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POLL: Full frame sensors causing you to rethink Auto-ISO?

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chaselliott

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As a recent D700 owner, I'm starting to rethink the "avoid the auto-ISO" attitude I've had.

I agree with David from Strobist that the photographer should be in control of his images, and not some Japanese engineer programming the camera 5 years ago. I also agree with Thom H's view that we need to get a way from taking attitude of taking "a" photo to getting "the" photo. This is usually done by controlling all aspects of the output.

That being said, I am starting to see more value in letting the camera take control of the iso now that image noise and reduced image quality are less of an issue. This would allow the photographer to focus more freely on Shutter and Aperture, which affect the image composition more than ISO, essentially taking one variable out of the equation for a faster photographer response time in changing settings. Anyone else feeling the same?? (This question is aimed at event and journalist shooting, not studio work.)

1. Do you ever use the Auto-ISO function?

2. Has the value of having the camera increase the ISO to a predetermined level changed for you with the new FX sensor?

---
Chas Elliott Photography
blog.chaselliott.com
http://www.chaselliott.com
 
--I never use auto ISO and have no intention to do so as long as my brain is working.

It takes milliseconds to discover need to change an ISO base of shooting conditions and only second or 2 to change it.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

 
isnt auto iso similar to auto flash compensation.. where you can set the A and S and it would fire enough beam to make up for any loss light
chaselliott said:
As a recent D700 owner, I'm starting to rethink the "avoid the
auto-ISO" attitude I've had.

I agree with David from Strobist that the photographer should be in
control of his images, and not some Japanese engineer programming the
camera 5 years ago. I also agree with Thom H's view that we need to
get a way from taking attitude of taking "a" photo to getting "the"
photo. This is usually done by controlling all aspects of the output.

That being said, I am starting to see more value in letting the
camera take control of the iso now that image noise and reduced image
quality are less of an issue. This would allow the photographer to
focus more freely on Shutter and Aperture, which affect the image
composition more than ISO, essentially taking one variable out of the
equation for a faster photographer response time in changing
settings. Anyone else feeling the same?? (This question is aimed at
event and journalist shooting, not studio work.)

1. Do you ever use the Auto-ISO function?

2. Has the value of having the camera increase the ISO to a
predetermined level changed for you with the new FX sensor?

---
Chas Elliott Photography
blog.chaselliott.com
http://www.chaselliott.com
Click to expand...
 
On several occasions I have increased the ISO to get a particular shot only to forget to decrease the ISO afterwards. Only 100 shots later do I discover that I'm at ISO 1600 when I should be at ISO 400. For this reason I am thinking of trying it out.

This has happened to me at a wedding and I don't want to make that mistake again. Of course, if I had a D700 or D3 it probably would not matter.
--
Steve

 
...that could just be me from the film days not willing to rewire the brain.

I never warmed to "Program" mode either, but like A or S mode just fine.

However, I can see some situations where auto ISO would come in handy.
--
Phil Flash
SF, CA USA

It's not the camera. It's you.

Stuff I own in my profile.
 
I don't care how well your brain works. Are you telling me that if your shooting a late afternoon football game and half the field in in direct sun, and the shadow from the stadium is on part of the field that when a reciever crosses from sun into shade that you can switch the ISO and keep shooting ? Sorry but I'll belive it when I see it.

And what other option do we have ? Set the camera for the sunny part of the field at ISO200 and then when the players crosses into shade when shooting in A mode get a shutter of 1/125th with motion blur ruining the shot ?

Or should we set the ISO high and shoot the sunny action at 1/8000th just in case we cross into shade ? Why shoot at a higher ISO than needed though ?

Intead, why not use the useful tool that is auto ISO ?

Set your minimum shutter speed, such at 1/500th and the ISO low as needed for the sunny part of the field. IF the reciever crosses into the shade, the camera will up the ISO as needed to give you the needed shutter speed

I used to shoot Canon until about a month ago and myself and all of my Canon shooting peers who've I've shown the auto ISO function to all love it and wish they had it
Mironv said:
--I never use auto ISO and have no intention to do so as long as my
brain is working.
It takes milliseconds to discover need to change an ISO base of
shooting conditions and only second or 2 to change it.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

Click to expand...
 
The D700's high ISO capabilities have definitely prodded me to start using auto ISO. I never EVER used it prior to purchasing this camera - of course, with my previous camera being a D70, auto ISO was not particularly useful. ;-)
 
I've had my D700 for about a month now and have been using auto-ISO for the last couple of weeks. I'm still experimenting a bit with it, but I think it will become a standard enabled mode from now on.

