Auto ISO increase?

I was thinking today how much a pain in the butt it is to have to continually adjust ISO settings to maintain fast shutter speeds in difficult light.

Do you think it would be a good idea to to allow the camera to automatically adjust ISO to maintain shutter speeds in TV mode or aperture in AV mode.
I appreiciate this is not something most people would want most of the time but i think it would be nice to have available, maybe in the custom settings.

What do you think

I don't find it to be an inconvenience at all, so I would not favor a change.

---Bob Gross---

Jonny - A few months ago this question and suggestion was presented by one other member and me at almost the same time.
But there was and apperantly is no need by many photographers for suc a feature. I would be very pleased if it was possible
to set an shutterspeed and an aperture and the camera adjusted the ISO automaticly. But we can not have it all in life ...

That would really be nice. Along with that option you should also be able to limit how high it can go.

I posted a thread like this a few months back.

Well according to the specs on the 5D...

It has this mode called "Auto ISO 100-400" so yeah...you're gonna dish out alot of money if you want it.

nikon has it... i have a 5d on order.. don't think i'll use it

It's so easy to implement and would be such a great feature for shooting sports. The way I suggested it way back when was a little more complicated. I'd like to have an Av+ mode where I can specify my aperture and an acceptable shutter range, say 1/250 - 1/500, and if the shutter speed would fall below 1/250 at the current ISO it automatically raises the ISO, and if it would go above 1/500 it would lower the ISO. Perfect for shooting sports on those days where the sun is in and out every 2 minutes.

Other cameras already have similar functionality, even Noinks, so we'll have it sooner or later. Also, it's just a matter of time before pro cameras like the Canon 1-series are programmable for behavior along these lines via some sort of macro language, or maybe even Java based, J2ME or something similar.

Philip,

The way you described that is exactly what i was thinking and what i would like to see. To be honest i couldn't think (after a few beers) just how to explain myself correctly!

Hmmm, isn't the point of the creative modes to be in-fact that and give you creative control ? I thought the auto and/or basic modes were for those that don't want to have to work out what settings they want. I do see what your getting at, I guess in some ways it would make life more simple. But I don't see the point myself, to me it seems like once you have auto ISO, why not automate the other settings to make life easier too and then I think well they already do that in the basic modes.

I would think auto ISO would maybe be like the AWB, which most people never seem to think much of. If you always want the fastest shutter speed why not just set your iso to 1600 and only lower it on those really harsh light sunny days.

But we're not saying we want the fastest possible shutter speed. Typically, we want the lowest possible ISO that will get us the shutter speed needed for what we are shooting, because noise levels decrease as you lower the ISO. AWB affects white balance, not sensitivity to light. Most of the time for sports, 1/500 - 1/1000 will do. What Jonny suggested is really not much different than the the way the current Av mode automatically sets your shutter speed, or Tv automatically sets your aperture. We're just suggesting adding a third variable.

When I work this way today, I'm not doing anything ingenius in changing my ISO all day. I have the camera in Av mode at the max aperture or near max aperture, and I watch the viewfinder while adjusting the ISO down until I see the shutter speeds around what I want. Then, the sun goes behind the clouds and I adjust the ISO up until I see the range I want. Then the sun comes back out and........well you see where I'm going. At that point, adjusting the ISO is monkey work, not the act of a skilled professional adapting to the environment around him.

If my inglish was as good as yours I had it explained the way you did. Thanks ...

And then it becomes a P&S DSLR.

DSLR = D + SLR:
SLR= Shooting with SLR is a kind of art, right?
D= And the D is only help us to save time, film process cost and for some speed up the learn curve.

DSLR= make lots, lots of profit for the DSLR maker.

I'd have to agree that this would be a welcome feature.

HKFEVER while sometimes you want complete comtrol over the camera, other times there are only so many thing you can think about at one time. Especially during sports when thing are changing very fast it would be nice to set some automatic parameters to get more keepers. You could concentrate more on composition than camera settings.

HKFEVER wrote:
And then it becomes a P&S DSLR.

I disagree, a P&S is simply that.

When being creative ISO is rarely discussed, its all about Shutter speed and Aperture. Having the ISO taken care of in fast moving, fast changing conditions would simply be a way of freeing your creative brain cells to concentrate on the most important settings.