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iron
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PostWed Oct 02, 2019 9:15 pm 
i have a nikon d800 (FF) that i found on sale for a great price. nikkor f/2.8 lens 24-70. i feel like it shoots slow for a given aperture. for example, i shot a picture of my laptop screen using shutter priority mode: f/4.5 1/8s 100 ISO @ 24mm laptop screen occupied my full viewfinder and is pretty bright. exposure came out as it should. yet, the 1/8s seems very slow to me. i have found this to be true at many settings, indoor and out. i end up with a lot of blurry kid pics because i normally shoot aperture mode because i like to control that element the most and don't bother with full M mode. most indoor shots with decent light seem to be in the f/5 range with ISO at 5000 and the shutter speed is slow enough that i am getting blur. maybe user error. i dunno. any thoughts?

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Bosterson
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PostWed Oct 02, 2019 9:42 pm 
Trying to parse your question... The D800 "shoots slow" for an aperture, but you think the exposure is correct. Exposure is exposure, and there are only 3 elements of it: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. So it sounds like what's happening is you feel like the camera is choosing too slow of a shutter speed for the exposure combination you want. I'm not familiar with that camera specifically, but check the Auto ISO settings. Is it limited to a low ISO cap, causing it to choose slow shutter speeds indoors? Not sure what you mean by indoor shots seeming "to be in the f/5 range" using aperture priority - you are controlling the f-stop. There is shockingly little light indoors (inverse square law, and a light bulb is waaaay less bright than the sun). Being able to take good photos at ISO 5000 is like living in the future - this was not possible with film. If you're getting blur at ISO 5000, try using a larger aperture than f/5. Blur (motion? camera shake?) is possible or likely at a shutter speeds less than 1/focal length, so if you're shooting < 1/25th at the wide end on that lens, you could still have a fuzzy picture, especially if your subject is moving or you don't have a steady hand or are not holding the camera solidly. (Brace your left elbow against your chest to support the lens-support arm if you're shooting at low speeds. Hit the shutter while exhaling.) But for your laptop screen pic, that exposure combination seems very reasonable - ISO 100 is not fast at all, and you were shooting at f/4.5, so 1/8th seems reasonable. Try putting the camera into full program mode for a while and see if it behaves differently. Ultimately, if the exposure looks correct, then if your shutter speeds are too low it's an issue with the exposure settings. Outdoor light notwithstanding, if you're getting too much camera shake indoors and don't want to go to high ISOs (5000 is "high"), get a stabilized lens. There's a reason people photos indoors are (prior to phones and software-based photography) traditionally shot with flash. Edit: postscript: reread your post - you shot the laptop screen in shutter priority? So you chose 1/8th, not the camera...?

Go! Take a gun! And a dog! Without a leash! Chop down a tree! Start a fire! Piss wherever you want! Build a cairn! A HUGE ONE! BE A REBEL! YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE! (-bootpathguy)
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kite
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PostThu Oct 03, 2019 7:40 am 
do you know what metering mode the camera is set to right now? you have Spot, Center Weighted and Matrix. these along with the ISO settings can really affect the shutter speed. is your 28-70 a newer version with image stabilization?

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kite
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PostThu Oct 03, 2019 5:41 pm 
try using Matrix and ISO around 400

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Bowregard
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PostFri Oct 04, 2019 2:18 pm 
I think Bosterson has the right idea. I had the same issue but with a different camera. I like to control depth of field most so of course AE is the best way to do that but my shots would end up blurry because the camera picked a slow shutter speed and low ISO. In my case switching to AE mode defaulted the camera to the lowest ISO and until I changed that setting I was stuck with a low shutter speed. I bet you are seeing the same thing. Of course kicking up the ISO is not easy to do if you are overly worried about image quality like me smile.gif

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gb
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PostFri Oct 04, 2019 4:14 pm 
I don't have a Nikon, but my experience is that you want to use aperture priority rather than shutter priority for landscape/flowers/nature - not birds or action sports. Set the aperture for depth of field requirements - takes a bit of experience, check shutter speed on your screen or EVF, and adjust ISO only if you need to in order to maintain acceptable SS and good exposure. Although, on my camera I can use auto ISO, I generally don't, and instead set ISO according to sky conditions. This works well for me but can keep you moving in sun and cloud conditions.

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kite
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PostFri Oct 04, 2019 4:56 pm 
Iron there is a Auto ISO setting it can be found in the shooting options menu.

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neek
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PostFri Oct 04, 2019 4:58 pm 
iron wrote:
one thing i don't understand is why the camera doesn't auto adjust the ISO upward to get to more reasonable shutter speeds. i see there is a setting in the menu that allows it to have a cap on the shutter speed (1/focal length), but so far, it doesn't seem like that matters. it basically keeps ISO 100, then you end up with f/2.8 and whatever shutter speed necessary. maybe i need to do more reading on how the camera is supposed to work in these regards. probably too much camera for me. never had this issue with a d70.
I very well could be missing something but a quick search for "d800 auto iso" shows where it is in the menu. Maybe it's on but "maximum sensitivity" somehow got set down to 100?