I think there is a lot of historical similarity to autofocus. Used to be there wasn't such a thing as autofocus so the issue was moot. Then the first autofocus systems came along, didn't work all that well, and photogs eased into using them (and I'm sure they felt uncomfortable at first.) Now we take autofocus for granted since it works so well under most conditions. And now auto-ISO is coming into its own. Since we need to be less concerned about noise degradation, we've gained a new tool whose merits begin to outweigh the drawbacks.

So it goes. ;> )

Curt
 
as a wedding shooter.. D200 and now D3, i have found the auto-iso feature very handy in the way i shoot most of the wedding day. I mostly shoot in M mode. I also know when to turn it off when i'm going for a look where normal exposure is not what i'm after.
 
chaselliott said:
As a recent D700 owner, I'm starting to rethink the "avoid the
auto-ISO" attitude I've had.

I agree with David from Strobist that the photographer should be in
control of his images, and not some Japanese engineer programming the
camera 5 years ago. I also agree with Thom H's view that we need to
get a way from taking attitude of taking "a" photo to getting "the"
photo. This is usually done by controlling all aspects of the output.

That being said, I am starting to see more value in letting the
camera take control of the iso now that image noise and reduced image
quality are less of an issue. This would allow the photographer to
focus more freely on Shutter and Aperture, which affect the image
composition more than ISO, essentially taking one variable out of the
equation for a faster photographer response time in changing
settings. Anyone else feeling the same?? (This question is aimed at
event and journalist shooting, not studio work.)

1. Do you ever use the Auto-ISO function?

2. Has the value of having the camera increase the ISO to a
predetermined level changed for you with the new FX sensor?

---
Chas Elliott Photography
blog.chaselliott.com
http://www.chaselliott.com
Click to expand...
Chas,

This debate about auto vs manual had been raging on for years and years. It's now down to Auto-ISO isn't it.. It's like debating whether you are a better driver if you drive a stick shift rather than an automatic and let the auto engineers took the fun out of driving. This argument is mute.

How quickly had we forgotten about the debate between split screen manual focus on bodies like the T90, Me Super, K1000 against the yesterday's breed of autofocus SLRs like the maxxum, the Pentax SF series, the Nikon F801s, F5, etc, etc. I still remembered many many years ago when I attended an impromptu talk held by a very famous woman photographer

shooting with her T90 that she claimed she got many more keepers against her competitors with a Canon EOS 1 something and a bunch of Nikon F5s and proceeded to explain how she claimed autofocus took the real control out of photography and let Japanese engineers control what the camera should focus on rather than what the photographer should. She saying as though all new drivers should learn how to drive a stick shift before he or she can drive an automatic!

Today, we took for granted that we need autofocus to achieve results and we couldn't live without autofocus and that when it starts to behave poorly like front of back focusing, it becomes a chaotic drive or mission to blog on the website that it is a design flaw.

It is not a design flaw when the engineers add new features. It is these features that bring in about a new breed of photographers with new ideas. A camera, after all, is a tool to capture images so do I care if it doesn't hinder my creative flow?

The thing I hear from all my students is, can I trust all this auto thing. Nikon's 51 point 3D is really scary, but deadly accurate in situations that you would not think it would get the images sharp. Auto ISO is interesting too, but I think it is just a matter of trusting the engineers' algorithm and electronics and let your creative flow take advantage of this new tool.

I have students that are luddites, old true to the bones film body converts who consider the high-ISO deal as nothing more than a ploy or toy. They said they've been shooting Velvia or Provia in low light for years by using traditional classic techniques, producing classic photographs. Nothing wrong with that, but you know in this industry, the image bank has a lot classical images and people don't need to pay someone out there to grab another classic image.

Rick.
 
The problem i've seen with auto iso on my d700 is that it exposes everything to the 0 on the meter. In a darker scenario you don't necessarily want that because it destroys the feel of the image.

I wish there was a smart iso that would expose the scene properly.
 
Mironv said:
--I never use auto ISO and have no intention to do so as long as my
brain is working.
It takes milliseconds to discover need to change an ISO base of
shooting conditions and only second or 2 to change it.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

Click to expand...
--

I feel the same way about AF...It's another modern time-saving device that takes more time to maintain than it saves.

