Interesting Chris.  My Olympus tended to under expose a little (or a lot sometimes) but rarely over exposed.  The Nikon on the other hand seems spot on with its metering most of the time, perhaps over exposing slightly, but not enough to blow any highlights (so far - I've not had a lot of use yet and am only using the LCD for reviewing images).

With regards to the histogram, I can't say that I use it normally.  I used to think that I was loosing out but now I don't know.  If an image is that important and tricky to meter I'll bracket anyway.  

And I like to use as slow a shutter speed as possible with as low an ISO as possible when I'm trying to capture great colours, such as a fruit market for example.   This was learned from the days of film though, and I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes when shooting digital?  It's not as obvious to me, but perhaps that's because of my RAW workflow. 

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Martin - you might find this short essay about exposing to the right to be of interest. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Forseti:

Martin - you might find this short essay about exposing to the right to be of interest. http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

What an amazing article! As I've been trying to get the best quality out of my camera's sensor, I've found I've been moving the histogram to the right - now I know why!

Would this also explain why noise can be reduced dramatically on my Nikon sensor by avoiding underexposure?

The article very much reinforces what I feel about exposure for portraits. I try to get the eyes nice and clear without the Photoshop 'accentuating the whites of the eyes' dodging and burning stuff. I try to get the eyes right in camera, and have the skin tones fairly pale, but avoiding them burning out. Faces seem to come out much better this way after a quick tweak of the curves.

I thought my manual experiment just related to getting the most from my particular sensor, but perhaps it's the same for all sensors?

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Chris - there was a thread devoted to the subject a while back now. Here: http://community.dcmag.co.uk/forums/1/411970/ShowThread.aspx

I use A/V and always have, mainly to control DOF.  I also find exposing to the right by increasing 1/3 of a stop gives better results with the eos 5d as suggested by Anglefire and a few other 5d users.  If you have the old Fuji Velvia slide mentality, it's not difficult to get it 99% right most of the time.

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[Digital Black and white]

At the risk of taking this slightly off topic, Although I normally use Av mode to control DOF and use a lens's sweet spot, I also use +ve EC these days to minimise noise by shifting the histogram to the right, I think it's now known in some circles as the "Mosley Method" - (exposing to the right).

However I have recently been experimenting with ISO settings, until recently I have been using the lowest ISO available, wherever possible shooting at ISO 100 on my 30D believing this to give the lowest noise for a given exposure.

It was recently explained to me that on the 30D ISO 100 & 6400 are only accessible by activating the ISO expansion mode and are not in fact values recognised by the camera but are interpolated values, therefore the lowest noise setting on the 30D is in fact ISO200 in most cases for RAW shots and ISO 160 for JPEG (I still don't understand why there is a difference here). It was also advised that I should try not to use the other intermediate (interpolated values) and stick to 200,400.800&1600. as in low light conditions interpolated values will add noise. Basically the advice was to stay away from any interpolated ISO settings.

After using ISO200 for some weeks now I feel that shadow noise is lower at ISO 200 than 100 and this advice seems to work for me on the 30D. I would be very interested to hear of anyone else's experiences.

Just to get this back on topic - Av mode it is for me then!

Cheers, Peter.

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Peter J. Jackson:

It was recently explained to me that on the 30D ISO 100 & 6400 are only accessible by activating the ISO expansion mode and are not in fact values recognised by the camera but are interpolated values, therefore the lowest noise setting on the 30D is in fact ISO200 in most cases for RAW shots and ISO 160 for JPEG (I still don't understand why there is a difference here).

Interesting Peter, have never heard of this before. As a 30D user I'm obviously interested in learning more so could you kindly point me in the direction to read more on this subject as the handbook makes no mention of it (other than high end expension (H) of course), or not that I can find anyway, and from day one my camera has been set to ISO 100.

Forseti:

Peter J. Jackson:

It was recently explained to me that on the 30D ISO 100 & 6400 are only accessible by activating the ISO expansion mode and are not in fact values recognised by the camera but are interpolated values, therefore the lowest noise setting on the 30D is in fact ISO200 in most cases for RAW shots and ISO 160 for JPEG (I still don't understand why there is a difference here).

Interesting Peter, have never heard of this before. As a 30D user I'm obviously interested in learning more so could you kindly point me in the direction to read more on this subject as the handbook makes no mention of it, or not that I can find anyway, and from day one my camera has been set to ISO 100.

This is also a new one on me. As far as I'm aware in the ISO expansion mode only the high end "H" is not a true figure. On the 5D the expansion mode gives a high of 32,000 and a low of 50. Standard setting being 100-1600. Harry

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I change between the functions depending on what I'm shooting.
In general I leave it on Aperture but if I'm shooting gigs or low light stuff I stick it on Shutter.  I know what speed I can handhold down to comfortably so I stick it in that mode and select auto-iso for these occasions. 
I only generally use Manual when I am doing landscapes or using a tripod for something and have the time to experiment.

