Not to be proud, but could someone take a few minutes and discuss their thoughts on Auto ISO and it's use, good points and bad
I have my granddaughters annual dance recital coming up, naturally the lighting is all over the place, pretty good at times, and not so good at other times.
Any thoughts on setting up the Auto ISO?
Thanks in advance
Bob
For best image quality, I like to use the lowest ISO setting I can, and then-- if I'm not shooting in Manual mode -- I set either aperture or shutter speed priority depending on if DoF or motion is the most important factor to me.
Now that I have auto-ISO I can set both aperture and shutter speed, and let the camera set the ISO based on the exposure value needed. It's like having Av, Tv, and Iv semi-auto modes.
On my 7D I have the Auto-ISO set not to exceed ISO 1600, due to noise issues, but on your 1D X I suspect you could go higher without penalty.
I'm not sure how it works on the 1D X, but on the 7D the Auto-ISO starts at ISO 400 when direct flash is being used, and only goes lower if an over-exposure would result. I don't like that, so I don't usually use Auto-ISO with direct flash. With bounce flash, it'll start at ISO 100, so that's fine.
BobnJake wrote:
...I have my granddaughters annual dance recital coming up
BobnJake wrote:
...will be shooting with my 85 f1.2, in AV mode
For capturing dance, I would consider motion to be more important than depth of field, and so I would use Tv mode, not Av mode, if I weren't using Manual. Otherwise you could end up with motion blur on shots that you want to be sharp.
Either way, Auto ISO will be fine for this; if the camera runs out of latitude in either aperture or shutter (depending on which you set yourself), it will increase the ISO as needed to get the shot.
I do wedding professionally.
change of environment - change of lights (bright to dark vice versa). Auto ISO is helpful. 1ds2 -> indoor then outdoor -> tend to forget to change the ISO.
with my 5D2 & 5D3, I set my mode to Av and ISO to Auto ISO. I limit my ISO for 5D3 to 4000. I less thing to think about and I can focus on other things.
Scott
I love auto ISO for wildlife photography.
I do exactly what Brian does.
Manual on the dial, set my shutter speed for the motion I want (or dont want) and set my aperture for the DOF I want. Then let AUTO ISO float between 100 and 1600. It works beautifully on my much older 7d. On the 1dX its probably fabulous.
I do that too - on 1DX, 5D3 and also SL1 - but the problem with that is that in M mode you can't dial in exposure compensation, so you are at your light meter's mercy. You find yourself facing a window and a person standing in front of it, boom, you got a nice silhouette and you can't do anything about it. It's better with the 1DX which has a fabulous light meter, but it's pretty painful at times with the other cameras.
stanj wrote:
...the problem with that is that in M mode you can't dial in exposure compensation, so you are at your light meter's mercy. You find yourself facing a window and a person standing in front of it, boom, you got a nice silhouette and you can't do anything about it.
Yeah, that would be a time when I would want to switch to a semi-auto exposure mode and use EC (and FEC if using flash).
I have used the auto ISO on the 1DX for fast changing light level in available light, and also in almost dark. The meter system in the 1DX is indeed hard to fool, and so usually the exposure is as good as you could do if you took the time to do test shots. For fast changing action and fast changing light, it is great. Manual mode is often the best way to go, and gives you best control of the shot. I have not used auto ISO on any other Canon bodies.
stanj wrote:
I do that too - on 1DX, 5D3 and also SL1 - but the problem with that is that in M mode you can't dial in exposure compensation, so you are at your light meter's mercy. You find yourself facing a window and a person standing in front of it, boom, you got a nice silhouette and you can't do anything about it. It's better with the 1DX which has a fabulous light meter, but it's pretty painful at times with the other cameras.
On my 1D4, what I do to get around this is use Av + Auto-ISO + custom function to set min shutter speed. For sports, theater, etc., I just need to make sure I have SS of "at least" x (whatever 'x' happens to be for the event).
That way I control the parameters most important to me, get the best IQ under variable lighting conditions and still have EC available.
rolette wrote:
On my 1D4, what I do to get around this is use Av + Auto-ISO + custom function to set min shutter speed. For sports, theater, etc., I just need to make sure I have SS of "at least" x (whatever 'x' happens to be for the event).
That way I control the parameters most important to me, get the best IQ under variable lighting conditions and still have EC available.
Works great for my use cases.
