Chuck Westfall's October Tech Tips - Attention 7D Owners

[Jon Ruyle]

You can't set any exposure compensation in manual mode, since the rear wheel is busy controlling the aperture. Hence that's not possible.


You can set AEB in manual mode, though, but it changes the shutter speed, not the ISO, even if the ISO is in automatic mode.

Lame!


I'm aware that cameras and camera software are complicated beasts, and involve many difficulties we on the sidelines cannot imagine. And manual mode for the 7D sounds like a huge improvement over "auto iso" on older cameras. But there is an obvious way "auto iso" should work. Why do they refuse to give it to us?

[Oren]

You cannot set EC not because the wheels are busy lol - the camera has enough buttons, don't worry. You cannot set EC simply because it does not make sense: you can control both aperture and shutter and you see where the light metering is - need +1 EC? change the aperture/shutter until you see the light metering needle at +1 [:P]

[Daniel Browning]

You can't set any exposure compensation in manual mode, since the rear wheel is busy controlling the aperture. Hence that's not possible.

Yeah, that's why I call it "ISO compensation", because it wouldn't change the exposure at all, just the ISO. My idea for controlling it is to hold down the "set" button while you spin the top wheel to set ISO compensation (since the top wheel normally controls ISO already).

I'm aware that cameras and camera software
are complicated beasts, and involve many difficulties we on the
sidelines cannot imagine. And manual mode for the 7D sounds like a
huge improvement over "auto iso" on older cameras. But there is an
obvious way "auto iso" should work. Why do they refuse to give it to
us?

Aren't customers awesome? Think of it from Canon's point of view:

• Us: We want Auto ISO! We want Auto ISO!
• Canon: FINE! Here's your stinking Auto ISO.
• Us: Thanks, but it doesn't work in Manual mode.
• Canon: OK, OK. Here, now it works in Manual mode.
• Us: Thanks again, but it doesn't have Auto ISO balance control.

I want to have full control over all the features in the camera.

You cannot set EC not because the wheels are busy
lol - the camera has enough buttons,

There are plenty of ways to make it work with the existing buttons, IMHO. Another example is to hold down the ISO button while spinning the rear wheel.

...don't worry. You cannot set EC
simply because it does not make sense:

Technically, we're not really talking about "EC", which is exposure compensation, but the equivalent concept applied to ISO (not exposure).

you can control both aperture
and shutter and you see where the light metering is - need +1 EC?
change the aperture/shutter until you see the light metering needle at
+1 [img]/emoticons/emotion-4.gif[/img]

Mark already explained the benefit, but I'll explain a use case in more detail:

• You're shooting in rapidly changing light.
• Bright sunlight to dark shadow and back again in a matter of seconds.
• You're working fast and furious to catch just the perfect moment.
• You have a certain f-number that you want to use to get just the right DOF.
• You have a certain shutter speed you want to get just the right amount of motion blur.

Now, what are your options?

1. Manual mode and manual ISO. This is OK, but what ISO do you use? In bright light, you want ISO 100. In the dark shadow you want ISO 1600. If you set it at 1600, the bright images will be blown out, if you set it at 100, the dark images will be far too noisy and unusable. If you change the ISO for each shot, you will miss the perfect moment to take the picture.
2. Manual mode and auto ISO with no ISO balance. Now you have the camera setting the ISO for you at a speed that is thousands of times faster than you could ever do manually. The only problem is that it is consistently using an ISO that is 2 stops higher than you want. Or two stops lower. Or anything except exactly what you want. Of course, if you were in Tv mode, you could simply adjust the camera to add or subtract a number of stops from the AE system. But Canon didn't provide any such control when using Auto ISO.
3. Manual mode and auto ISO with ISO balance. Now you have the same benefits as the above, except if you want to have a brighter image file (less highlight headroom), dial in +1 ISO balance. Or if the camera is using too high of an ISO, and you want it to be lower for all Auto ISO images in this circumstance, just dial in -2 and you will get ISO 800 instead of ISO 3200, the darker image that you want.

I hope that helps illustrate what we're talking about.

[Oren]

Daniel (and others) - with all the respect, have you read what I said? ...maybe it's just me I don't know... maybe I wasn't clear enough. I don't need explanation of what you want - I understand that and I'd like to see this feature as well (could have saved many great moments).


Daniel - the idea of holding down the "set" button while spinning the top wheel is a great example for "the camera has enough buttons, don't worry". I really like this idea and hope Canon will do it someday []

[Jon Ruyle]

My idea for controlling it is to hold down the "set" button while you spin the top wheel to set ISO compensation (since the top wheel normally controls ISO already).

Fine for a retrofit. But what I would like to see is another position on the dial. "Aperture priority" and "shutter priority" are legacy names from back before the camera could control iso. Aperture priority really means "camera picks the shutter." Shutter priority means "camera picks the the aperture." I'd like a knob for "camera picks iso" (and I specify the other two.)

[*]Us: We want Auto ISO! We want Auto ISO![*]Canon: FINE! Here's your stinking Auto ISO.[*]Us: Thanks, but it doesn't work in Manual mode.[*]Canon: OK, OK. Here, now it works in Manual mode.[*]Us: Thanks again, but it doesn't have Auto ISO balance control.

Then:


Canon: Okay, have your lousy Auto ISO balance control.


Us: Thanks yet again, but you made it so Auto ISO balance only works in live view mode.


Etc. []