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D3200 choosing very high ISO w/flash

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DWR0082

DWR0082

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I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
 
Solution
Mako2011
DWR0082 said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...
With the newer Nikon's the way Auto ISO is used with flash has changed. It tries to balance the background ambient exposure more with the foreground and raises ISO quickly to do that. The change came after the D90 and implemented with D300...I think...
DWR0082 said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...
With the newer Nikon's the way Auto ISO is used with flash has changed. It tries to balance the background ambient exposure more with the foreground and raises ISO quickly to do that. The change came after the D90 and implemented with D300...I think. The new models set Auto ISO according the metering of the ambient light, before the flash, regardless of if the flash is present or not. This means indoors (dim light where we need flash), the TTL flash always discovers it is working into high ISO. This is sort of a forced balanced fill flash situation, regardless how dim the room. Some like the new implementation and some do not. The way to use flash with a lower ISO is to switch out of Auto-ISO or to a exposure mode that allows you to set the ISO to the value you want.
 
Solution
DWR0082 said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...
For whatever reason I never bothered looking into, Nikon changed the way Auto ISO works with flash between the older and newer generation cameras. Setting the ISO myself is my preferred method.
 
Mako2011 said:
Mako2011 wrote:
Mako2011 said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...
With the newer Nikon's the way Auto ISO is used with flash has changed. It tries to balance the background ambient exposure more with the foreground and raises ISO quickly to do that. The change came after the D90 and implemented with D300...I think. The new models set Auto ISO according the metering of the ambient light, before the flash, regardless of if the flash is present or not. This means indoors (dim light where we need flash), the TTL flash always discovers it is working into high ISO. This is sort of a forced balanced fill flash situation, regardless how dim the room. Some like the new implementation and some do not. The way to use flash with a lower ISO is to switch out of Auto-ISO or to a exposure mode that allows you to set the ISO to the value you want.
Click to expand...
Thank you for a real answer! I haven't used a non pro/semi pro body since the D50 so this is new to me. I was getting frustrated because on my D300 if I set ISO to "AUTO" even in A/S modes it usually lives at 400 by default. So I would set it and hand it off to her so she didn't have to fuss with too many settings.

Well if anything this will force her to think more about how to make photos now won't it?
 
DWR0082 said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...

Hi,

I believe that with the introduction of the D7000 the behaviour regarding choosen iso changed. There were a lot of threads regarding this topic.

Coming from a D40 I also noticed this different behaviour. On my D5100 I notice that when you use an external flash the camera will choose a lower iso then while using the built in flash. Also i notice that when I use a "stronger" external flash ( SB900 instead d SB400 ) the camera lowers its iso even more.

I dont know if the D3200 has a setting regarding this behaviour, you could check the user manual for that.

Personally when using flash i use i-TTL balanced, matrix metering, M mode and auto iso with base iso 100 and suitable max iso depending on the situation.


Greetings,
Marc
 
Mako2011 said:
Mako2011 wrote:
Mako2011 said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...
With the newer Nikon's the way Auto ISO is used with flash has changed. It tries to balance the background ambient exposure more with the foreground and raises ISO quickly to do that. The change came after the D90 and implemented with D300...I think. The new models set Auto ISO according the metering of the ambient light, before the flash, regardless of if the flash is present or not. This means indoors (dim light where we need flash), the TTL flash always discovers it is working into high ISO. This is sort of a forced balanced fill flash situation, regardless how dim the room. Some like the new implementation and some do not. The way to use flash with a lower ISO is to switch out of Auto-ISO or to a exposure mode that allows you to set the ISO to the value you want.
Click to expand...
Hi,

IMO you can choose between I-TTL balanced and i-TTL standard mode on the D3200.

Selecting spot metering will enable i-TTL standard mode for the flash ( or you can select the mode on the external flash ). This is on p132 in the D3200 user manual.

Greetings,
Marc
 
mrbr said:
mrbr wrote:
mrbr said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...
Hi,

I believe that with the introduction of the D7000 the behaviour regarding choosen iso changed. There were a lot of threads regarding this topic.

Coming from a D40 I also noticed this different behaviour. On my D5100 I notice that when you use an external flash the camera will choose a lower iso then while using the built in flash. Also i notice that when I use a "stronger" external flash ( SB900 instead d SB400 ) the camera lowers its iso even more.
Click to expand...
That's how my older nikon's worked but even with an SB600/400 attached the D3200 is still pumping ISO up near the max limit which is what was baffling me.
 
mrbr said:
mrbr wrote:
mrbr said:
Mako2011 wrote:
mrbr said:
DWR0082 wrote:

I picked this up for my wife who lives in "Auto" mode most of the time. I gave her an SB400 to use at family gatherings and for some reason the D3200 keeps choosing ISO 2000-3200 even with the flash attached. I've never had this issue with my old D50 or D300 where it generally lives at ISO400 if you let the camera do the thinking.

I even tried with the pop-up flash and it chose ISO 2200 for the shot with flash firing. Is there a new setting I'm missing somewhere?
Click to expand...
With the newer Nikon's the way Auto ISO is used with flash has changed. It tries to balance the background ambient exposure more with the foreground and raises ISO quickly to do that. The change came after the D90 and implemented with D300...I think. The new models set Auto ISO according the metering of the ambient light, before the flash, regardless of if the flash is present or not. This means indoors (dim light where we need flash), the TTL flash always discovers it is working into high ISO. This is sort of a forced balanced fill flash situation, regardless how dim the room. Some like the new implementation and some do not. The way to use flash with a lower ISO is to switch out of Auto-ISO or to a exposure mode that allows you to set the ISO to the value you want.
Click to expand...
Hi,

IMO you can choose between I-TTL balanced and i-TTL standard mode on the D3200.

Selecting spot metering will enable i-TTL standard mode for the flash ( or you can select the mode on the external flash ). This is on p132 in the D3200 user manual.
Greetings,
Marc
Click to expand...
Yes you can but it may still let ISO rise higher while Auto-ISO is enabled vs the old implementation... If I remember correctly. Also not sure you can select spot metering in "green" mode as the op required.
 
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