May 25, 2009

• The Digital Evolution: ISO on a Command Dial!

  Sorry, fellow camera geeks, for being so totally GONE the past few months! I kinda got married. So I’ve been a little occupied.

  However, the time has come for me to flex my geek-rant muscles again.

  Today, I want to write about a revolution / evolution that I think digital photography has had coming since it’s birth…

  Basically, in the days of film you effectively had only TWO means of controlling your exposure. Aperture and shutter speed. If you wanted anything else, you had to change film, and use a film with a different ASA / ISO. And your options in that respect were VERY limited. Most films were ISO 100, 200, or 400, and usually the 400 speed films were the ghetto kodak gold stuff you buy for “running-stick-figure-mode” on your camera. And B&W was your only option if you wanted to get *quality* out of ISO 800 or better. And forget about hardcore landscape photography. If you meant business, you were at ISO 50, or 64, or 25, depending on the “era”…

  Okay so my point is, Digital lets you change your ISO between each and every picture, right?

  HOWEVER, it continues to retain that “secondary” status below aperture and shutter speed. THOSE exposure controls get their own full-time command dials! ISO is still treated as that “other” setting you have to change, like white balance or image quality, etc…

  At the birth of digital, this went un-noticed. Digital ISO was in fact still a crutch. Professional results couldn’t be obtained above ISO 200, or above 400, or above 800, as each generation rolled by. Any serious digital photographer shot at their base ISO 90% of the time.

  Enter the 2007, 2008 and 2009 generations. The Nikon FX series is the best example- CLEAN ISO 6400, use-able for B&W AND color printing at small / medium print sizes. That’s a useable SIX stops of light, for a D3, or SEVEN on the D3X, if you count ISO 50 / 100 “LO-1″

  Do you realize that is as many stops of control as the average f/2.8 zoom?

  The point I’m getting to is, it’s time for ISO to play a more important role in exposure control. It’s time for ISO to be (able to be) on a command dial FULL-TIME… In so many low-light conditions, for example, I NEVER touch my aperture, I just leave it wide open the entire time. Why not let me use that command dial to change my ISO any time I want? Right now on my Nikons I have to reach up with my left hand, hold down a button, and dial my ISO while all other controls are locked out, and pictures can’t be captured.

  WHY?

  We’ve been making baby-steps in the right direction, with Auto-ISO. Nikon has slowly given more and more control to it’s Auto-ISO function. At first (D200) you could only go up to a certain shutter speed minimum, and you could NOT access the “HI” ISO levels. Then (D300) you could go to any ISO you wanted, and the ISO would actually go DOWN if you maxed your shutter speed. And now with a firmware update, Nikons can dictate ANY minimum shutter speed.

  Let’s take that next step! Maybe we don’t need to add a third command dial, but letting photographers quickly put ISO onto a command dial full-time would be awesome. And, when changing my ISO the normal way via an ISO button, I should be able to toggle Auto-ISO via the sub-command dial that is currently not used when changing ISO.

  I dunno exactly how it could / should be engineered. All I know is that in a dark theater, I can go 2,000 exposures without touching my aperture, yet I need to change my ISO incessantly. Sometimes automatic exposure is fine, and so I shoot in A mode with Auto-ISO on. But then sometimes I need manual exposure all of a sudden, and I’m out of luck because even though it is effortless to go from A to M, I’m stuck with my Auto-ISO on and therefore my exposure is still automatic. And I gotta go into a menu to kill Auto-ISO, and then the moment I needed to capture has probably passed.

  Alright, I’m done pondering. This is something I’ve written about regularly, and I guess I’ll keep bringing it up until camera companies catch on. Digital is here, people, and it is changing the way we think about exposure…

  Take care,
  =Matt=

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