msmoto said:
......I tend to download the photos to an external hard drive connected to the computer after a shoot, and reformat the camera entirely immediately after this. In the computer I have all the files in NEF and from that file I choose the downloads to Lightroom. ....

I do pretty much the same but using LR I also make a second copy

with important jobs ( weddings) I edit the RAW files and burn a set of jpeg to a couple of CDs (one of which is taken off site) before formatting the card(s)

I am not certain as to why I do what I do, but in the D4 is an XQD and CF card each 16 GB. And, I tend to download the photos to an external hard drive connected to the computer after a shoot, and reformat the camera entirely immediately after this. In the computer I have all the files in NEF and from that file I choose the downloads to Lightroom.

If, I am shooting an important job, I will look at the files in the hard drive to make certain I have those recorded and then reformat the memory in camera. Only after many years of photography have I determined my images are not priceless....and if they somehow are lost, well, I have lost tens of thousands due to Ektachrome dyes being unstable, so that is just the way it is. Hopefully, on Flickr, the images will stay for a while.

Ironically, when I ordered my D4, no one knew the cameras were delivered with the cards and reader. So, I have now two XQD readers and two 16 GB cards, but rarely use the second card as I perform the above and do not go out on long treks.

Huge SD cards (256, 128 and 64 GB) aren't needed for photography but come in handy inserted into a laptop as an extra "hard drive" or "removable media backup." I use from 4 to 32 GB and never fill them up. When a camera body has two card slots I will put one card in the first slot and a card containing twice as much GB into the second slot and set that second slot as backup. Then I shoot, edit and reformat the first card time and time again while just letting the second card fill up until it is nearly full before I reformat it. This way I have a backup of every shot from the last few shoots just in case I want to go beck and look for something I have already deleted when I edited. Cheap insurance. I use 4 GB in a D90, a 4 and 8GB pair in a D7000; 8 and 16 GB pair in a D600; and a 16 and 32 GB pair in a D800. I never come close to having a space problem but the most I usually shoot at a time is less than 300 images.

I have successfully moved over completely to the more expensive Sandisk cards and find that 2 16 GB SD Extreme cards at 90mb/s and 2 32GB CF cards at the same speed get the job done for me no matter what. I am still tempted by the insanely high speed Lexar cards though, but damn they sure are expensive...

SkintBrit said:
Seems like a good time to resurrect this thread, as Lexar introduces its $1000 256GB SDXC 400x card. One question........why would you want one?

There was a guy who scattered nikons or gopro's or something all over the arctic to take timelapse unattended for a few months. maybe he would need them ? Me, I'm like Msmoto, smaller cards are safer. I've picked up 4 x 16gb cards but no fast ones (90mbps+) yet :-)

TaoTeJared said:
I have always used Auto ISO all the time.

That does not mean that I don't control it. I change it for each situation, lens, topic/subject, lighting, and end goal of the image. Sometimes that even means turning it off.........it has saved my bacon when I thought It went too high. Better to have something, than nothing at all.

Me too!

I'm a fan of auto ISO in most cases.... mostly because I'm generally too darned forgetful when manually setting ISO and prefer to only worry about setting one variable at a time by myself (usually aperture). I do tend to adjust the max of the Auto ISO though. Now that I'm shooting full frame I don't mind letting it max out at 6400 but I tend to limit it to lower values such as 800 when I'm shooting outdoors.

I generally only set the ISO manually when I'm working with off camera flash because generally I have a model that's not going anywhere for a bit in those cases.

Wow - I'm really surprised at how many people "never" use Auto ISO. As someone that just switched from Canon the Auto ISO capabilities of Nikon cameras are one of the reasons I switched.

On my D600 I almost always use Auto ISO... with only two situations where I don't:

1. Landscape photography. I have this mapped to U1 where ISO is pegged at 100 among lots of other Landscape specific options.
2. Flash photography. In this case I choose ISO depending on how much background light I want (higher ISO for brighter backgrounds).

Other than those... I use Auto ISO. I have it set to keep the shutter speed at double the focal length (so 50mm shoots at 1/100s). This is something that is not possible on most Canon bodies and I love it. Combined with the awesome high-ISO capabilities of the D600 I let the ISO range up to 6400 without issue.

When walking around I'm almost always shooting in Av mode to choose my DoF... and it's awesome to know that the camera is just taking care of balancing ISO and the shutter speed to keep things sharp.

