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ISO and 60D

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william brennan

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How many 60D shooters use the auto ISO or do you set the ISO yourself. I asked as I will be on vacation and shooting inside and outside of well lit places and poorly lit places. Should I let the camera set the ISO so I don't forget or do most people set it themselves?

Bill
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billse-300/

E510 with two lens kit, E-300 and battery grip, E1 and battery grip, 14-45mm, 40-150mm, 50mm macro, ex25, 14-54mm. Fl50 flash.
Canon 60D
 
Bill,

I use manual ISO setting.

But it depends on your shooting technique, my 60D is 80% on AV mode. So if the exposure time goes too low I boost up the ISO.

On TV mode I may set it to Auto ISO, but with limit.

I found the 60D excellent at high ISO, I got great shoots at ISO 2,500.
 
Personally, I always choose the ISO myself. I change ISO only when the situation warrants, or dictates.
william brennan said:
How many 60D shooters use the auto ISO or do you set the ISO yourself. I asked as I will be on vacation and shooting inside and outside of well lit places and poorly lit places. Should I let the camera set the ISO so I don't forget or do most people set it themselves?

Bill
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billse-300/

E510 with two lens kit, E-300 and battery grip, E1 and battery grip, 14-45mm, 40-150mm, 50mm macro, ex25, 14-54mm. Fl50 flash.
Canon 60D
Click to expand...
--
While men refuse to ask for direction, women refuse to follow directions.

http://www.edwoodsonphotography.com
 
It entirely depends on the situation, environment, and the subjects I'm shooting.

For example, I was shooting decently lit flowers not long ago. I set the aperture, time, and ISO.

In the last two days, I was shooting my grandson's baseball game on a dreary cloudy evening, and yesterday I was shooting Osprey on a cloudy day as they were flying overhead and in and out of a nest. In both situations I would judge the lighting to be far from ideal.

In both cases, I was using a telephoto lens, and was zooming depending on where my subjects were. In both cases, I set the time and I let the ISO vary; the aperture varied as I zoomed the lens.

In the end, I use the versatility of the camera to best fit the situation. I'm still learning all of its wonderful capabilities.

--

Jim
 
here is what I do:

situation 1, 10% of the time for me : there is more than enough light for iso 100 and my chosen aperture to give me a shutter speed that will freeze motion, I manually set iso to 100 and use Av, the camera does metering and works out shutter speed for me for each image.

situation 2, 80% of the time for me: there is not enough light for above, then I choose the lowest shutter speed that will freeze motion and my preferred aperture, set camera to auto ISO. the camera does metering and works out right iso for me for each image.

situation 3, less than 5% of the time for me: shooting in difficult low light and lighting is constant, I manually select aperture, shutter speed and iso. this is camera may meter each shot differently when in fact each shot has the same lighting.

situation 4, the rest of the time: I would be shooting with bounce flash, I shoot iso 400, with manual aperture and shutter speed.
 
Thanks for all the interesting answers, I still have a lot to learn about this camera. I have to get out of the automatic mode and start driving this thing!!
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billse-300/

E510 with two lens kit, E-300 and battery grip, E1 and battery grip, 14-45mm, 40-150mm, 50mm macro, ex25, 14-54mm. Fl50 flash.
Canon 60D
 
I set up an auto ISO preset (very similar to the green square auto settings) so my wife can just put the camera on CA and take great shots without worrying about what settings I "messed up" before putting the camera down. Works great.

For me? I use it for about .5% of all shots. Not much.
 
With my 18-135 zoom, I use auto ISO and P mode 94.6% (estimate) of the time.

With my Contax lenses adapted, I use AV mode and auto ISO 98.2% (estimate) of the time.

I only really use manual ISO when shooting non-time-critical things.
 
william brennan said:
Thanks for all the interesting answers, I still have a lot to learn about this camera. I have to get out of the automatic mode and start driving this thing!!
--
Click to expand...
I bought my 60D in January. Right from the beginning I started shooting in M mode, now 4 months later and over 6000 shots I have started using AV some. I would not have learned what I know now about exposure (still very little) without shooting in M.
Get the book “Understanding Exposure” and turn off that A mode.
Mark
 
RetSurfer said:
william brennan said:
Thanks for all the interesting answers, I still have a lot to learn about this camera. I have to get out of the automatic mode and start driving this thing!!
--
Click to expand...
I bought my 60D in January. Right from the beginning I started shooting in M mode, now 4 months later and over 6000 shots I have started using AV some. I would not have learned what I know now about exposure (still very little) without shooting in M.
Get the book “Understanding Exposure” and turn off that A mode.
Click to expand...
'A' what ?

You can not have an intelligent discussion of automation without discussing what is automated.

Automating just the ISO setting is COMPLETELY different than automating Av, Tv, or both.

When that book was written, it was written for film, a non-linear recording medium.

