D7100 - Lowering ISO's with built-in flash

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NIKONIAN_DREAMWEAVER

Senior Member
I recently took a series of pic's (with the D7100) of a small-engine I was working on. I used the built-in flash, matrix metering, aperture priority, auto-iso. And I noticed later, that I had a good amount of noise and I checked the metadata and my ISO was chosen automatically by the camera as 6500; which was way higher than it needed to be to get a perfect exposure, in my case. I was in the garage, which was relatively low - medium in lighting. So the camera metered the light the way it thought it should, but didn't meter as if I was using the flash at close-range, which is what I was doing...

Anyway, I found that if I turned off 'auto-iso' and set it on just 'ISO' and then set my ISO number manually (using the ISO button), to something reasonable, I was able to set the camera to 125 ISO and it gave me perfect exposure, with the flash and a nice low ISO.

I do quite a bit of this kind of thing with the 'built-in' flash, so I'll have to remember this for next time...
 
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NIKONIAN_DREAMWEAVER

Senior Member
Thanks Nick,

I read that WayneF post. Sounds like it will behave differently if I use a hot-shoe mounted flash in i-TTL mode... I'll have to do some testing on that and see how it goes. I like auto-iso also. But, not with the built-in flash, as I just recently discovered. I think I'll probably turn off auto-iso for all flash shots and just set my ISO to somewhere between 100 - 400. That should probably work well for me. Then I'll turn auto-iso back on for most of my other (non-flash) type shooting situations.
 
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Love Nikon

Banned
If you use a hot shoe flash it will go to 4x your lowest setting ie I use iso 200-6400 and with flash on its iso 800 ( unless the flash is not powerfull enough but never had that happen) This information is not in the handbook but is a response to a similar systm introduced by Canon
 
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NIKONIAN_DREAMWEAVER

Senior Member
Love Nikon said:
If you use a hot shoe flash it will go to 4x your lowest setting ie I use iso 200-6400 and with flash on its iso 800 ( unless the flash is not powerfull enough but never had that happen) This information is not in the handbook but is a response to a similar systm introduced by Canon
Click to expand...

They should have put that info. in the user-manual.
 
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T-Man

Senior Member
It's also a good idea to go into your user settings menu and set your Auto ISO upper limit to something manageable, like, say 3200, or in some cases 6400 (if you have good noise reduction software like NIK's Define 2.0). That way, even if you forget to turn Auto ISO off in situations when you want to take control of your ISO, your camera can't bump ISO beyond your pre-designated upper limit. This will save some otherwise well composed shots.
 
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NIKONIAN_DREAMWEAVER

Senior Member
Yeah, that can be useful. I have it set high because I occasionally shoot photos of hummingbirds. Sometimes I like to freeze the wings and you typically need high ISO's for that, even in good light.

I've actually started using manual ISO (auto-iso 'off') for non-flash too now. I'm finding that I can get 100 ISO quite a bit more often that way. I just keep an eye on my shutter-speed. But, so far, I haven't had any problems with shutter-speeds dropping too low, using manual ISO. I'm liking it! :rolleyes:
 
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Blacktop

Senior Member
NIKONIAN_DREAMWEAVER said:
Yeah, that can be useful. I have it set high because I occasionally shoot photos of hummingbirds. Sometimes I like to freeze the wings and you typically need high ISO's for that, even in good light.

I've actually started using manual ISO (auto-iso 'off') for non-flash too now. I'm finding that I can get 100 ISO quite a bit more often that way. I just keep an eye on my shutter-speed. But, so far, I haven't had any problems with shutter-speeds dropping too low, using manual ISO. I'm liking it! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

If I'm shooting anything stationary it is always ISO 100. If I'm shooting landscapes when it's windy out I'll bump it up manually if I need a higher shutter speed.
The only time I ever use auto ISO is for wildlife (BIF mostly), or sports. Even then I have it set for a maximum of 1600. If i can't get the shot at 1600, then screw it. I go home.
I just can't stand digital noise. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard.
 
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