D100 "iso auto" "auto iso" - does it really work ?

Texas

Senior Member
I've been playing with my old D100 and it has a menu item to TURN ON iso-auto which is suppose to work in PSAM modes, all of them.
There's no place to set a minimum shutter speed which ought to be a minimum requirement for this option.

Searching the Internet and found that a few others, like me, can't get it to kick in.

Yes I know how to stimulate it into working (if it did), and that the boosted actual iso value picked automatically for the photo only appears in the exif. But a symbol in the viewfinder is supposed to flash when it has boosted the iso...can't get that to happen.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
[FONT=&quot]jpr_me 1 year ago[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Auto ISO works a little differently on the D100 than on later cameras. It will only automatically raise the ISO if it's out of options, in other words, if it can't produce an exposure at a given light level. It will not use the Hi 1 or Hi 2 settings, either. If you're, for instance, in Shutter Priority at 1/125", then go into a dark room, the ISO will bump up - to a limit of, I think, 3200. But you don't want to shoot at 3200 with this camera. You won't like the noise at all.[/FONT]

I cut this response from the same basic question on a D100 user's group forum...
 

Texas

Senior Member
Hmmm, I'll give it a try. I suppose in Aperture priority the shutter speed would have to get greater than 30 sec before the iso bumps up since a shutter speed limit is not an input to the system.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
You have to keep the age of that camera in perspective with its features... Auto-ISO was a pretty new concept... BTW... looking at the specs. Auto-ISO on the D100 only uses the range 100-1600... not the full range of the sensor...
 

Texas

Senior Member
I know its old. That's what makes it fun to fool with.

It's the highly touted claim (in published reviews at the time) that iso-auto works in all modes, PSAM. that amuses me.
 

Texas

Senior Member
http://www.moosepeterson.com/digital_library/docs/The Nikon D100.pdf

The above link I found is very informative.

Confirms my speculation that the auto iso kicking in only if metered shutter time is greater than 30 sec (in A or P modes). I'm not believing the meter would be accurate anyway at those super low light levels. Surprised that Nikon had all that incredible processing power in the D100 but could not include a minimum shutter time for auto iso to start its work.

I was wondering the trade off issues, around the overall (compute+CF card write) time, would be between RAW and compressedRAW on the D100.

Back in the day big CF cards were expensive so I suppose some folks could stand the 6 or 7 to 1 increased time for using compressedRAW. Very long times to write to a 24x card. Lots of speed up in camera computer chips in 15 years !
 
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