If I'm trying to shoot anything moving then I don't switch to Tv mode. Instead, I still use Av (to select the DoF I want still) BUT I set a minimum shutter speed in the Auto ISO menu that is fast enough to freeze the motion (if that's what I'm after). Usually something like 1/800th to 1/1250th of a second. This is AWESOME! It means that if my subject moves into the sunlight my shutter speed can automatically go above my minimum to get the right exposure... and if my subject moves into the shadows my shutter will hit the minimum but the ISO will go up to get the correct exposure. This is EXACTLY PERFECT... and something not possible on even really high end Canon bodies (like the 5DIII).

When I'm in Manual mode (which isn't often... only usually for flash photography) I don't generally use Auto ISO. That said, I don't understand getting upset over Auto ISO in Manual... it's an option just like in any other mode... just turn it off (on my D600 it's one button hold plus one click on the front wheel... it takes about 1/1000th of a second)

I use auto ISO 99% of the time because I shoot birds 99% of the time, the other 1% I never use Auto ISO. It is handy, I normally have it set at 1/1600th and ISO max 400 ( I hate noise and it destroys feather detail if I have to crop at all with my consumer 500). I then only change my EV based on the bird color... I also don't have VR so it keeps my shutter speed as high as possible..

On a side note, many of my friends shoot Canon (5dm3, 7d and 60D)and the auto-iso sucks as you don't have the control of Nikon...

It seems like the users of Auto ISO in Manual are divided into two. Those who like the camera keeping the correct exposure ( that it thinks is OK ) by changing the ISO and those like me who find it frustrating to see the camera controlling the exposure even in fully Manual mode.

A firmware addition to the menu - as suggested by some in forums - giving a choice to the user like

- Auto ISO stays ON in Manual Mode
- Auto ISO turns OFF in Manual Mode

would have satisfied everyone as each option has its merits.

I use Auto ISO in two different situations.

For wildlife and sports, when the subject is moving into different lighting conditions, I use Manual mode and Auto ISO. In these situations I have varied light levels, but need to maintain a minimum shutter speed and specific aperture. I use center weighted metering to drive the ISO selected by the camera. This approach is pretty common. I use it for birding, large mammals in lower light, and for outdoor sports in the late afternoon.

For mixed light levels - at events or similar work - Auto ISO set to 1.5 times the focal length allows me to get some automatic adjustments to offset changing lighting. Here it is more a matter of protecting against too slow a shutter speed. In practice, this one is a little less common as it is so intuitive to adjust settings manually.

9x 8gb sandisk extreme sd = 72gb

D800 I'm also using auto ISO set to one or two clicks (1.5x) faster than 1/focal length. I shoot aperture priority handheld most of the time and figure i'm more likely to lose a shot through camera shake than high ISO noise. I use 200 as base ISO and set the max automatic to 1600. if i want to go higher it's easy to dial ISO up manually but I don't let the camera make that decision.
I feel Nikon bodies tend to overexpose so my default on the old D60 was -1/3 EV. On the D800 I haven't decided if this is still good or if I should use -2/3. I adjust exposure comp a lot to expose highlghlights or shadows as I want them.
I normally go to manual for flash or anytime I want consistency across a set of images. as I never used auto ISO before the D800 I have to remember to switch it off then too :-) and if I want to rely on VR to let me shoot at lower ISO than my default auto settings would choose.

Good subject for discussion - thanks !

I use to be the biggest advocate against using auto iso and now auto iso is all I use unless I'm shooting indoors with strobes or flash.

On the D90 I had problems with auto iso but with my D7000 and D800 it works perfect.

My biggest joy with auto iso is being able to shoot in M mode all the time, free to shoot any setting I wish and know the picture will come out correctly.

DutchNikon said:
I never use auto iso, i do use different ISO settings depending on what i want to shoot, and the available light, like i also never use full automatic shooting. The only thing auto i seem to use is auto focus, but even that i have mostly on manual..

I like this approach as it is more in the keeping with the way we used to do things. But, with the ability to shoot at high frame rates, rapidly changing scenes, the auto ISO can save the exposure. Especially on a day shooting action sports when the sky is partly cloudy and the light level may be changing from one second to the next, and one is shooting possibly 100 exposures in a period of only a couple minutes. There is no time to make exposure adjustments.

On the other hand, the "auto" features tend to make me less aware of the entire process of the image capturing technique. Thus, I like to set up manual mode, fixed ISO and then adjust the exposure in the camera as I compose the subject. This also allows me to make exposure adjustments to control the overall effect in the image, something with an auto exposure one does not have unless using the +/- exposure adjustment.