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Harry Shepherd:

Forseti:

Peter J. Jackson:

It was recently explained to me that on the 30D ISO 100 & 6400 are only accessible by activating the ISO expansion mode and are not in fact values recognised by the camera but are interpolated values, therefore the lowest noise setting on the 30D is in fact ISO200 in most cases for RAW shots and ISO 160 for JPEG (I still don't understand why there is a difference here).

Interesting Peter, have never heard of this before. As a 30D user I'm obviously interested in learning more so could you kindly point me in the direction to read more on this subject as the handbook makes no mention of it, or not that I can find anyway, and from day one my camera has been set to ISO 100.

This is also a new one on me. As far as I'm aware in the ISO expansion mode only the high end "H" is not a true figure. On the 5D the expansion mode gives a high of 32,000 and a low of 50. Standard setting being 100-1600. Harry

If a camera is sold on the basis that that its standard range is 100-1600 then I would be very surprised if ISO 100 wasn't a good setting. I don't own one of these cameras but I do regularly see high quality landscape images taken on Canons at ISO 100 and I know that 100 is the standard setting for the 5D.

My camera's standard settings are 200 to 3200 with expansion at either ends. I've read a number of articles on why ISO 100 is not (as any former film user might assume) better than 200 for this camera. My handbook tells me that contrast at this setting will be slightly lower than normal, and tests I've seen have also mentioned a slightly lower dynamic range so there's more danger of burnt out highlights or blocky shadows.

But as I say, the handbook makes it clear that ISO 100 has drawbacks and should only be used when needed. If yours says that 100 is standard then I would be inclined to assume it was. Perhaps people are confusing different camera makes?

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I've never really understood why a camera has to have the shutter/aperture priorities as separate items, surely they all do exactly the same thing don't they?,  I tend to shoot in aperture and widen it in low light to get a decent speed, I could equally shoot is shutter mode and increase it whenever I want a wider aperture, makes no odds at all does it?, and when I want something different I normally flick it to manual and adjust one or the other to suit, I've never pressed the exposure compensation button on any camera I've owned to date, another waste of camera real estate in my books (unless you have a camera that habitually over or under exposes in which case you may want to tune it to your taste, but that could be done by menu really).
  Having the same controls named differently seems a bit bizarre really.

Stinkyfinger:

I've never really understood why a camera has to have the shutter/aperture priorities as separate items, surely they all do exactly the same thing don't they?,  I tend to shoot in aperture and widen it in low light to get a decent speed, I could equally shoot is shutter mode and increase it whenever I want a wider aperture, makes no odds at all does it?, and when I want something different I normally flick it to manual and adjust one or the other to suit, I've never pressed the exposure compensation button on any camera I've owned to date, another waste of camera real estate in my books (unless you have a camera that habitually over or under exposes in which case you may want to tune it to your taste, but that could be done by menu really).
  Having the same controls named differently seems a bit bizarre really.

Not really, The AV mode allows you to manually select the Aperture and automatically selects the Shutter Speed.
The TV mode allows you to manually select the Shutter Speed and automatically selects the Aperture.

The P (Program) mode works exactly as you say you use the AV/TV modes.

But I am speaking Canon - not sure about any other makes....

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Exactly Canonoffice, but you'll notice they are exactly the same values, ie if you choose F3.5 in Av mode it will give you , say, 1/250, but if you go into Tv mode and choose 1/250 it will give you F3.5 to acheive the same exposure, no difference at all see. All it means is you are prioritising which bit you are changing but the ratio between the Tv/Av always remains the same. It wouldn't really matter if it was one big knob marked Automatic Exposure with a plus and a minus arrow.

Because if thats the correct exposure - it's the correct exposure however you set the camera. AV gives you more control over DOF while TV allows you to correct for subject movement.
If you just want 1 setting use the P (program) mode is you want no control at all just use the green square...
I use AV because it allows me to select the sharpest aperture on each lens.
I use TV for moving subjects and I use P when I dont have time to think about anything except not missing the shot....

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The exposure compensation button is the easiest way to quickly adjust exposure in tricky lighting. I have'nt found any under or over exposing problems with the 40D and often simply changing metering modes will do the trick where metering is difficult, but for things like sunlit white birds I would'nt want to do without exposure compensation. If you expand the dynamic range on the 40D you lose ISO100. I normally stick to ISO200 when there's enough light but ISO400 or more for most bird stuff. 

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