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M8 and Auto ISO

robsteve

robsteve

Subscriber
I was at a MIR concert last night and brought my M8 along. I was impressed with how well the auto ISO worked in combination with auto exposure. I made a few test shots and found that -1 2/3 exposure compensation gave good results on auto with the varying stage lighting and the 35mm Summicron and Noctilux. With the 90mm I had to set - 1 1/3 to compensate for the narrower angle of view and less of the dark background to throw off the metering.

The good surprise was the M8 would sometimes drop as low as 160iso when the spots were on the performer. A lot of the time it was choosing 320-640 iso, with a few at 1250 in lower light or with the f2 lenses. Even the Noctilux hit 1250iso in lower light levels.



Here is a link to the gallery. The lens and iso will show at the bottom of the gallery.

 
TRSmith

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
kudos for trying the auto ISO feature. I think I've been a bit timid about using it, afraid I'd end up with lots of noise from an over-compensated ISO setting. Nice shots!
 
robsteve

robsteve

Subscriber
I had one of the band members over to pick some shots. He picked a lot that I hadn't picked yet. Some of them were the high iso, but he liked them. Here is a sample with the WATE at 21mm and 1250iso. What looks like banding in the top of the picture is a catwalk.

 
Last edited:
R

robertwright

New member
dfine takes care of high iso banding fyi. I am a convert!

I find the auto ISO very useful, particularly as you say, it picks 160 very often especially with fast lenses (hello--all of 'em!)

contrast this with the Canon implementation of Auto ISO and it is lens dependent only, which can be "optimistic" on wides tending to pick 1/30, 1/20 very often. I have to go to Tv to set the floor at 1/60 for example, and therefore lose control over aperture.
 
ecliffordsmith

ecliffordsmith

New member
Rob,

Nice images, I am sure the band were very happy.

I never take photographs in such changing light conditions but you have pointed out a very good use for auto ISO.

Do you think you would have missed some shots without it?
 
robsteve

robsteve

Subscriber
ecliffordsmith said:
Rob,



Do you think you would have missed some shots without it?
Click to expand...
I don't know if I would have missed some shots, but assuming I was using auto-exposure, there may have been times when I was shooting at very high shutter speeds or very low shutter speeds. In other words, if I set the camera to 640iso I might have had a lot of shots at very slow shutter speeds, while if I chose 1250iso, I might have had a few shots at 1/1000th of a second or faster, when I could really have shot at a lower iso and gotten better quality.

Robert
 
jonoslack

jonoslack

Active member
Hi Robert
Great stuff
I've got all three of my user settings on auto-ISO now (and only one on auto WB).

It's a funny old world, 18 months ago I used AWB all the time and wouldn't have touched auto ISO with a bargepole. Nowadays I use auto-ISO most of the time, and hardly ever touch AWB
:)
 
C

Cancelledreality

Guest
Hi Rob,

These are very nice.
I haven't used auto ISO yet, but now I am going to try it.

Hans
 
robsteve

robsteve

Subscriber
I wasn't actually shooting the concert for them. One of the band members, the brother of the lead guitarist is a next door neighbor and invited us to come see them play live. They are quite popular in Germany now and haven't played locally in three years.

Originally I thought it was being filmed by the CBC for an arts show and there would be good TV type lighting. When I got there I realized it was CBC Radio Canada and they didn't need much light for the radio :)

Here is a closer shot of the guitar. I used the 90mm here and with the spot on it, the auto iso had me down to 320iso.

 
robsteve

robsteve

Subscriber
Here are a few more.

This was the WATE at 18mm. I was in the front row, so I needed a wide angle for some shots.



A couple Noctilux shots at f1.2 showing how the light could change. The guitar changed between these shots too. The smoke got pretty dense at times.



 
ecliffordsmith

ecliffordsmith

New member
Hi Rob,

Impressive shots. The auto WB really has done a good job here. I really like the photograph of the stage with just the equipment and smoke.

When auto WB was released I had nt real opinion about it and do not really use it much myself. No particular reason, I just tend to shoot in stable light conditions more. When I see how useful it is in these situations it is clear what and an added value feature this is for people who work in changing light conditions a lot.
 
jonoslack

jonoslack

Active member
ecliffordsmith said:
Hi Rob,

Impressive shots. The auto WB really has done a good job here. I really like the photograph of the stage with just the equipment and smoke.

When auto WB was released I had nt real opinion about it and do not really use it much myself. No particular reason, I just tend to shoot in stable light conditions more. When I see how useful it is in these situations it is clear what and an added value feature this is for people who work in changing light conditions a lot.
Click to expand...
hmm - do you mean auto WB or auto ISO?
 
robsteve

robsteve

Subscriber
ecliffordsmith said:
Hi Rob,

Impressive shots. The auto WB really has done a good job here. I really like the photograph of the stage with just the equipment and smoke.

When auto WB was released I had nt real opinion about it and do not really use it much myself. No particular reason, I just tend to shoot in stable light conditions more. When I see how useful it is in these situations it is clear what and an added value feature this is for people who work in changing light conditions a lot.
Click to expand...

I was shooting on the tungsten setting :) In post I dropped the tint from -5 to -9 on some of them, but left the temperature as it was shot.

Yes, the auto-ISO worked great. I was surprised when I found I was even getting 160iso on some. In the old days, these lower ISO shots would probably been over exposed and just blown out.

Robert
 
C

Cancelledreality

Guest
Rob, thank you for starting this thread. It started me trying Auto-ISO.
I've never used Auto-ISO before this, but last Saturday I tried it and it worked great. Will post the shots later!
 
J

jeff stevens

Guest
I got hooked on auto ISO with my D700, I would set the camera in manual, allowing me to set blur and dof (shutter and aperture), then let the camera flip the ISO around. Perfect for changing light.

Since going to the A900, I miss that feature, and I think it's going to push me to get an M8.
 
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