I never use auto iso, i do use different ISO settings depending on what i want to shoot, and the available light, like i also never use full automatic shooting. The only thing auto i seem to use is auto focus, but even that i have mostly on manual..

I use auto ISO for shooting sports and wildlife, simply because there isn't time to be manually changing settings on the fly. I simply set a range I'm happy with (200-6400 on the D700 or 200-3200 on the D300), pick a minimum shutter speed and go from there. The other option is to use auto ISO in conjunction with manual mode. That way I can set the aperture and shutter speed I need, while letting the camera pick the ISO as needed.

For everything else, landscapes, closeups and portraits, auto ISO is off.

There is little room for ISOs higher than the base one with my D300 in landscape photography . The Auto ISO is off therefore in 3 of my 4 user banks leaving 1 bank with Auto ISO ON for family/street/action/indoors/low light etc. photography where I am not that much worried about the ISO. As opposed to the Manual mode use in the 3 banks, I opt to go for the S mode in this bank. It really is a great feature saving me time ( and many shots ) as long as I am in the automatic modes. However, once I switch to Manual, the little annoyance starts.

Once light conditions get tricky, I very often end up switching to Manual to take things under control. Being used to everything staying manual and set exposure staying same in the other 3 banks, I always keep forgetting that the Auto ISO stays on if it is not turned off - even in manual mode. The problem here is not only the "without consent" increased ISO but the fact that exposure is uncontrollable - the reason I switched to Manual in the first place.

Writing about this, I really feel stupid about how I can't simply remember this one rule - to turn Auto ISO off when I switch to Manual from S or A mode but I do read that I am not the only one and many are fooled by this behaviour.

I have always used Auto ISO all the time.

That does not mean that I don't control it. I change it for each situation, lens, topic/subject, lighting, and end goal of the image. Sometimes that even means turning it off. With the D800 and it's controls, it has saved my bacon when I thought It went too high. Better to have something, than nothing at all.

99% of the time on my d90 ,
I set my slowest shutter and highest ISO depending on what I'm shooting, i love it and really hope that when the D400 finally arrives it has the same focal length adjustment as D800

I have a love-hate relationship with auto ISO.

I never use it on my 300s because things get too noisy too fast.

My 700 is more forgiving so I sometimes use it when I'm not going to have time to worry about setting up. Then it's awesome. If a photo has a lot of noise in it, it's because the 'moment' was more important and it's forgivable because I got the capture.

I think I'd use it more often with the next tier of bodies (D3s-D4), but always with caution.

I always control my ISO. 90% of my shot are in full manual. The only time I use Aperture priority is when there is a lot of clouds above me that is constantly moving thus changing the light while shooting.

"Do you use AUTO ISO?"

Only when shooting high speed action and even then I control it closely because I do not have a D4. I have a D7000 and 70-300VR so I use it to avoid shooting that lens wide open. It still seems to me to be something I'd rather control manually and will do until I have a D4 (have to choose wife or D4 - wife wins) or until less expensive cameras attain that level of high ISO noise performance.

In good lighting conditions, shooting at 1/250 and f/8 or with more light I usually set the ISO at Auto and allow maybe up to 800, the primary ISO at 200. But, I will choose either A or S mode so as to control one variable. Longer lenses...shutter speed can be set to minimum in the menu. Aperture set where I want it and allow correct exposure to be set by the camera.

In low light conditions, normal or wide lens, I will set my shutter speed (S) at about 1/160 sec or 1/250 and allow the f/stop to go where it needs to, and auto ISO up to about 12,800 on the D4.

When shooting action sports...Manual mode, ISO auto with the shutter and aperture set to what I want.

I think the different shooting venues, wide variety of lenses, and how much motion is desired in the image, make the use of auto ISO just one of the multiple variables used to manage how we control the process.

One important factor in shooting some special images, e.g., the sun through a filter, is to turn auto ISO off as it will tend to cause improper exposure in some of these unusual situations. Also, when one wants a fully manual mode...Auto ISO must be off and the exposure set via an external light meter (yes, some of us still use these) or with the camera metering system.

The "D800 - to buy or not to buy" thread
http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=13036&page=3
is going a bit off topic, so I thought would start a new one

some of the latest Nikons, differ in the way Auto ISO works

the D800 takes into account the focal length of the lens

Do you use AUTO ISO?

if so when and which camera do you use

Since I got a D800 I use Auto ISO by default and set it to 2 "clicks" faster than default