I just don't get P, auto ISO, etc...

mattmoran wrote:

KCook wrote:

They charge me an arm and a leg for this fancy gear. These features are supposed to be useful.

I'm in full agreement. At a minimum they should provide a set of different AE profiles for us to pick from. They already provide preset Picture Styles. How difficult would it be to provide preset AE profiles as well???

Kelly

Isn't that what the picture modes are? AE with a hint to the camera about the subject (and thus the preferred settings)?

Personally I wish my camera had 4 dials: shutter, aperture, iso and white balance. Each dial should have an "A" for "Auto" if you want the camera to pick that particular setting.

But I've never seen a DSLR with such a sensible layout.

Well I dont know about the Canons but the Nikons D300 and up have Custom Shooting Banks where you put all of your setting in for whatever you are shooting a lot of, this way your preferred settings are a touch away. I havent used them myself because I dont shoot any one subject enough to set them up. for wedding and sports people this seems popular though.

I've used P mode and I actually enjoy using it. I can fire off quicker shots with out having to worry about to much thinking.

isn't that what the picture modes are? AE with a hint to the camera about the subject

Yes and no. The scene modes don't just fuss with the AE profile, they also yank the colors around. On my 50D the "Sports" mode is pretty much useless to me 'cause if forces the camera into burst shutter mode. And "Portrait" is COMPLETELY useless 'cause it does not allow any use of flash. And I find I'm using "Landscape" less and less, 'cause it yanks around any yellow hues. Grrrrrr

Nikons D300 and up have Custom Shooting Banks

My 50D does have this. But any Auto programming remains the same. You cannot adjust the Auto ISO profile, even in these custom banks (of course you can just set a fixed ISO which turns the Auto off). In fact these custom settings were one of the key reasons I got a old 50D instead of the latest Rebel.

Kelly

Aperture priority and manual for me, no P

KCook wrote:

isn't that what the picture modes are? AE with a hint to the camera about the subject

Yes and no. The scene modes don't just fuss with the AE profile, they also yank the colors around. On my 50D the "Sports" mode is pretty much useless to me 'cause if forces the camera into burst shutter mode. And "Portrait" is COMPLETELY useless 'cause it does not allow any use of flash. And I find I'm using "Landscape" less and less, 'cause it yanks around any yellow hues. Grrrrrr

Nikons D300 and up have Custom Shooting Banks

My 50D does have this. But any Auto programming remains the same. You cannot adjust the Auto ISO profile, even in these custom banks (of course you can just set a fixed ISO which turns the Auto off). In fact these custom settings were one of the key reasons I got a old 50D instead of the latest Rebel.

Kelly

Yeah but these are not Auto settings at all. These are a group of Presets you made up for shooting conditions you encounter often, and you can change your ISO settings if you need to or any other setting. These are just some of your own programs that you can get to with a push of a button and the turn of a wheel.
BTW P stands for PITA.

You see, if you try and shoot auto iso on the 5Dii it will fail nearly every time, the auto iso on that camera is really stupid (meaning it gets really confused and don't have a lot of settings to it).

P mode alone would have probably given ok settings.

A (Av) mode usually works, unless it gets backlit... though on the D800 and D4 (and I think the coming 1Dx) has face detection which is used for exposure (not autofocus). This should help fix back lit faces to a degree.

Agreed. It's weird that AutoISO for Canon is sooo far behind Nikon.

oh well

Stealthy Ninja wrote: You see, if you try and shoot auto iso on the 5Dii it will fail nearly every time, the auto iso on that camera is really stupid (meaning it gets really confused and don't have a lot of settings to it).

I guess so. I tried auto ISO and P on my Sony Nex 3 this weekend at my daughter's b-day party, and it worked much better. At least it was in the ballpark of what I would consider decent choices for the lighting conditions.

I'll stick with aperture priority and manual for me

Sometimes I use... *gasp* S (Tv) mode!

mattmoran wrote:

KCook wrote:

They charge me an arm and a leg for this fancy gear. These features are supposed to be useful.

I'm in full agreement. At a minimum they should provide a set of different AE profiles for us to pick from. They already provide preset Picture Styles. How difficult would it be to provide preset AE profiles as well???

Kelly

Isn't that what the picture modes are? AE with a hint to the camera about the subject (and thus the preferred settings)?

Picture styles are processing. What Kelly is talking about is being able to customize how the camera chooses the exposure settings when in an auto mode. I would find auto modes to be useful occasionally if I could get the camera to think like me. When I walk out in bright sun I go to ISO 100. My 5DII was choosing ISO 400. Then when I was inside shooting with a flash it was choosing ISO 100. I probably would have gone to ISO 800 to get some of the ambient background light.

In the custom settings most of my cameras have an adjustment for how shutter speed is chosen when in Av with a flash. One setting allows it to work like normal. One setting have a minimum shutter speed if a flash is on and powered up. This sort of thing is what I'm talking about. I want to be able to set the range for auto ISO. I want to tell the camera to go for 1 stop faster than 1/focal length. I want to tell the camera that I don't want it to go smaller than f/11. I think this will be offered in the future. If not by the manufacturers then by people who want this sort of control. Like CHDK for Canon Powershots. It's 2012! Meaty fingers turning dials and jabbing buttons is so 20th century. I want my camera to read my mind!

It's not a big deal. I've been shooting on M for a long time, and I've always advocated that M is easy with a little practice. All my cameras allow saving multiple custom settings combos. It's easy to pre-test, save, and then just switch back and forth. But there are times when letting the camera operate in auto would be handy, as long as it makes exactly the same decisions as I would.

EDIT: I just realized you meant the icon exposure modes. They sort of cover it, but probably aren't perfect. Don't they also set the processing styles too? I guess it wouldn't matter as long as they worked with raw. The problem is that the cameras I use for work don't have icon modes. I guess I need to downgrade.

Stealthy Ninja wrote: Sometimes I use... *gasp* S (Tv) mode!

P-Funk mode. Ala mode. I need my Lawn mode.

The problem is that the cameras I use for work don't have icon modes. I guess I need to downgrade.

As I said in an earlier post, the Scene shooting modes are very limited -

www.photographytalk.com/forum/photograph...t=15&start=15#226087

So I end up trying to cobble together Custom User modes to do the same darned things. But that leaves me staring at a knob with C1 and C2 on it. And my old gourd cannot remember wut scenes I tried to program for each mode. Canon shoulda put these Custom modes on the Custom menu page instead of the mode dial. Then, in the menu, give me a way to enter short names that jog my memory better than C1 or C2!

senility sucks

As I said before, I don't understand why nobody makes a high quality, affordable, large sensor digital camera with only 4 dials. (Big ones with solid clicks for my meaty fingers.) One for shutter (right side, top) one for aperture (on the lens) iso (left side top) and white balance (rear). Each should have an 'A' setting if you want to let the camera pick. If you set only one of the exposure settings set on A, then the camera will behave in a very predictable fashion. If you leave two or more set on A, then you are telling the camera you don't care. If you don't care, you don't care and you don't get to complain.

I don't need or want the green square, the little icons, or even C1 or C2. I don't need or want a camera that thinks it can read my mind. I don't know what I'm thinking half the time, it's ridiculous to expect a few ounces of electronics to know what I'm thinking.

Hey, this could be a fun game

My 4 dials:

1. Flash strength
2. Shutter speed
3. Shutter mode
4. Meter mode

Kelly