amazing magic and makes it 1DX only, never mind it's about 2 lines of code and a 10 cent feature to implement and every other maker has had it even in their Rebel-level stuff for years)

Jul 24, 2014 at 08:08 PM

skibum5
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

EB-1 wrote:
I thought there was no compensation in auto ISO.

EBH

Canon added it to the 1DX.

Magic Lantern has unlocked it for some other models (5D3 for instance), but not in the main releases yet, only one coders private branch of code so far.

Complain to Canon marketing. They are the only reason everything from Rebels on up doesn't have a working AutoISO (as with every OTHER manufacturer).

Jul 24, 2014 at 08:11 PM

Herb
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

Skinny and Herb do not belong in the same sentence! After I got two new knees and no longer able to run.....the fat boy in the mirror showed up. :-)
ggreene wrote:
I tried it out and found similar behavior to what you describe. It tends to set the ISO too high for my taste. I just feel more comfortable doing it manually. Shoot enough games and it becomes second nature.

I'm an upscale version of Herb at 6'6", 325 pounds. I envy how skinny you are Herb.

Jul 24, 2014 at 08:17 PM

Herb
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

Here is one shot from Tuesday night at the indoor pool. It had to be well into the 90's in the room with humidity above 90%. The hot tub and pool are in the same room. To top it off the chlorine in the air was very painful by the end. I believe the heat and humidity caused my Yonguno wireless trigger to not always fire correctly. I had tried it out at home and could repeatably get 4 FPS when coupled to my Canon 600 ex-rt flashes. I had two banks of three flashes each into an umbrella. Flashes set at HSS.

When I shoot I like to blast away and tell the model to keep moving with the pose.....probably not the best approach, but for now what I have done. I can't get to the EXIF data via my iPad since I downloaded the photo from my NAS system. I will get it tomorrow as I got my new 4T hard drive and right now I have it backing up the other 4TB drive....20 hours is the estimate....so just letting it run.

In the meantime here is one of the photos from indoor. This is a JPEG out of camera with just a bit of tweaking with SnapSeed on my iPad. This was with auto ISO.

85mm, f1.2 lens on Canon 1Dx
Manual setting, 1/1000, f2.5, auto ISO@400, spot metering with flash

Alexis, 6' tall, basketball player, 21y/o

Edited on Jul 25, 2014 at 03:06 PM · View previous versions

Jul 24, 2014 at 08:57 PM

Roland W
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I have used auto ISO a fair amount on the 1DX, and also a bit on the 5D3. For fast changing situations where light can change a lot, it is clearly very useful. Not every shot is going to be perfectly exposed, but using manual or other exposure modes would likely be much worse for the situations I use it in. If I have time, I am in manual for exposure, and inspecting the histogram to see if I need to bracket. But when there is barely time to frame and catch focus, auto ISO is great. The evaluative metering mode of the 1DX is really quite smart and accurate, which helps increase the odds of the exposure being usable.

Jul 24, 2014 at 09:31 PM

Pixel Perfect
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

If you feel the camera is using a slightly too high ISO resulting brighter pictures, you could dial in correction to the camera's exposure via either normal EC or use AE microadjustment. If you use the latter approach you can then save it to a registered setting along with Auto ISO etc, so that only when using that setup will you get the adjustment and in normal use there is no adjustment. Microadjustment allows you to fine tune exposure in 1/8 EV steps up to -/+1EV.

I use Av and Tv mode with Auto ISO and usually just set a EC as needed via the back dial. But microadjustment is essentially resetting the zero of the standard exposure, in your case you want it a bit lower.

Jul 24, 2014 at 09:37 PM

Monkey Falls
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I started using AutoISO on the 1DX this past Spring for night lacrosse games and it has been fantastic. When Canon added EC to AutoISO, it became very useful. I prefer to shoot entirely manual, but when the lighting is changing too quickly for me to adjust, then AutoISO is great.

Jul 25, 2014 at 05:21 AM

OntheRez
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

Herb: thanks for the example. Makes me wish I was 6' tall

Pixel and Monkey: For some reason I hadn't caught on to the ability to alter the EC and have Auto ISO. Very cool. I can see that it will be useful. Thanks.

Robert

Jul 26, 2014 at 09:42 AM

andyz
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · 1Dx, action, and Auto ISO??

I used auto ISO for football. I'd add a stop on EC to get faces in the helmets clear and showing eyes. The results were darn good.

Jul 29, 2014 at 11:20 PM

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