Higher than 1 sec shutter speed on Canon A80 \"Av\"

[Inkyape]

I just got my A80, and I love it by the way, but I like to shoot pictures in low light using a tripod. I dont mind the shutter time, as the objects are still. (still lifes and night landscapes)
I know that i can use the "M" setting to adjust the aperture and time to whatever i like, up to 15 sec.
I find the "M" setting very good, but I would like to have a graph showing directly if the shot will be under - or overexposed, instead of the (-2) or whatever that shows up when the shutter is half-pressed.
Anyway-

Here's my question - Since I like to set the aperture high (8.0) to get maximum sharpness all over the picture, I'd like to use the "Av" mode, and set the aperture to 8.0 - so that the camera can choose whatever time it likes up to 15 sec. However, when I do this with a motif which is very dark, the camera sets the shutter to a " 1" ",showing in red (meaning underexposed) , but never more than that!
Why doesn't it shoose a longer time? Like 2 or 10 or 15 seconds?
Is there a maximum time of one second in "Av" mode??
And if so, WHY?, and must I use the "M" mode for this? That would limit the "Av" mode to "kind of bright" pictures!
Still love it though, please respond

[stduc]

To answer your question - who knows? Someone at CANON presumably! But is it really a problem to set f8 and then twiddle the time in manual mode?
Be warned however - having done a few tests (and not rigorous ones either). I am of the opinion that the exposure hint in the viewfind (the -2 to +2 indicator) is widely off once exposure time exceeds 2 seconds. Therefore you need to take test shots.

[Ikinaa]

However, when I do this with a motif which is very dark, the camera sets the shutter to a " 1" ",showing in red (meaning underexposed) , but never more than that!


The G3 does exactly the same.
I use then the 'M'-mode, and set exposure time to a time when it's not red any more, but that doesn't give really good results, when doing night shots (city), I often underexpose, because the lights are else often blown out.
So I guess, even if the Av-mode could do it, the result wouldn't be nice anyway...
So be lucky to have digital... you can see the result immediately and make it +/- 1 sec until the result is best, or do some bracketing and chose the best picture on your screen... (I guess that's what the film-guys also do, except that 2 Meg of picture is much cheaper than 1 slide :wink: )