New Fuji user in need of advice on shooting settings.

JNR wrote:

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

Ysarex wrote:

Auto DR never implements one stop either. Auto DR doesn't kick in and lower exposure when it sets DR200. It's important to understand that and understand what's going on under the hood.

If you have Auto-ISO enabled, it most certainly does (and you should know this).

With AutoDR enabled as well, the camera will indeed automatically raise the ISO from the base ISO of160 up to 320 and purposely underexpose the sensor to increase the required highlight headroom as it sees fit. As an Auto-ISO user, this is one of my primary objections to using AutoDR (or any other DR mode) full-time - and that goes for jpeg shooting too.
In low light situations where you are going to be well above base ISO anyway (and the DR modes don’t have to reduce sensor exposure to increase highlight headroom), I think they can be potentially very worthwhile for jpeg shooters and yes, some RAW shooters too.

Erik has this correct, and I certainly respect his decision to compensate on his own rather than ever rely on the body making the decision. Certainly, for shots like the gas station with the bright sign, Auto DR isn't a good idea because it might get fooled into mistakenly underexposing. Given that such a shot isn't time sensitive, you can take a variety of shots at different exposures - or just look at the results for each shot.

However, situations when the change in lighting or shooting angle is changing comes quickly right when you are trying to get a key shot, Auto DR can be a life saver if you don't mind the body doing that thinking. And, for me, Auto-ISO is my most used non-manual setting because I usually know exactly at what SS I want freeze in action to take place, and the optimal aperture / depth of field for the situation and lens used.

You're setting exposures manually then and relying on auto ISO to compensate for scene luminance? And while doing that you also set autoDR?

As such, Auto-ISO is the optimal variable. (I'm not a pixel peeper typically.)

All of these things vary based on the situation. I'm not rigid about any of it. However, I have a lot of experience with using Auto ISO (which typically only triggers for around 5% of the shots when I'm using it)... and I can say with confidence that it does not implement unless the shot has significant blow out. It seems to know that specular highlights should not trigger the higher ISO setting (DR 200).