H1 Manual Mode.. ?? + Good for a laugh

Hi! I've had the H1 for a little over a week now. I decided to just jump right into manual mode which has been fun but totally new territory for me.

I also have a few questions on using manual mode with the H1...

---What is the highest ISO you would reccomend my using to still get a good clear shot? I haven't used anything over 200 yet. I'm not interested in a hight ISO that's too noisy to use.

---In manual mode.. Does the metering do anything or am I only looking at AF with my center whatchacallit? I know how light metering works, but am not sure if it still does anything in manual mode or if that is strictly used in other modes.

---Aperture range.. Sometimes I can set it to F2.8 but other times F3.5 (I think) is my limit. What affects the apertures available to me. I'm not understanding how this works.

I appreciate your answers. I'm really striving to learn the camera as completely as I can.

My first day out with the camera was hilarious I must say. I took my daughter to a waterfront park. Pulled out the camera and took a few shots of her. I had to use the flash even though it was a bright sunny day bc I 'forgot' I even had settings to adjust.. LOL Too used to auto mode. So 'remembered' that and got some nice shots.

Decided they looked a little dark on my LCD when reviewing and adjusted my settings.. Got a bunch of overexposed shots then.. (found that out when I uploaded them to the computer)

All in all I got several really nice shots and some good 'action' shots of her coming off a slide. So it's been fun.

Michelle

Hi Michelle, checkout AAK's famous H1 White Paper -
http://www.aakatz.com/h1whitepaper
--
Joe Louvar - http://joelouvar.zoto.com

inspired_visions said:

Hi! I've had the H1 for a little over a week now. I decided to
just jump right into manual mode which has been fun but totally new
territory for me.

I also have a few questions on using manual mode with the H1...

---What is the highest ISO you would reccomend my using to still
get a good clear shot? I haven't used anything over 200 yet. I'm
not interested in a hight ISO that's too noisy to use.

Click to expand...

I have my ISO set to 64 and rarely change it. I would not go higher than 200 with the H1.

inspired_visions said:

---In manual mode.. Does the metering do anything or am I only
looking at AF with my center whatchacallit? I know how light
metering works, but am not sure if it still does anything in manual
mode or if that is strictly used in other modes.

Click to expand...

I mostly use the histogram to guide my exposure settings. I usually have the metering mode set on Multi, but spot metering is probably a better choice, depending on circumstances.

inspired_visions said:

---Aperture range.. Sometimes I can set it to F2.8 but other times
F3.5 (I think) is my limit. What affects the apertures available to
me. I'm not understanding how this works.

Click to expand...

At wide angle, 2.8 is the lowest f-stop. As you zoom, the lowest f-stop increases. At full zoom, 3.7 is the lowest f-stop.

Definately check out the whitepaper. It's an excellent resource.

First, I have read the White Paper several times.

It explains metering mode very well. I'm not sure if this is part of an 'auto' mode to choose settings (PSA) or if it also applies to manual mode as well were I'm choosing all the settings that effect exposure.

On the aperture range.. The zoom is probably it. Thank you.

So i guess if anyone else can verify the usefulness of metering in manual mode? And then I'll be done.. LOL

Michelle

With metering you specify what area the camera should evaluate for exposure.

If you shoot portraits use spot metering for outdoor shots to avoid getting under-exposed faces. Of course you will get overexposed suroundings, but you won't care. Unless you are shooting landscapes, I recommend to set both focusing and metering to spot. This way the subject of your interest will be in focus and well exposed.

Good luck.

--
Tod

Also aware that focusing and metering are seperate. I have AF and metering set to spot. I also know how to use the flexible AF if I want to focus on a seperate area than I want metered.

If I'm shooting in manual mode and select for example.. F3.5 with a shutter speed of 1/80 as the correct exposure. Will having the light metered on the sky vs the the ground or a person affect my exposure in any way. Or is my exposure completely established by the F3.5 1/80 regardless of how or where the light is being metered.

May be easier to just see if I can tell any difference at all in use when I get my charge back up.

Thanks for all the responses so far.

Michelle

tyampel said:

With metering you specify what area the camera should evaluate for
exposure.
If you shoot portraits use spot metering for outdoor shots to avoid
getting under-exposed faces. Of course you will get overexposed
suroundings, but you won't care. Unless you are shooting
landscapes, I recommend to set both focusing and metering to spot.
This way the subject of your interest will be in focus and well
exposed.

Good luck.

--
Tod

Click to expand...

inspired_visions said:

Also aware that focusing and metering are seperate. I have AF and
metering set to spot. I also know how to use the flexible AF if I
want to focus on a seperate area than I want metered.

If I'm shooting in manual mode and select for example.. F3.5 with a
shutter speed of 1/80 as the correct exposure. Will having the
light metered on the sky vs the the ground or a person affect my
exposure in any way. Or is my exposure completely established by
the F3.5 1/80 regardless of how or where the light is being metered.

Click to expand...

In manual mode you have to reverse your line of thinking .. you will be setting a combination of aperture and shutter speed and the camera will tell you in function of the available light how much your chosen combination is "off" in + - EV .. possibly in combination with the live histogram .. then you can make adjustments to get that exposure pair the way you want it ..

--
if needed, email me at : [email protected]
Horum Omnium Fortissimi Sunt Belgae !
(CanFT-QL)CanG6SonH1CanA520

If you use manual exposure then the camera will use whatever value you selected. You still should check the LCD to make sure the picture looks OK - not too dark and not too light. Then verify this with the EV value and the histogram display.

I use manual exposure a lot with my P200 as that camera has a tendency to select low shutter speeds in P mode - 1/40 - when there is plenty of light.

