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Auto ISO - At the Limits


designdog

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A few days ago I visited the Napolean exhibit at our local museum, along with my wife and the M10. The exhibit was darker than most, as it featured some very lovely projected backgrounds. (An aside: I sometimes appreciate the art of presentation of gallery pieces more than I do the actual pieces themselves.)

 

I had the auto ISO set to 2500 and 1/60 (I think.) I have only returned to Leica for a couple of months now, and like most newbies, was concentrating mightily on getting shots in focus - in this low light. I was using the 50mm Summilux ASPH.

 

To my dismay, upon viewing them later in Lightroom, many shots were not in focus. Really dispiriting - until I noticed the shutter speed: 1/12 sec (thank you firmware upgrade!) Well, no one is going to get focused shots handheld at that shutter!

 

So I wonder, what happens when the auto iso reaches its limit? When, in this case, 2500 and 1/60 is not going to get an exposure? To me, the correct result would be the camera does not let you take the shot. Is that the case? If so, I must not be setting it up correctly.

 

Another observation. I was so intent on my focusing that I looked right past the shutter speed indicator. Must practice better technique...

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No.  IMO the worst behavior a camera can exhibit is not to take a picture when you press the shutter.

 

The behavior you observed is correct.  You told the camera not to go higher than ISO 2500... and so it dutifully did its best, giving you the shutter speed that the meter told it was correct, given the max ISO instruction and whatever aperture you had it set at.

 

An observation... photographers who routinely rely on automated functions like Auto-ISO and Aperture-Priority frequently run afoul of things like you did because they are not used to paying attention to things like light levels and ISO and aperture and shutter speed.  If you had been shooting in manual, you would have been forced to pay attention to those things - and they quickly become second nature.

 

Which is another way of saying you can use them as a tool, or you can use them as a crutch.  Work on making them the former!

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For sure one of the main things I've had to pay attention to since switching to Leica from Canon (image-stabilized) was shutter speed.  Either manually select ISO to provide appropriate shutter speed or move the maximum auto ISO to something like 10,000.

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  • 2 weeks later...

On a slightly different subject.... I managed a hand held exposure the other night of 1/4 second @ f4 ISO 2500, whilst trying out a new soft release, the subject was my curtains  shot with a Voigtlander 75mm F2.5 and was in focus! I was completely shocked at how much the soft release damped out camera shake.

 

 

 

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Edited by magixaxeman
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regarding very high ISO (12,500 vs 25,000) has anyone compared 12,500 plus Lightroom processing vs 25,000 plus Lightroom processing? 

 

I know I will go try it but any thoughts on optimal processing workflow would be ideal. Last week I shot a lighthouse in pitch black (light obviously overexposed) and used Lightroom to smooth the noise out ... Didn't think to try 25,000 as well as I had capped AutoISO at 12,500 I believe. 25,000 just boosts the sensor data (right?) and I'm trying to understand if Lightroom's algorithms are better than Leica's in camera boost

 

really an optimal workflow questions

 
Thx
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