But seriously, someday I might use it for some panicky, desperate, fast-moving situation... or maybe a party where they serve drinks.-KB-
 
I LOVE auto ISO. I use it at least 95% of the time.

I found the limitations of auto ISO on my old cameras so great that the feature wasn't very useful back then. The problem I have is that I need at lease 1/1,250 of a second shutter speed to stop the motion of my subjects, and before the updated firmware of the D3 I was stuck with a useless minimum shutter speed of something like 1/250. No help at all - so the feature was useless to me.

Now I turn on Auto ISO, set my camera to Manual, set my shutter speed to 1/1,600 and aperature usually to about f8 and I let the camera figure out what ISO it will take to give me the correct exposure.

To the OP: I think you will find people who don't shoot action photos will say they have no use for auto ISO because they have time to check their settings between shots. But those of us who shoot one shot in bright sunlight of a light colored subject, and 1 second later need to shoot a dark subject in the shade - then Auto ISO saves the shot.

For example, I sometimes shoot one of my white dogs sitting in the sun, and right after that take a photo of one of my black dogs in the shade. To get the same shutter speed and aperature in those two photos I may have to change from ISO 400 to ISO 3200 !

And if I was in aperature mode and didn't use auto ISO and didn't have time to change the ISO - then my shutter speed would drop so drastically that it would ruin my shot. My dogs would be a total blur.

Auto ISO is also much more useful in the D3 because you can increase the ISO so much higher than on the D2X or D2hs. I could only use auto ISO on my D2X on the brightest of days because Nikon only allows you to set a maximum ISO up to 800 in the D2X. I would need a higher ISO than that any time a cloud passed in front of the sun, so I was constantly switching in and out of auto ISO mode if it got cloudy. That was really a pain. My D2hs was better because it allowed me to set maximum ISO up to 1600.

--
Bill,

http://www.pbase.com/billmcintyre

 
corn13read said:
The problem i've seen with auto iso on my d700 is that it exposes
everything to the 0 on the meter. In a darker scenario you don't
necessarily want that because it destroys the feel of the image.

I wish there was a smart iso that would expose the scene properly.
Click to expand...
yup two ways, pick your weapon of choice..

u can on the spot - + EV .. i normally run at -.3 or -.7 during the day to keep the look i'm after.. theres a EV button on the D3 for this exact thing..

and 2. i also have set in the custom setup menus somewhere a fulltime -2/6 dialed in on the matrix meter to keep it from being the normal 'spot-on' type lit shots.

( I'm using a D3, i assume the D700 has this also ? )
 
Yes to both questions, obviously only in situation were I think it's an advantage.

I never ever used it prior to purchasing this camera,( my previos camera was D2x).

By the way .... now I also use sometimes auto WB (something I never considered) and Aperture priority (barely used before).

My final goal is to take the best shots I can, in situations were it's not possible to control some parameters, if the auto functions helps me to get a better percentage of good shots ..... welcome !! (prior the only "Auto" better than me on having the highest percentage of good shots was ... autofocus)
 
Steve Bingham said:
If you get usable images over 5 stops why not? (200-3200) Great for
street shooting, sports, some events, and PJ work. Yep, maybe time to
rethink something I would have never used a few years back.
--
Click to expand...
Sure! The only thing to remember, and that applies to all the auto features, is to turn them off or override them when they are not needed or simply tend to get in the way. For me, I think it is about half and half between the shooting situations where auto ISO is THE right thing, and the situations where it is definitely not. When there are no problems whatsoever with A mode, auto ISO might be contraindicated.
 
chaselliott said:
chaselliott wrote:
Anyone else feeling the same?? (This question is aimed at
event and journalist shooting, not studio work.)
Click to expand...
Yes, in fact, Auto ISO is a God send for journalists and event photogs, who already need to conentrate on settings and composition, usually in fast-paced changing environments.
chaselliott said:
1. Do you ever use the Auto-ISO function?
Click to expand...
Most of the time, unless shooting with strobes (in studio) or landscapes (obviously)...
chaselliott said:
2. Has the value of having the camera increase the ISO to a
predetermined level changed for you with the new FX sensor?
Click to expand...
It already changed my shooting style with the D50 and D300... No different now with the D700, except I am even more ecstatic with my higher ISO results than ever! ;-D

--



Your 4 'Cees' for photography: Crisp, Clean, Composed and Colourful
http://www.tigadee.fotopic.net
 
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