DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Unable to control ISO fully without pressing a button first (M6ii)

Started Dec 22, 2021 | Discussions thread
R2D2 Forum Pro • Posts: 26,528
Re: Unable to control ISO fully without pressing a button first (M6ii)

R Video wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

PhilM oz wrote:

R Video wrote:

I'm still a bit confused with this. I have both my M6 and M6ii here as I write this. Both are set to manual control. Both have ISO set to Auto. When I'm not doing anything the ISO indicator on the display reads "AUTO". When I half press the shutter on the M6 the ISO indicator on the display shows the ISO number it has chosen but only while I'm holding in the shutter button half way. When I release it, it immediately goes back to reading 'AUTO" and I can at any time rotate the top dial and select any ISO number I want, including AUTO.

Where as on the M6ii everything's the same except that when I let go of the shutter button the ISO indicator continues to read 6400 or whatever number it has chosen and it reads that way for the duration of the metering timer before going back to displaying "AUTO". The whole time it is actually just in AUTO, but displaying the value for the duration of the timer rather than just reading "AUTO". If I move the dial to select a manual ISO value of my preference, I cannot get back to AUTO until after the timer expires. That's the big difference. Of course, I can click on the screen and select AUTO at any time, but that's more awkward to do. I don't understand what the point is in locking the physical dial out of AUTO for 8 seconds but allowing me to enter AUTO at any time using the screen, even during the 8 second timer.

So what are the two cameras doing differently here? They both capture the same looking image so what benefit does locking out the AUTO option until after the timer expires offer over the way the older M6 works? The M6 doesn't appear to have a metering timer at all - at least there's nothing in the menu for it. And yet I don't see a difference in results with the M6ii doing it its way. Then, I am

What I'm not sure of is the OP's use case where he's in Auto ISO, then wants to change the ISO from the metered scene, then wants to immediately revert back to Auto ISO, without taking a picture (ISO reverts back to Auto automatically after taking a picture).

R2

Fair question. I use this camera almost exclusively for video. On my M6 I had the largest top dial set to ISO and I could be using a manual ISO setting for a shot in which the lighting is stable and predictable enough for me to manually set ISO, adjusting it manually as needed, but then I might suddenly want to switch to AUTO ISO to let the camera take care of ISO while I worry about everything else. On the M6 I would just quickly rotate that dial to AUTO.

Now with the M6ii I can't assign ISO to that dial anymore, which is my first disappointment and when trying to use the back dial for ISO, I was hitting an 8 second timer and wondering what the hopscotch was going on. Setting it to 4 is the lowest it can do, but pausing what I'm doing for 4 seconds is a no go during a fast flowing video shoot. Even in a calm shoot that delay feels weird and bad. So the best I can do now is assign ISO to a button, press that button, then adjust ISO anywhere from AUTO to High with no delay, no timer. But I'm using all the assignable buttons for other things, apart from the DIAL FUNC button, but that button is in an awkward spot for my fingers. I miss just having an ISO dial that lets me switch from manual ISO to auto without delay. And I hoped I could configure one but it's not possible.

It seems like a bug rather than a design to lock the ISO dial out of AUTO for 8 seconds when there is no such time lock when doing it the way I described above. Yes, if someone wants that metering timer function that's great to have, but if they decide at any moment during the 8 seconds that they just need to get into AUTO ISO for whatever reason and they go to use the ISO dial to do so, what possible benefit there could be to blocking them from doing that I just can't think of.

Thanks for the nice clear explanation.  Makes a lot of sense now.

It’s funny, the first thing that crossed my mind when I was reading some of your posts was Video.  It’s too bad that the metering timer doesn’t have a 1-second setting.  Pressing buttons and/or spinning wheels (even using the touchscreen) unnecessarily can cause unwanted jiggles (or noise if using the internal mic).

Maybe someone else has a good work-around (I just hit “Set” twice).

Best of luck!

R2

-- hide signature --

Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
http://www.pbase.com/jekyll_and_hyde/galleries

 R2D2's gear list:R2D2's gear list
Canon EOS M6 Canon EOS M6 II Canon EOS R5 Canon EOS R6 Canon EOS R7 +1 more
Post (hide subjects) Posted by
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow