40D - Theater - I miss Nikon.

Keith,

Use Tv mode with safety shift. And with the 40D you have a few options with safety shift. Study that feature because it's really quite useful in the theatre.

And don't be afraid to crank up the ISO. It's ok, really. You're shooting Canon now. The sharpness you get from faster shutter speeds and narrower apertures will easily outweigh the bit of noise you get. Noise can be dealt with.

im not sure what that has to do with what i said but ill humor you anyways: auto white balance screws up color so i try and set it myself most of the time, autofocus of course i use because for the most part its faster than manual focusing, Av and Tv if im in a situation where im shooting two subjects who have different lighting and i dont feel like constantly changing to accomodate then yea ill use Av most of the time.

Auto ISO? Seriously, you need to stop relying on your camera to do the work for you.

Pick an ISO, shoot in M and be in control. If you need auto ISO then you might not really need an SLR.

Funny, I'd want to STOP my Nikon from selecting higher ISOs...

exactly! ^^^

I think the OP needs to just set up his desired settings and use the custom functions on the mode knob. You could set up the ISO and then it is just one flick of the knob if the method for changing ISO isn't working for you....

Just a thought.

Here is a review of the D3 which the author says great things about the auto ISO.

http://www.daveblackph​otography.com/workshop​/11-2007.htm

cosworth wrote in post #4271385
Auto ISO? Seriously, you need to stop relying on your camera to do the work for you. Pick an ISO, shoot in M and be in control. If you need auto ISO then you might not really need an SLR.

Cosworth usually gives wise advice in his inimitable style, but this is crap.

Av, Tv, Safety Shift, Auto ISO ... these are options on professional cameras. The important part in designing a camera is allowing the photographer to control it the way he wants.

Shooting theatre presents some unique challenges. The light is constantly changing. It varies dramatically from one part of the stage to another. Using the camera's capability to adapt quickly to these changes is not a cop-out. It's not an amateur approach. It can be a smart way to get more good shots.

M is always an option. Sometimes it's a good option. I use it a lot. But I've never used it in the theatre.

Oh-oh - somebody is spoofing Cosworth posts!!!

What will they think of next

i was just wondering from the op how can you compare the iso on a 40D and D40? at 1600 I wouldn't care what the 40D gave me, I would be glad to not have the D40 in that situation. if you really want you can trade your 40D for my D70

Err...am I wrong in thinking that the 40D has an auto ISO? I recall that reviewers don't think its as good as Nikons (where u can have user selectible ISO limits) as opposed to Canon's pre-set limits. However....at least its in the camera.

Hogloff wrote in post #4271468
Here is a review of the D3 which the author says great things about the auto ISO.

http://www.daveblackph​otography.com/workshop​/11-2007.htm

The first thing to keep in mind about this article is that in the first paragraph he admits to being, "one of the photographers hired to make images for Nikon's brochure . . . "

What are the chances he is going to bad-mouth a "feature"?

gjl711 wrote in post #4269993
I’m not so sure, you have Av and Tv, why not a Iv? It’s the three factors that set exposure. The ability to lock down any two and let the third float just seems to make sense to me.

Hogloff wrote in post #4270034
I read a review of the new Nikon D3 and the photographer doing the review raved about the auto ISO as he was shooting a football game with varying light from shadow to bright sun and just set his shutter / aperature and let the ISO drift. His claim was that the ISO range on the D3 had so little effect on image quality that drifting 3 or 4 stops of ISO could not be noticed in the images. I think this would be a very usefull feature...Canon you listening?

timnosenzo wrote in post #4270839
Sounds like a neat feature! I think Nikon's have had it for a while, its a little surprising that Canon hasn't implemented it yet.

Sheesh, I can't believe how people react so negatively to you saying you missed that feature on your Nikon... what's wrong with an extra feature? I almost never use Tv mode, but its there and if the situation called for it, I'd be glad that Canon included that feature! Sure I can shoot in M and change the aperture my self pretty easily but if I wanted it to be automatic.....

gjl711 wrote in post #4271091
Sure, any time you want DOF control and speed control. Right now as a Canon user, all we have is resorting to manual. Nothing wrong with that, but Av, Tv, and Iv gives the photog more control. It’s just another dial setting anyway as everything needed to do the calculations are already there in camera.

Riff Raff wrote in post #4271305
I have no idea why you guys are arguing about this, it seems as obvious as Tv or Av mode in the digital world. As long as the camera supports changing ISO in 1/3 stop increments (which my Rebel XTi does not), I can't see anything bad about it. Now that ISO is shown in viewfinders, it would just flash the ISO at 50 if your shutter and aperture settings are too bright or flash it at 3200 if they're too dark. It's an easy feature, and if anyone doesn't like it they don't need to use it. Much like some shun Tv and Av modes already, in favor of M.

I agree 100% with all of th eabove comments. For those of you bashing the Auto ISO feature - Have you tried it?

