The secret: manual exposure mode in combination with Auto ISO (or what Nikon calls “ISO sensitivity auto control”). This is a combination that does defy logic, in two ways.
First, Auto-ISO in combination with manual exposure is pretty counterintuitive (fellow photographer/writer Ken Rockwell calls it a ‘defect‘). Back in the days of film, there wasn’t much to else to change when you set your aperture and shutter speed manually. Sure, you could manually adjust your ISO, but you had to do it a roll at a time and push or pull process your film. But allowing your digital SLR to adjust ISO based on lighting conditions while maintaining a constant shutter speed/aperture combination is a great feature for sports photography.
Second, Nikon only provides a “floor” shutter speed of 1/250 for Auto-ISO. In program or aperture-priority mode, the D300 will start adjusting ISO at the minimum shutter speed set in the Shooting Menu for ISO auto sensitivity control. This might make one think that shutter speeds of faster than 1/250 (more desirable for sports action) aren’t readily useable with Auto-ISO. Au contraire! The minimum shutter speed setting has no effect whatsoever in manual or shutter-priority modes, since shutter speeds do not vary in those modes.
Thus, I can happily set my D300 to, say, f1.8 and 1/320 in manual mode, and the camera will automatically fine-tune the ISO (in 1/6 steps, no less) to achieve optimal exposure. At a recent basketball game, I could shoot anywhere on the floor or even into the crowd at automatically-adjusted ISO settings ranging from 800 to 2000, all while achieving perfect exposure at 1/320 and f1.8.
Consequently, I’ve added this very useful setting to my recommendations for shooting basketball and other fast-paced indoor sports.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Aqualung // Feb 29, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Yup, I think it’s a great feature and have also been using it for shooting basketball. I’m curious, you only shoot 1/320? I’ve found blurring even at 1/400 and now usually shoot 1/500.
Dave Black is also a huge fan of AutoISO, even on the D3…he talks about shooting football where a player is running from the sunny, middle of the field to the endzone which is in shadow…
2 The Sports Photo Guy // Feb 29, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I like 320-400 for basketball action, and here’s why: it will freeze ‘peak’ action shots (top of a jump shot or layup, for example) while leaving just a hint of motion blur in fast-moving shots (driving the lane). And dunks - usually a frozen player with a little blur to the ball and net. Awesome!
3 G.N. // May 20, 2008 at 6:42 am
I have tried it on my D200, just out of curiosity, and it works perfectly - depending on the situation where needed and/or out of a cretive perspective. Really gives you the ability to “fire-and-forget”, although still having control over the exposure.
4 G.N. // May 31, 2008 at 6:01 am
I better post a corection to my coment of May 20. The Auto ISO on the D200 maxes out at 1600. But still … it’s a lot of fun!
5 Jason // Jun 28, 2008 at 9:17 am
Thank you! This is a great tip. I’ve always been irritated by the 1/250 minimum shutter speed of the auto-iso feature.
6 Jim Gunson // Jul 15, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I appreciate this feature, but I’d like to be able to render it permanently inactive for manual mode. When travelling I’m faced with two situations: wildlife and panoramas. I want S mode and auto ISO for the former and M mode for the latter without auto ISO. This means two adjustments and naturally I forget the ISO issues. The solution may be to change my own firmware, but in this day of camera convenience, I’d like to be able have auto ISO disabled in M mode as part of the D300 firmware.
7 The Sports Photo Guy // Jul 15, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I hear you; but as much as we’d all like to customize the camera’s settings to the nth degree, that’s just not possible. However, this sort of black/white preference is just what the custom setting banks are for. If all your dealing with are wildlife and panoramas, it seems to me like you could set a shooting and custom setting back for each, and still have two banks left over!
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