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kite
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PostSat Oct 05, 2019 8:06 am 
what I think you want is a minimum shutter speed.

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Backpacker Joe
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PostSun Oct 06, 2019 7:25 am 
Dude, you're trying to shoot a backlit display with a varying refresh rate! Forget about it! Its not a fair judging platform to begin with. Your not shooting a fixed object. Try shooting fixed objects at varying light levels using varying depths of field and shutter speeds before you judge.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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Bedivere
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PostWed Nov 06, 2019 2:34 am 
Auto ISO for indoor shooting is the way to go. I also shoot mainly in Aperture Priority. For indoor shooting of people I'll choose a minimum shutter speed around 1/30-1/40 and maximum ISO of 6400 in the Auto ISO menu. I also open the aperture all the way. I almost always shoot with a 16-85 f3.5-5.6. For band shoots in clubs I'll rent a faster prime lens such as a 24mm f1.4 and shoot at f2.8. The camera will always choose the lowest ISO that allows it to use the minimum shutter speed, which gives you maximum image quality. (least noise). If conditions are dark enough that maximum ISO at the minimum shutter speed won't produce a proper exposure then the camera will override the minimum shutter speed setting and shoot slower. If you want to lock in both shutter speed and aperture then turn on the auto ISO and set the camera to Manual mode. The camera will then vary the ISO to achieve proper exposure. Indoor shooting can be tough. It takes a very well lit room to be able to get good exposures at lower ISOs.

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Bosterson
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PostWed Nov 06, 2019 8:41 pm 
Are you changing the shooting ISO (button on the knob on top to the left of the viewfinder) vs changing Auto ISO (a setting in the camera's menu)?

Go! Take a gun! And a dog! Without a leash! Chop down a tree! Start a fire! Piss wherever you want! Build a cairn! A HUGE ONE! BE A REBEL! YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE! (-bootpathguy)
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Bosterson
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PostWed Nov 06, 2019 11:01 pm 
The reason all the pictures are being shot at ISO 6400 is that you manually set the ISO to 6400. You have to set the ISO (on the top left dial) to "Auto" for the Auto ISO settings to take effect. I'm sure the min allowable shutter speed for Auto ISO (in the settings) is fine on "auto" - the camera will probably not choose a shutter speed of 1/focal length in order to minimize the effects of lens shake. Aperture priority does not "cap" anything. It is a manual setting to a desired aperture that the camera then uses to choose the rest of the components of the exposure. If you shoot in A mode and set the aperture to f/5, all your photos will be at f/5. The camera will then choose a shutter and ISO combination to go with f/5 that will produce the correct exposure. I would recommend ensuring the camera is in matrix metering (there is no reason to be on any other type of meter on a modern camera unless you're using the spot meter to do Zone System or something), and then set the exposure dial to P (program mode). See what happens. If you're shooting indoors without flash the camera will likely still choose fast enough shutter speeds to stop motion blur. (For your picture 1 example, you have an f/2.8 lens - 1 2/3 stops faster than f/5 - so the same exposure could have been made with f/2.8 at 1/100, which is more likely to stop blur.) If you're still having problems with blur indoors without flash, change to S (shutter priority) and set it to at least 1/125. If the camera can't produce the correct exposure because it would need an ISO higher than 6400 (which you have capped for Auto ISO), your house is extremely dark and you might have to either get a flash or always turn the lights on at picture time. smile.gif

Go! Take a gun! And a dog! Without a leash! Chop down a tree! Start a fire! Piss wherever you want! Build a cairn! A HUGE ONE! BE A REBEL! YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE! (-bootpathguy)
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Bosterson
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PostThu Nov 07, 2019 7:26 am 
I have not personally used a D800, so you might want to confirm this with your manual, but the internet seems to indicate you should use the top dial to set an ISO of 100, and if you have auto ISO enabled in the menu (this should show up in the top LCD), then the camera will use 100 as the minimum and auto adjust up if it needs more exposure.

Go! Take a gun! And a dog! Without a leash! Chop down a tree! Start a fire! Piss wherever you want! Build a cairn! A HUGE ONE! BE A REBEL! YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE! (-bootpathguy)
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gb
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PostThu Nov 07, 2019 10:40 am 
iron wrote:
thanks. will give that a try. i think i previously had it like that, and then i get slow shutter speed as a result.
If you are having trouble with this or in understanding your options, I would go into Glazers; somebody there is surely very familiar with the Nikon 800. You will shorten your learning curve appreciably.

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