Now for those of you saying you don't want the camera decidding anything for you Matthew hit the nail on the head.

matthew blake wrote in post #4271332
you don't use Av and Tv modes then right? or autofocus? or auto white balance?

cosworth wrote in post #4271385
Auto ISO? Seriously, you need to stop relying on your camera to do the work for you.

Pick an ISO, shoot in M and be in control. If you need auto ISO then you might not really need an SLR.

Funny, I'd want to STOP my Nikon from selecting higher ISOs...

I normally agree with Jason but this is proposterous and thankfully the voice of reason, Curtis has replied so elloquently. This past weekend I would have loved Auto ISO. Running up and down the football field chasing kids of all ages with the light changing just as fast would have been a great time for something this useful.

Curtis N wrote in post #4271537
Cosworth usually gives wise advice in his inimitable style, but this is crap.

Av, Tv, Safety Shift, Auto ISO ... these are options on professional cameras. The important part in designing a camera is allowing the photographer to control it the way he wants.

Shooting theatre presents some unique challenges. The light is constantly changing. It varies dramatically from one part of the stage to another. Using the camera's capability to adapt quickly to these changes is not a cop-out. It's not an amateur approach. It can be a smart way to get more good shots.

M is always an option. Sometimes it's a good option. I use it a lot. But I've never used in the theatre.

Here's my take. I shoot a lot of theater, mostly ballet. No flash allowed. At the mercy of the lighting used and it changes rapidly at times. Couple that with the variance of the motion of the subjects (from standing still to fast gravity defying leaps) and you have some vary tough conditions to shoot in.

Before I go any further a little bit about my philosophy of making an image. In any given situation there is, I believe, an absolutely ideal setting you can capture an image with to get the best quality image possible given the equipment you have. There are many settings that can capture the image at a reasonable quality, but very few if not only one absolutely best setting.

A best setting would be a shutter speed that freezes the action (if that is the intention) to the point where there is no perceivable motion blur. Also to the point where any faster shutter would be overkill and therefore diminish the quality of the image by sacrificing an ideal setting for another element of the camera like aperture and/or ISO. A best setting for ISO would be one that is as low as possible but still allow a 'best' shutter speed setting. A best aperture is a little more flexible depending on the look of the DOF you are going for but in theater it usually means shooting wide open to maximize the shutter and minimize the ISO.

So, conclusion as it pertains to the discussion of this thread. An Auto ISO that can be defined by the user would absolutely benefit some kinds of shooting like the type of theater I shoot. Absolutely. But only if I can tell it to only shift up and down to maintain a specific shutter speed and maybe even aperture. If i want to maintain a 1/500 shutter and set my aperture at f/2.8 and am shooting along at ISO3200 (common in some theater scenes) and suddenly the lighting comes up and the dancers start leaping about the stage i would absolutely love it if my ISO automatically dropped down to ISO800 and maintained my shutter at 1/500 and aperture at f/2.8. How cool would that be?!
I know, I could just leave it at ISO3200, or whatever, on the 5D and still wind up with a decent sellable shot (done it many times). But it would not be a shot that was captured at the 'best' setting. I cringe when I see an image I capture at ISO3200 in Av mode with aperture set to f/2.8 and the shutter is something like 1/1000. I always wonder how much bettere it would have looked with a lower ISO and a slower shutter as the 1/1000 is so overkill for what I shot.

It's the small little incremental ticks in this quality measuring stick that can all add up to set you apart from a soccer mom shooter and label you more of a professional. Always shoot for the best no matter how small you think things matter. I see a lot of non-L glass lenses that have very good quality, but the pros use L-glass. Why? Because there is a difference. Is the difference always perceivable? No. Not always. But sometimes it is. Sometimes it's obvious. Sometimes very obvious. For this same reason that a pro uses L-glass, the same pro should also strive to create the best possible image with the best possible settings. If that means letting the camera decide some things for you like what shutter to use when you choose an aperture, then so be it. I don't call that lazy, or amatuer. I call it smart. Can you always tell the difference between ISO3200 and ISO1000. Nope. Not always. But often times yes. Of course. Is it a huge difference? Nope. Not always. But sometimes yes. Even when it isn't, it's that incremental advantage that can add up to set you apart from the 'average'.

Do I 'miss' a lot of shots because I do not have auto ISO? No. But the shots I do get CAN often be better if a better setting was used. A setting that I knew where I should have been but simply did not have time to get there. Yes, 2 seconds is way too long to get there. Often times 1 second is. And believe me, I DO change the ISO on the fly all the time without ever looking up from the view finder. But I still miss when the changes are too sudden.

If anyone ever gets the chance to shoot theater, no matter what you shoot normally, do it. You can learn more shooting theater in a few hours than you will likely learn in months of shooting other things.

Curtis N wrote in post #4271537
Av, Tv, Safety Shift, Auto ISO ... these are options on professional cameras. The important part in designing a camera is allowing the photographer to control it the way he wants.

Exactly! Av & Tv are both automatic modes, why not have another option for an automatic mode? If Auto ISO turns your camera into a P&S as someone said, then so do Av and Tv, sorry to say....

the 40D does have auto ISO, it just does not go above 800