Help needed for night photographer settings. When in M (manual mode) and using a slow shutter speed of 1s - 15s, the ISO defaults to 100. Is there anyway you can get this higher as I keep getting a message on screen saying "ISO speed is limited due to slow shutter speed" so for example I would like to go ISO 3200
Canon has done this on their smaller sensor cameras. I imagine for a multiple of reasons. 1. High ISO on long exposure would produce a lot of noise and probably unusable images on a smaller sensor like this. 2. Long exposure/High ISO introduce hot pixels and these can get worse over time from what I remember. 3. Related to 2 they probably will say they are protecting the integrity of the sensor from getting hot enough to damage it. 4. They want to protect the higher end features that you would pay for on a mid level DSLR
Thanks for explaining this. I did buy the camera for its zoom and 4k video. Just I've started taking a few night shots lately
Just as an added thought. The lens on this camera will be reasonably slow, so it will not help with low light photography. What are you looking at trying to take images of? Gary
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I was trying to take shots of the night sky and possibly the milky way. I was initially told a slow shutter speed of 15s, as tgats the slowest on this camera, and to use a high ISO. It definitely won't let me go any higher than 100 ISO, when going slower than 1s.
It is frustrating when your gear will not allow you to have a go at a subject you have an interest in. You are correct in saying use a slow shutter speed and high ISO. I am not trying to spend your money. But if you have an interest in the night sky, you would be better served using a dslr and a fast lens. You will have full control of the camera, and you can progress from there. If you want some suggestions, sing out and we can point you in the right direction. Gary
Good morning Gary. Thanks for the reply. I've just bought this camera for £500 and that was my maximum as it was only for family holidays. However during lockdown, I started going into the countryside to take shots of waterfalls, castles and then the moon. Which this camera is perfect. I think it does have a fast lens and if I go faster than 1s I can control the ISO, all the way to 3200. Maybe just trial and error, as I'm no photographer, just a novice, who is trying to get out of auto mode. Lol.
Well done for exploring the camera past the auto mode. Sounds as if you are enjoying using it and trying new things to photograph. If the milky way is a little past this camera technical ability, so be it. But it doesn't mean you can't have fun and learn with it. Gary
True. The main purpose was to see if someone else had this camera, and was able to bypass this setting, or maybe I was doing something wrong. I'm not going to be shooting stars that much.
Just for the informational side, regarding the term fast lens... the widest aperture determines the speed of the lens. Fast telephotos do 2.8, fast primes will go to 1.2 or 1.4. These can get expensive very fast, hence my purchase of a third party manual lens: Rokinon 2.8 14mm which can work well for night skies and was only a couple hundred bucks. Your lens for example is a 3.4-6.5, that is a variable aperture lens. Meaning it may be 3.4 on the wide end of the zoom, but as you move across the range zooming in the widest aperture will change and become 6.5 eventually. I would expect this on a bridge camera, it is one of the places they saved money in design.
