Options
XSI Normal light = Low light??
Jeremy Winterberg
Registered Users Posts: 1,233 Major grins
ok, so this has been bugging me. I'll be taking pictures in a room that has very good lighting, and my camera forces me to use extremely low shutter speeds or else it will be extremely dark.
I'll be using my 17-50mm f/2.8 lens, which I thought was supposed to take decent pictures in low light.
Extremely low shutter speeds = 1/4s-1/60s... which = not good for hand held photography.
98% of my work is hand held. (I'm against tripods because I feel they get in the way, and I don't have a monopod yet.)
I'm not against the idea of using a flash to take pictures, but in some scenarios flash should not be *needed*.
And so since I cannot get decent exposures I have to get the aperture as large as possible to be able to have the shutter speed higher. Which completely throws off my depth of field. I want my pictures to be as sharp as possible, and I can't use an aperture of 8-11 without having an extremely dark picture.
And even after using the flash my camera light sensor thinks its still underexposed if I raise my shutter speed.
So here's my question. Is it just my camera and should I send it in (which I really dont want to do), or I could use my geek squad black tie warrenty and get a new camera through that. Or are all XSI's just really bad with light like that.
This is part technique and part camera gear... so it could go in either forum, but I put it in camera gear because I felt it could be a mechanical problem.
also another question if anyone wants to answer. Would performing a focus test (where you focus on a pen tip next to a ruler type thing) be worth my time, I've had focus problems with my camera (another reason why I want to send it in or use the black tie warrenty) but I think the only thing that would help me out with would be convincing the geek squad people that it does have a focusing problem.
I'll be using my 17-50mm f/2.8 lens, which I thought was supposed to take decent pictures in low light.
Extremely low shutter speeds = 1/4s-1/60s... which = not good for hand held photography.
98% of my work is hand held. (I'm against tripods because I feel they get in the way, and I don't have a monopod yet.)
I'm not against the idea of using a flash to take pictures, but in some scenarios flash should not be *needed*.
And so since I cannot get decent exposures I have to get the aperture as large as possible to be able to have the shutter speed higher. Which completely throws off my depth of field. I want my pictures to be as sharp as possible, and I can't use an aperture of 8-11 without having an extremely dark picture.
And even after using the flash my camera light sensor thinks its still underexposed if I raise my shutter speed.
So here's my question. Is it just my camera and should I send it in (which I really dont want to do), or I could use my geek squad black tie warrenty and get a new camera through that. Or are all XSI's just really bad with light like that.
This is part technique and part camera gear... so it could go in either forum, but I put it in camera gear because I felt it could be a mechanical problem.
also another question if anyone wants to answer. Would performing a focus test (where you focus on a pen tip next to a ruler type thing) be worth my time, I've had focus problems with my camera (another reason why I want to send it in or use the black tie warrenty) but I think the only thing that would help me out with would be convincing the geek squad people that it does have a focusing problem.
Jer
0
Comments
non 1-series Canons, IMHO, are not great with autofocus, especially in lower light. If you think you're having focus problems do a focus test, not just to convince geek squad people but to be sure yourself. Do the test repeatedly to be sure. Sometimes it's just the lens, sometimes it's the body, sometimes it's both.
Also, what ISO are you using?
I find in most household artificial light situations I need to either bump up the ISO or add flash/extra light (this was true of my previous dSLR as well - no difference at all between it and the xsi).
Perhaps if you post some shots with their exif data folks will be able to better help...
I like to stay around ISO 400, but sometimes I have to bump it up to 800 or 1600 and I dont like going that high cause then they have a bunch of noise.
I'm working on finding pictures that are good examples of what I'm saying. they'll be posted in a few minutes hopefully...
like I said, it helps, but then my images are full of nasty noise, because my camera sucks with high iso apparently.
ok so I should've had a faster shutter speed on this one, because the lights are blown out, but my camera light sensor said it was a good exposure so I stuck with that shutter speed.
He's all blurry and he wasn't moving at all, so its from me not holding the camera sturdy enough even though I'm pretty good at holding it still. I shoot in a trap shooting league and a 22 marksman league (at paper targets), as well as deer hunting(hey I live in wisconsin, I shoot guns and pictures .... whatever). all of which require steady aiming and such.
