Auto ISO....good or bad?

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 1:21 pm

I have read that this is a great feature, but then i read that its best to set it to 200 and leave it there.

What do you guys think? I always shoot at 200 or so.

Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 288

You should use the lowest ISO possible for the given situation. It is no more complicated than that.

Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 55

That's partially true hoosiershooter.

If you want grain, you'll go for high ISO. I've had shots that could be taken at 200, but I wanted a certain effect so I took the pictures at 800 or even 1600.

Jed,
Use the ISO that best fits your needs. If you don't care, go auto. If you want clarity, go for the lowest possible. If you want grain, bump it. There's no magic formula in photography.

Joined: 18 Nov 2006 Posts: 288

Dexypoo wrote:

That's partially true hoosiershooter.

If you want grain, you'll go for high ISO. I've had shots that could be taken at 200, but I wanted a certain effect so I took the pictures at 800 or even 1600.

Jed,
Use the ISO that best fits your needs. If you don't care, go auto. If you want clarity, go for the lowest possible. If you want grain, bump it. There's no magic formula in photography.

That's partially true, Dexypoo. Digital photography doesn't produce grain. It produces noise. If you want noisy images, then that is pretty easy to do. I'll stick with my recommendation to the OP.

Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 63

When shooting indoors without a flash, I like to set my aperture as low as possible and ISO to Auto. I don't know about Canons, but my Nikon D50 lets me to specify a minimum shutter speed in certain modes (Program, Aperture Priority, and a few other). If the shot requires a longer shutter speed, it increases the ISO. I like to set that point at 1/125th to make sure I freeze the action. The camera will always choose the lowest ISO that allows that shutter speed to achieve a good exposure. It just gives me one less thing to think about.

Another good reason to use it is that it seems to be able to choose ISO settings that are not available in the menu. Manually I can only choose ISO 200, 400, 800 or 1600. So Auto ISO may choose a lower ISO than I can for a given situation (i.e ISO 1000).

Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 55

haha, my bad hoosiershooter... However, i think you understood what I meant, no?

Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 50 Location: NYC

you can try this link for further explanation:
http://www.great-digital-photos.com/30/iso-explained/

Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 51

jed1154 wrote:

I have read that this is a great feature, but then i read that its best to set it to 200 and leave it there.

What do you guys think? I always shoot at 200 or so.

ISO speed is a fantastic features. If you are newbie than set it to auto, but you can make much more photos using manual ISO!

Joined: 27 Oct 2004 Posts: 452 Location: Gloucester, UK

If you treat auto ISO as just another tool to use as and when you want to, it can certainly do no harm. In the same way that you can use the camera in fully auto mode all the time, if you set it on and ignore it you will learn very little about the technicalities of photography.

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:13 pm

Hoosiershooter wrote:

Dexypoo wrote:

That's partially true hoosiershooter.

If you want grain, you'll go for high ISO. I've had shots that could be taken at 200, but I wanted a certain effect so I took the pictures at 800 or even 1600.

Jed,
Use the ISO that best fits your needs. If you don't care, go auto. If you want clarity, go for the lowest possible. If you want grain, bump it. There's no magic formula in photography.

That's partially true, Dexypoo. Digital photography doesn't produce grain. It produces noise. If you want noisy images, then that is pretty easy to do. I'll stick with my recommendation to the OP.

I agree with you.

Digital noise is ugly ugly ugly and will ruin more pictures than enhance. For the most part, shoot with the lowest ISO you can manage. Shoot manual, it's the only way to learn how to use your camera.