Jay
Yeah that's a good tip and something I do as well. I have mine set for action work as a registered setting so it only occurs when I I'm in AI servo. Unfortunately only the 1 series allow you to set min and max shutter speeds and apertures.
Pixel Perfect wrote:
Yeah that's a good tip and something I do as well. I have mine set for action work as a registered setting so it only occurs when I I'm in AI servo. Unfortunately only the 1 series allow you to set min and max shutter speeds and apertures.
Yeah good stuff indeed. You can also save this special setup under C1 etc, which makes it even more useful IMO. Some time ago I tested that it can limit the min/max shutter speed and aperture setup to C1 without affecting normal operation under Av, Tv etc.
I regularly use auto iso on my 1Dx if I want to control both shutter and aperture. It works just fine.
That said, for your application, I might select a shutter speed and then limit the aperture range to get more DOF than might happen if you use the whole range as well as using auto iso
stanj wrote:
I do that too - on 1DX, 5D3 and also SL1 - but the problem with that is that in M mode you can't dial in exposure compensation, so you are at your light meter's mercy. You find yourself facing a window and a person standing in front of it, boom, you got a nice silhouette and you can't do anything about it. It's better with the 1DX which has a fabulous light meter, but it's pretty painful at times with the other cameras.
rolette wrote:
On my 1D4, what I do to get around this is use Av + Auto-ISO + custom function to set min shutter speed. For sports, theater, etc., I just need to make sure I have SS of "at least" x (whatever 'x' happens to be for the event).
That's not what I am describing. Setting a min shutter speed means it will adjust the ISO to still maintain what it considers "correct" exposure. But say you're on snow and you need to have +2 EC to deal with that. No way to set that up when you're in M mode with Auto ISO. Setting min SS doesn't change that.
stanj wrote:
That's not what I am describing. Setting a min shutter speed means it will adjust the ISO to still maintain what it considers "correct" exposure. But say you're on snow and you need to have +2 EC to deal with that. No way to set that up when you're in M mode with Auto ISO. Setting min SS doesn't change that.
Stan,
I believe this trick is for shooting in Av mode and have the ability to dial exposure compensation.
So, you get to control the min. shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation while letting the camera take care of the ISO value for you.
BTW: You can set "min. shutter speed" for the Canon 5D3 as well under "ISO Settings". Unfortunately the fastest min. shutter speed available is 1/250. I believe the range goes from 1/250 to 1".
Fred
Fred Miranda wrote:
Stan,
I believe this trick is for shooting in Av mode and have the ability to dial exposure compensation.
So, you get to control the min. shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation while letting the camera take care of the ISO value for you.
BTW: You can set "min. shutter speed" for the Canon 5D3 as well under "ISO Settings". Unfortunately the fastest min. shutter speed available is 1/250. I believe the range goes from 1/250 to 1".
Fred
stanj wrote:
I do that too - on 1DX, 5D3 and also SL1 - but the problem with that is that in M mode you can't dial in exposure compensation, so you are at your light meter's mercy. You find yourself facing a window and a person standing in front of it, boom, you got a nice silhouette and you can't do anything about it. It's better with the 1DX which has a fabulous light meter, but it's pretty painful at times with the other cameras.
rolette wrote:
On my 1D4, what I do to get around this is use Av + Auto-ISO + custom function to set min shutter speed. For sports, theater, etc., I just need to make sure I have SS of "at least" x (whatever 'x' happens to be for the event).
stanj wrote:
That's not what I am describing. Setting a min shutter speed means it will adjust the ISO to still maintain what it considers "correct" exposure. But say you're on snow and you need to have +2 EC to deal with that. No way to set that up when you're in M mode with Auto ISO. Setting min SS doesn't change that.
Fred Miranda wrote:
Stan,
I believe this trick is for shooting in Av mode and have the ability to dial exposure compensation.
So, you get to control the min. shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation while letting the camera take care of the ISO value for you.
BTW: You can set "min. shutter speed" for the Canon 5D3 as well under "ISO Settings". Unfortunately the fastest min. shutter speed available is 1/250. I believe the range goes from 1/250 to 1".
Fred
Yeah. Also, as Pixel Perfect pointed out about a year ago, Tv can also be used with Auto ISO. I like this in situations where I'm comfortable with wide open aperture. I can quickly adjust SS to suit motion (or lack) and equally quickly dial in EC for heavily backlit subjects. When I don't see a need for major EC, I like manual exposure and Auto ISO. This goes for the 1DX and 5DIII, though the 1DX meter is a little better.