There is very little substance to ISO settings in linear digital cameras, most of which is technological flaws which will eventually disappear. A properly designed camera would never force you to choose ISO for M mode before the capture and digitization! In Av- and Tv-priority modes, of course, it is a precursor to the camera's exposure decision, a decision not made in M mode, even with auto-ISO.

--
John

 
WilbaW said:
I don't use auto ISO because there is no way to compensate the exposure in that mode. If you're happy with default metering there's no reason not to use auto ISO.
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You can use HTP to get around that. At low ISOs, HTP can be problematic in the shadows, but not in the higher tones at alll. At higher ISOs, HTP, is not problematic, either. In fact, HTP should be default at high ISOs, because it makes the RAW files smaller and gives an extra stop of highlights as free lunch (no noise increase of any significance).

The thing is not to forget that HTP is enabled when you go to shoot high-DR scenes with deep or extensive shadows at low ISO, if you plan to make those shadows visible.

--
John

 
CarVac said:
I only really use manual ISO when shooting non-time-critical things.
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Unfortunately, because of Canon's braindead implementation of auto-ISO, you must use manual ISO for fill flash, as enabling flash fixes the "auto-ISO" at 400. Canon seems to think that the only people who would use auto-ISO are people who only use mostly-flash exposures when they use flash. Who, exactly, do they talk to? Not to anyone who has a clue, apparently.

--
John

 
Michael Edward Rudge said:
Hi Bill

I set my ISO to auto, but have the max set to 1300, so it wont go completely Bodmin on me, for indoors IE church, I use tripod and Bracket 3 shots +and - 2, then PP in OloneO HDR ( Google HDR )
Click to expand...
You are using an exposure mode where Av and/or Tv are automated? Then you are using the limit to allow the aperture to open completely or the shutter speed to drop to get an ISO 800 exposure index.

When using manual Av and Tv, the role of an upper ISO limit changes completely. It just makes the JPEG image darker, and unrecoverable, and possibly increases noise because an under-exposed 800 actually has some more noise than a normally-exposed 3200, with the same sensor exposure (dictated by Av and Tv in any given lighting).

IF auto-ISO worked properly when flash is enabled (it doesn't with Canons), then limiting the ISO would serve another purpose; you could dictate the sensor exposure level where the shots switch from mostly-flash to fill-flash. Since Canon FEC works relative to intended exposure, rather than actual exposure (this should be a custom function choice, IMO), then a max ISO would cause the flash exposure to take over with "under-exposed" photos. IOW, if you set FEC to -2, and max ISO to 800, then if the auto-ISO was at ISO 100, you'd get a virtual ISO 400 flash exposure, still fill flash, but if the ISO topped at 800 when 12,800 was actually needed (because of manual exposure or limits to Av and Tv ranges), then the ambient would be 12,800 and the flash would be 6400, dominating the exposure.

--
John

 
John Sheehy said:
'A' what ?

You can not have an intelligent discussion of automation without discussing what is automated.

Automating just the ISO setting is COMPLETELY different than automating Av, Tv, or both.
Click to expand...
What I took away from the post was the OP was shooting in full automatic mode, if I was mistaken and he meant Auto ISO mode only my mistake and misunderstanding. I wanted to part unto him my experience in learning starting in Manual mode and now have a better understanding of when to use the camera’s auto functions.
John Sheehy said:
When that book was written, it was written for film, a non-linear recording medium.
Click to expand...
Now this statement is TOTALLY incorrect, at least the 3rd edition which I picked up when starting because of several posts here on this forum. I can’t even remember in the book where he taught using film as the medium. Furthermore I took his 8 week online class “Understanding Exposure” and not once did he reference film…..
Mark
 
I use auto ISO most of the time. If I use a tripod I set it manually. I also set it manually if I don't like what I see on the screen.
--
Ed Rizk
 
I use auto but adjust the max ISO. I love that ability.
--

Darkness is the monster and your shutter is your sword, aperture your shield and iso your armor. Strike fast with your sword and defend well with your shield and hope your armor holds up.
 
It depends on how serious you want your photography to become, but if you are keen set everything yourself, use Av, Tv and manual, and always set the ISO. The reason is simple, the more you set up your camera - not in auto modes - the more you become aware of the effects of the settings.

ISO is easy to get a feel for and changing it quickly is easy on your 60D. Using auto settings just delays the learning curve. Initially you will blow a few shots but if you are using your camera meter and have a minimum shutter speed in mind, its easy to adjust aperture settings and ISO and get a feel for it quickly.

I shoot night street photography and I'm continually changing my camera settings since lighting varies so much. I might be shooting at f1.4 trying to keep my shutter speed to at least 1/50th or faster and the ISO set to 3200. When I walk ten steps the lighting is better, and I drop my ISO to 800 and I can move the shutter speed to 1/100th, move again another 20 paces and I have yet another lighting scenario. Street photography is an excellent way to learn exposure values quickly; even during the day, rapid camera setting changes are the norm.

--
An excellent lens lasts a lifetime, an excellent DSLR, not so long.
 
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