On the H1 the algorithm seems to be better and the camera selects values with which I am in agreement most of the time. Then again with the H1

and the DH1758 adapter I use mostly the A mode to set the aprture wide open to get the fastest shutter speed available.

--
Tod

Not to disagree with the other good replies, but just to say it another way. (Which will either help or make things worse...)

In Manual mode, the camera still meters off the area you select (Center, Spot, whatever). But now -you- are setting the exposure by selecting the speed and aperture and the camera is just reporting how well it thinks you have done. That shows up in the EV value to the right of the shutter/aperture you have selected. That EV now functions just like the exposure meter pointer or LED string in your film SLR from days of yore.

So, as you change the exposure setting in Manual, the EV will increase or decrease to reflect whether the camera thinks that's correct (0 EV), overexposed (+x.x EV) or underexposed (-x.x EV). Notice that in (A)perture priority mode, you control the..um.. aperture and the EV; the camera reports what shutter is selected. In (S)hutter priority, you control the shutter and EV; the camera reports what aperture it chose. In (M)anual you control the shutter and aperture; the camera reports the resuting overall exposure. But it doesn't change the exposure, you do.

This histogram still provides the best information on exposure. It shows the distribution of light/dark pixels for the metering area you have selected. When you get used to it, it's better than just the single number EV which is, of necessity, an average.

I hope that adds instead of subtracts.

inspired_visions said:

If I'm shooting in manual mode and select for example.. F3.5 with a
shutter speed of 1/80 as the correct exposure. Will having the
light metered on the sky vs the the ground or a person affect my
exposure in any way. Or is my exposure completely established by
the F3.5 1/80 regardless of how or where the light is being metered.

May be easier to just see if I can tell any difference at all in
use when I get my charge back up.

Thanks for all the responses so far.

Michelle

tyampel said:

With metering you specify what area the camera should evaluate for
exposure.
If you shoot portraits use spot metering for outdoor shots to avoid
getting under-exposed faces. Of course you will get overexposed
suroundings, but you won't care. Unless you are shooting
landscapes, I recommend to set both focusing and metering to spot.
This way the subject of your interest will be in focus and well
exposed.

Good luck.

--
Tod

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

No, your picture won't look any different depending on where you’re metering, all it does is establish the EV rating (in manual, it does change the picture in all other modes). If you get a 0EV while metering on someone’s face (in manual mode) then move the metering to the sky, or something brighter, it will give you a higher EV rating but your picture as a whole will remain unchanged, because to properly expose the face you have to overexpose the sky. I hope that makes sense but it probably doesn't.

--
Stefan Gnoyke

inspired_visions said:

---What is the highest ISO you would reccomend my using to still
get a good clear shot? I haven't used anything over 200 yet. I'm
not interested in a hight ISO that's too noisy to use.

Click to expand...

ISO 200. And if your shot is still underexposed, you will get noise. Underexposed, on almost any camera, at anything but the lowest possible ISO (and even then, sometimes) causes noise.

inspired_visions said:

---In manual mode.. Does the metering do anything or am I only
looking at AF with my center whatchacallit? I know how light
metering works, but am not sure if it still does anything in manual
mode or if that is strictly used in other modes.

Click to expand...

You are confusing the symbols. The center + is metering, not autofocus. Spot focus is a tiny yellow box. The two are not related.

The metering is indeed important for manual shooting.

When in manual mode, the EV display on your LCD or viewfinder acts as a light meter, telling you if the shot will be underexposed or overexposed at the settings you selected, and by how much.

inspired_visions said:

---Aperture range.. Sometimes I can set it to F2.8 but other times
F3.5 (I think) is my limit. What affects the apertures available to
me. I'm not understanding how this works.

Click to expand...

The lens is rated at f2.8 - f/3.7. That means that as the lens moves to the telephoto settings, it allows slightly less light in (this is typical of a zoom lens. Some zoom lenses have the same aperture all-the-way-through, but it is very rare on a lens with 432 mm zoom. In fact, I don't know of one.)

Throughout the range, the camera will adapt, on a sliding scale, to the focal length of the zoom. You'll get f/3.5, for instance, at about 300mm (equivalent), f/2.8 at 36-100mm and f/3.7 at 432mm.

inspired_visions said:

Decided they looked a little dark on my LCD when reviewing and
adjusted my settings.. Got a bunch of overexposed shots then..
(found that out when I uploaded them to the computer)

Click to expand...

Do not use the LCD to determine exposure! Ambient light reflected on it will make a huge difference, setting the backlight brighter or dimmer will make a huge difference, the angle of view will make a huge difference.

Use the EV, as intended, as your light meter.
Use the histogram to determine the overall exposure.
Do not use the displays.

I know you've been there, and it's a lot to digest, but this stuff is actually covered extensively in the White Paper.

--
AAK - http://www.aakatz.com

Thank you. The last few posts on this one have completely answered my questions.. LOL I do use the histogram also. This is my first experience every using anything but auto mode on a basic P&S digicam. I appreciate everyones patience and time with my questions. I'm just really trying to understand how the features work and how to best use the H1 to it's full potential.

I've got a full battery charge, my mother in law has finally left my house (been here a week!), and I'm taking the H1 out for a walk.. LOL

AAK.. I'm going to read your site top to bottom again. You are right that it's a lot to absorb. I may just need to make a printout of a few chapters that I can refer to when I'm out with the camera.

Again, thank you all for your help and patience. I can't tell you how much it helps. I don't think I would even attempt to learn to shoot in manual mode without the resources you all provide here.

Michelle