Are you saying you find this one dark? On my monitor it's absolutely fine for that kind of indoor lighting. I'm not sure I see the problem....
It seems to me that the xsi doesn't handle noise as well as the 40/50d, but as long as you don't underexpose too far I've found it to be absolutely fine at 800, and useable at 1600 (particularly with some noise work).
When it DOES exhibit significant noise is if you underexpose and then try to boost it a lot in post. If your initial exposure is no more than a stop or so under and you shoot RAW it's totally useable, however.
No, this one is not dark.
My point with this picture, is that the lighting is good enough that I should've been able to use a faster shutter speed.
I keep seeing other people taking pictures in worse lighting at ISO 200, f/11, 1/200s shutter speeds and such like that.
now do you see what I'm getting at kinda?
Jeremy, you may have fallen for the hyperbole that is often rampant on the 'Net.
I don't know it for certain, but off the top of my head I'd say my D700 would desire about ISO 3.2K for the room you have posted, with those settings, perhaps even higher ISO.
tom
All photos are Copyrighted and Registered. Please don't use without permission.
5DSR 16-35 2.8L III 24-70 2.8L II 70-200 2.8L IS II
I'd associate that kind of data with an outoor or bright daylight shot. Here's one that was taken in strong midday winter (pale) sun (hence the nasty contrast. Eww lol). The exif says that it was iso 100, f4, 1/80 @50mm. That would suggest that your example was actually doing pretty well to be as fast as it was....
Heres a picture taken on January 2nd, 2009 one of the extremely cold days in wisconsin (I think it was like -17F): F/4, 1/1000s, ISO 400:
Ok, so I guess I'm just paranoid. but I'll look into the focusing issue more...
I dont know off hand where I've seen it, but I've seen people posting where they were using like 1/100s+ shutter speeds indoors. in fact someone told me to do that for studio portraits *with hot shoe mounted flash*.
not a direct quote but it went along the lines of... "set your shutter speed to 1/100s, aim your flash up and to the right"
Another thing, even when using flash indoors, I still only get shutter speeds of like 1/60s to 1/200s max (anyone know how to shut off the flash shutter speed cap on the xsi?)
1/200 or 1/250 is a matter of physics, not a setting on your camera. The shutter simply can open and close faster than the flash can light the subject. The camera knows this, and limits the shutter speed to the 'sync' speed. On a show mounted flash like the 430EX or 580EX, you can set the flash in 'hi speed sync' mode, which forces the flash to fire multiple times rapidly.
The onboard flash does not have this hi-speed sync capabillity
Thanks, that fixed that issue I was bugged about. I thought thats what the hi speed sync was and you confirmed it. (I have the 580EX II if you didn't read my signature or look at my picture for that matter)
I'd suggest that if in doubt, set the ISO to 400 when indoors, higher when you see your shutter speed dropping below 1/60s (assuming not terribly fast action). The noise you get is just physics in action, but it can often be fixed, there are some very effective ways to reduce the visibility of noise in software, so if it's a choice of shooting at 1600 or not shooting at all, take the pictures, and if you get some shots that are worth the effort, head into the finishing school forum and learn how to use software to get rid of noise.
Finally, remember that looking at your shots at 100% view on an LCD screen has virtually nothing to do with how they'll look on display. Noise that seems all encompassing just isn't terribly noticeable in print, because all printers allow ink to bleed a little, and this is enough to deal with 90% of your noise right there. And for viewing on the web, you're usually using only a fraction of your total resolution (like in the sample you posted) in which case noise is virtually impossible to detect.
Noiseware. "Community Edition" is free and works beautifully.
http://www.imagenomic.com/download_nwsa.aspx
Thanks! It does work very well. I also like that portraiture plugin for photoshop they have there. Works excellently. (too bad you have to pay for it)
Consider shooting atleast ISO 800 if you want handhold without a tripod/image stabilization.
If folks are shooting at ISO 200 f11 and 1/200 sec or so, they may be using a flash and "dragging the shutter"
Even at ISO 800 or so, if you nail the exposure, then it should be relatively noise free. Canon's DPP program has a pretty good noise reduction feature so you can try that out first.