New respect for Auto-ISO.

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
I was camping at a farm with a big group of friends this weekend. My D800 with a Nikon 28-300mm lens was along for the ride. Normally I'm old school, never shooting ISO above 800 and making adjustments to shutter and aperture as I go. This weekend was different, with lots of stuff going on, and the pics are not for critical use. The pictures are just for fun, so I went to Manual mode and locked in my shutter speed high enough to reduce camera-shake and motion blur, and my aperture in the sweet spot to get a decent depth of field with some bokeh. So for the first time ever I shot for hours with the camera set for Auto-ISO. I was very pleased with the results, and it made the shooting a lot more fun. Later I was shocked to see the camera went as high as ISO 3200 for outdoor shots in the shade! But they look pretty good, and are certainly a good enough record of the weekend.

J-See likes to set his shutter and aperture manually, then adjust ISO in post processing on the NEF files. But shooting Auto-ISO with RAW and JPEG-fine gave me a bunch of usable JPEGS to upload to Flickr as soon as I got home.

sko.jpg
 
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jay_dean

Senior Member
Auto ISO is great, but does have its limitations. It does have a tendency to blow out in bright conditions, its not that great with landscape photography, and dont use with flash are just a few drawbacks off the top of my head. But for me, its a must for action shots
 

Danno

Senior Member
I really like Auto ISO as well... like that pistol. had one of those... If I am guessing right looks like a S&W 9mm. Gave mine to my son.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
I really like Auto ISO as well... like that pistol. had one of those... If I am guessing right looks like a S&W 9mm. Gave mine to my son.

I think you're right. A fellow brought several handguns from an estate sale, but they were constantly failing to go into battery after the first shot. I never saw so many malfunctions during a shooting session. It was very frustrating, especially for some of the guys who had never fired a handgun before.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I was camping at a farm with a big group of friends this weekend...

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Hope you don't mind me going slightly off topic in your thread but you got me all fired up and I suddenly I remembered a Photobucket account I have used in aaaaaaaages! Some old photos of my Kimber were found (one in smooth, fancy wood burl grips, the other in competition-ready G10 snythetic) and felt compelled to share:
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KimberBurl1.JPG

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KimberBrown1.JPG
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
A comment on the malfunctions. It was stated that some people had not shot pistols before. There is a good chance that they were "Limp Wristing" them. Semi-Autos will not feed properly when not held firmly. Limp Wristing is a common problem especially with new shooters.
 

hrstrat57

Senior Member
Auto ISO is a hurdle I have yet to leap, old dog refuses to give up control....I often use Aperture Priority as today's cameras are smarter than ol hrstrat57 but "film speed"?

Nope, need more convincing.....tho I do bounce the ISO frequently to get the shutter needed to blur action but give up control of ISO?

Nope.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
A comment on the malfunctions. It was stated that some people had not shot pistols before. There is a good chance that they were "Limp Wristing" them.

That idea popped into my head until it happened to the Navy pilot with plenty of small arms training. He brought out his can of lube and treated all the affected pistols, but they still had problems. All of his pistols, however, worked fine, including a .22 with a suppressor. It felt very strange to fire a handgun without hearing protection, but you just didn't need it with that one.



22can.jpg

Yes, he had all of the appropriate paperwork and tax stamps that made this a legal device.
 
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snj979s

Senior Member
I use auto ISO more than I ever thought I would esp when I'm at an event or a situation where I don't have time for exposure adjustments and I want the rest of the exposure triangle fixed. That being said, keep an eye on it and if you have a body that allows you to limit maximum ISO, that's a good approach as well. Mainly, watch that sucker, don't let it get unnecessarily high.
 

Samo

Senior Member
I use auto iso most of the time because it is very good. I'll turn it off occasionally to shoot a lower iso shot like 400 or less. I set the upper threshold at 5000 on my camera based on results shooting skin. The Df is very clean beyond 5000 but I like skin to be done that value or less. Sometimes I'll go up to 6400 but that is just for fun.

You have to watch Nikons however because they tend to be lazy looking for a good shutter or good stop. They will just boost the iso to the limit and carry on. Sometimes that is not the most efficient means possible.
 
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Zeke_M

Senior Member
I use it often. Mostly outdoors.
My default settings are 1/125 f8 Auto ISO is usually set at 100-1600. Take a shot or two and adjust accordingly.
Indoors with flash I set the ISO at 200 with the aforementioned settings. I rarely go above 1600 if I can avoid it.

Since the thread is getting sidetracked from time to time.
My Old Beat-up Lightweight Commander.
From the D3100 files.

LWCommander_zps7671ea8d.jpg
 
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