Fuji X-H2S - Impossible to do fully manual time lapse (interval shooting)

Hi Fuegi,

I don't want to set the ISO to auto. If I do the camera will adjust the ISO during the time lapse which results in flickering, especially as you go from day to night. I'd rather change it myself and be in full control. Unfortunately I cannot adjust the ISO once the time lapse is in progress. I think the problem is that on the H2S one cannot assign the ISO to a command wheel. I think this is a major flaw and needs a firmware update.

Are you saying that you set your camera up for interval shooting but you manually adjust ISO as time goes along right before the camera takes the next photo?
Yes, that is exactly what I do.

Wouldn't the flickering you are talking about exist in both sets of timelapses (your manual intervention and Fuji Auto ISO)? If you are shooting from day to night, wouldn't that be exhausting to keep monitoring the situation?
It is time consuming but the only way to get consistent results. The camera is a dumb device and does not meter consistently, especially as it gets darker. You always want to be in full control to get a proper time lapse and hence exposure.
As you manually change exposure you of course get steps but these are maybe every 100 pictures or so and programs like Lrtimelapse are designed to handle these steps. If I let the camera choose the exposure I will get changes with every picture, very hard to smooth out. Also the camera often gets the exposure wrong as the metering may expose for the bright sunset and not the darker foreground or vica verse. It does not know what I want.

In any case, I find it odd that Fuji does not cater for fully manual control on their pro body. So if anybody knows of a setting I may have missed please let me know.

Thanks,

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

As changing the ISO doesn’t change the exposure, wouldn’t you rather adjust the SS? In any case, how about using manual with Auto-ISO, locking the exposure with the AEL button, and then just tweaking the EC dial up or down as needed? That should effectively do what you want.

Erik, ISO does change exposure.Aperture, SS, and ISO do.

As I mentioned Auto ISO will not work as it relies on the camera's metering to find a value. Try using the metering system of your camera in the dark. It won't give you the correct shutter speed / ISO. That is why I need to use the camera in manual. My 2011 canon rebel did it, so did my Sony, so did my XT3 and XT4. Why not the H2S?

I contacted Fuji and am awaiting their reply. Not sure how long it will take though.

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

svensl wrote:

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

As changing the ISO doesn’t change the exposure, wouldn’t you rather adjust the SS? In any case, how about using manual with Auto-ISO, locking the exposure with the AEL button, and then just tweaking the EC dial up or down as needed? That should effectively do what you want.

Erik, ISO does change exposure.Aperture, SS, and ISO do.

No, ISO changes brightness after exposure, it doesn’t actually affect the sensor exposure at all. In many cases, you could adjust it just as effectively in post. Much better to optimize the exposure at base ISO if you can (on a tripod you probably can if you aren’t limited by SS issues).

As I mentioned Auto ISO will not work as it relies on the camera's metering to find a value.

Not after the exposure is locked, it doesn’t. Once locked, you can simply click the ISO up and down with the EC dial.

Yes Erik, you are correct! ISO is just the gain applied after. Thanks for correcting me. I believe in manual mode and auto iso the EC on the rear command wheel does not work.

On the XT4 you could program the command wheel to change the ISO (or use the manual dial of course) but on the H2S the ISO cannot be assigned to a command wheel. You always need two button presses to change the ISO. Maybe that is the reason ISO cannot be changed manually when in interval shooting mode. Not sure.

Try using the metering system of your camera in the dark. It won't give you the correct shutter speed / ISO. That is why I need to use the camera in manual. My 2011 canon rebel did it, so did my Sony, so did my XT3 and XT4. Why not the H2S?

I contacted Fuji and am awaiting their reply. Not sure how long it will take though.

What exactly are you shooting?

Timelapses, day to night. Start before sunrise and continue into the night sky. I always found it easiest to change the settings as I time passes. So you can start with low ISO and fast shutterspeeds and as you go into the night you may go up to 20sec (depending on focal length as to not get star trails) with an ISO of 64000.

Fuegi wrote:

svensl wrote:

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

As changing the ISO doesn’t change the exposure, wouldn’t you rather adjust the SS? In any case, how about using manual with Auto-ISO, locking the exposure with the AEL button, and then just tweaking the EC dial up or down as needed? That should effectively do what you want.

Erik, ISO does change exposure.Aperture, SS, and ISO do.

As I mentioned Auto ISO will not work as it relies on the camera's metering to find a value. Try using the metering system of your camera in the dark. It won't give you the correct shutter speed / ISO. That is why I need to use the camera in manual. My 2011 canon rebel did it, so did my Sony, so did my XT3 and XT4. Why not the H2S?

I contacted Fuji and am awaiting their reply. Not sure how long it will take though.

If the XT3 and XT4 allowed you to do this then I agree that Fuji should allow the same functionality with the H2s. Most of us don't have this very hands on approach to timelapses so I think we were confused as to why you were doing this.

In regards to ISO, it technically isn't part of exposure. Only shutter speed and aperture are. Fuji cameras are ISO invariant so adjusting the ISO in camera is similar to adjusting the exposure slider in your RAW editor.

You are right. Erik, the other forum contributor corrected me on this. Thanks!

Anyway, please report back with what Fuji says.

I will.

svensl wrote:

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

svensl wrote:

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

As changing the ISO doesn’t change the exposure, wouldn’t you rather adjust the SS? In any case, how about using manual with Auto-ISO, locking the exposure with the AEL button, and then just tweaking the EC dial up or down as needed? That should effectively do what you want.

Erik, ISO does change exposure.Aperture, SS, and ISO do.

No, ISO changes brightness after exposure, it doesn’t actually affect the sensor exposure at all. In many cases, you could adjust it just as effectively in post. Much better to optimize the exposure at base ISO if you can (on a tripod you probably can if you aren’t limited by SS issues).

As I mentioned Auto ISO will not work as it relies on the camera's metering to find a value.

Not after the exposure is locked, it doesn’t. Once locked, you can simply click the ISO up and down with the EC dial.

Yes Erik, you are correct! ISO is just the gain applied after. Thanks for correcting me. I believe in manual mode and auto iso the EC on the rear command wheel does not work.

On the XT4 you could program the command wheel to change the ISO (or use the manual dial of course) but on the H2S the ISO cannot be assigned to a command wheel. You always need two button presses to change the ISO. Maybe that is the reason ISO cannot be changed manually when in interval shooting mode. Not sure.

But if your exposure [Time and Aperture] is controlled manually, changing the Exposure Compensation necessarily changes the ISO setting. Looking at the manual EC is or can be assigned to a dial.

Try using the metering system of your camera in the dark. It won't give you the correct shutter speed / ISO. That is why I need to use the camera in manual. My 2011 canon rebel did it, so did my Sony, so did my XT3 and XT4. Why not the H2S?

I contacted Fuji and am awaiting their reply. Not sure how long it will take though.

What exactly are you shooting?

Timelapses, day to night. Start before sunrise and continue into the night sky. I always found it easiest to change the settings as I time passes. So you can start with low ISO and fast shutterspeeds and as you go into the night you may go up to 20sec (depending on focal length as to not get star trails) with an ISO of 64000.