TP: What camera settings do you use?

Great discussion. I am a newbie and have taken advantage of a few of the common settings. I have a slightly different question that I didn't see covered in the thread.

Are people using these same settings when using flash vs natural light?

Additional feedback welcomed.

There are a lot of "auto" settings in my A200, and I am trying to figure out an optimal "base" setting to use. Do you more experienced users have a default set up, or do you use the camera's "auto" settings as a starting point? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Rich

Most base settings will vary depending on the kind of shooting you usually do. I don't shoot sports at all, currently, so my settings will be very different from those of someone who usually shoots fast-moving targets.

My most important base setting is shooting in RAW format. RAW is universally a good option, regardless what type of photography you do. Say, for example, you find later that you aren't happy with the white balance in a series of photos -- it is easier to fix white balance issues in RAW, than in JPEG. Same with exposure compensation.

Speaking of white balance, I tend to use Auto WB when outdoors, but when indoors I find it does a poor job. Note that the A200's Auto WB might perform differently! I prefer to set a custom WB indoors, although when shooting in RAW, again, it is fairly easy to fix the WB in processing.

On some rare occasions, I will use Auto ISO indoors if the room is well lit, or outdoors if it is an overcast day.

Other than those particular instances, I don't use any of the 'auto' settings. I stay away from the scene modes because they all change the color mode in some way (I prefer AdobeRGB).

Most of the time, I shoot at ISO 100, indoors and outdoors, to keep the digital noise level down.

My other base settings are AdobeRGB color, +0 sharpening and +0 contrast and +0 saturation, "focus area selection" and "AF-A" focus, center weighted metering, DRO off (partly because I shoot in RAW at all times), and Aperture priority mode to control depth of field. Single frame advance.

And I set the AEL button to 'toggle spot metering on/off'. As I understand it, the spot metering toggle is not available on the A200/300/350.

Some of my reasoning, for my settings: the v1.04 firmware in my A100 limits Auto ISO to ISO 400, so in a dim room (at ISO 400) shutter speeds can drop way too low; however, Auto ISO is very useful, I think, outdoors on overcast days because light levels can change a bit as the clouds shift around; also, in a brightly lit room, Auto ISO can let you focus your attention on getting the aperture/DOF you want and the shutter speed you want. "Focus area selection" is good for shots where your subject is not directly in the center of the frame -- and rarely is it aesthetically pleasing to have the subject dead center -- and prevents missed focus that follows a 'focus-and-recompose' method.

I prefer center weighted metering because it just seems more consistent -- I know how it will behave, and I can adjust on the fly, if needed -- whereas multi-segment metering seems to get fooled, from time to time, by highly reflective objects, or high-contrast scenes. Also, if I remember correctly, when using "focus area selection," the multi-segment metering will basically spot meter and lock exposure at the chosen focus area, which is a problem when your subject is lighted very differently than the surrounding scene.

Since color mode choice is somewhat subjective, I will just say I prefer the results I get by using computer software to convert AdobeRGB RAW files to sRGB files, as opposed to shooting in sRGB (color mode: "standard"). Somehow the "standard" (sRGB) mode as used in-camera just produces oversaturated or plasticky images, to my eye, whereas a software conversion from AdobeRGB seems to process the photo better, yielding better results in sRGB for printing or web display. Just my (subjective) opinion..

Edited by alpha_in_exile - 24 May 2008 at 03:01

Thanks everyone. This is all great info. I have a bit of a learning curve, so I guess I have to just go out and experiment!

Rich

I love to shoot wildlife, especially birds. So, I like having a fast shutter speed. Here's what I shoot with my a700:

A mode, wide open- if it's really bright, I will adjust a couple stops if I can still get good speed
ISO 200 (800 at most if low light)
RAW
Auto white balance
Set to shoot multiple exposures
Center AF
I do change around the autofocus mode- some manual (not too much), sometimes continuous AF, sometimes spot autofocus

Time for a little update now that I shoot with my A900 mainly:

AF-S local
ISO 200 for starters, comfortable with moving up to 1600 if needed
Matrix metering or spot with AEL
A-mode
cRAW
AWB
Exp. comp +0.7 eV. The 900 tends to underexpose sometimes.
Flash comp +2 eV, my Sigma flash underexposes all the time.

And here is mine a900 set-up

- RAW; Neutral, adobe RGB, -3 contrast, -1 saturation, -3 brightness (for more accurate histogram display since i convert raw files and i'm not using jpg ones at all)
- auto wb in most cases but in challenging situations i prefer setting it manually with the green filter set at max (g9), again for more accurate histogram reading.
- AF-S = spot
- AF-A = DMF
- AF w/shuuter = OFF
- AF/MF button = AF Lock
- NR = OFF
- Metering and other settings are changed a lot depending on the situations.
- ISO up to 800;