Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

How about December 2009? See this report

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/13/nikon-d3s-leaked-by-uk-press-expected-to-ship-december-with-imp/

Does anyone have the information about when the D3s bodies first went on sale in the UK Shops? We're usually a few months behind the US and Japan.

I shoot about 98% M as I take photos of trains and the train lights on the locomotives will confuse any of the auto modes. I've been doing this for years, so I know when the lighting conditions require spot metering vs matrix as so on. The great thing about digital is the histogram which gives you intead exposure feedback in the field. No more waiting for slides to see if you did it right! I even switched the order of the meter + / - on my D800e to match the meter on my D3s, so I don't get confused as to which camera I'm using.

I use Manual mode with AutoISO on everything except with flash usage and then it's either P or A mode. When I shoot with strobes I use Manual mode as well but set my ISO.

I think it all depends on what venues one shoots.

Hi all,

I switch around a lot, like many others, depending upon where my 'priorities' are.

Many will remember 'match needle' metering, and M(anual) mode is more or less just that. A or S just shifts 'priority' to aperture or shutter and you can use exposure compensation adjust accordingly. Often that isn't enough, especially when using flash outdoors to overcome sunlight, one might have to step up aperture and increase shutter speed manually. That's one time manual really comes into play.

There are others, too.

Intentional long exposures at night with with popped flash(es) or additive scenes in a shoot for layers - similar to what one suggest for a panorama so the exposure would be accurate.

Manual has it's place, but really, for me either Aperture or Shutter priority is just another 'match needle' alternative that makes it faster and easier to get the job done, likely faster and more accurate than I could do it for myself.

My best,

Mike

msmoto said:
M....mmmm....in situations where I want control over shutter and aperture.... with or without auto ISO. Strobes require a fixed setting of both shutter speed and aperture along with a fixed setting of ISO.

Moving targets...I know what I need in shutter speed...so this is fixed. I also know about how much DOF i want, thus Aperture is fixed. This is Manual mode. However, with moving targets, the light is almost always going to vary, thus Auto ISO.

In low light, I might want a minimum shutter speed, e.g.., 1/60th sec, and also want to fix my f/stop so as to maintain a constant DOF. Once again, Manual mode with ISO on Auto.

Almost any situation where I have a need for control of the situation...manual. Then of course, long exposures...always fix the parameters...

yes, this.

I'm late to the discussion, but I prefer manual exposure in almost every situation even if it's not really manual these days. Call it a control thing. I just get frustrated when a little backlighting throws off exposure on a portrait.

This isn't to say I think I get it perfect all the time, either, though. It's not all that strange for me to change exposure in post processing by 1EV, sometimes. I just know who to blame, and all the pictures in a series can usually be changed by the same amount.

Shooting in manual mode is a very good way to deal with situations where the light is nice and uniform and isn't changing. For example, in indoor sports photography the light is often very uniform and one meter setting can be used for hours.

As has been pointed out, remembering that you're still allowed to use the exposure meter in manual mode can help a lot. Just be aware that your meter's results aren't perfect, and if you've carefully chosen an exposure for sufficiently uniform and constant lighting conditions, there's no reason to second-guess that.

donaldejose says.....A looooong time ago I shot mostly Kodachrome 25

Gitzo says......A loooooooooooooooong time ago I shot mostly Kodachrome 10 ! (LMAO !)

And on a more serious note.........I use "M"......a lot ! Any time I'm still using one of my MF lenses, any time it's so dark the AF can't see what it's doing, and ALWAYS when I'm doing macro; (to name just a few)

I shoot in A about 85% of the time, M about 10%, and S for the balance. I don't have anything against shooting in P (i.e., I'm not one of those people who looks down my nose at people who use it), it just gives me headaches 'cause the "choices" the camera makes sometimes aren't the ones I would've wanted it to make under those circumstances. And if you're going to change your aperture or shutter speed in P (which I've always found to be a pain), why not just shoot in a priority mode anyway?

The great thing about M (once you've got the hang of what shutter speed, aperture, and ISO each do for your exposure) is that you can push the camera past what the built-in meter thinks your photo "should" look like, and you can decide what compromises you're willing to make in terms of under- or over-exposure. You can still do that in S or A* as long as you know how the different parts of the equation relate to one another; M just streamlines the process, and gives you a quicker/finer degree of control.

It's especially useful if you're shooting at night or in low/dodgy light, since the camera's always going to want to expose for middle grey, which has the end result of making everything look like it was shot around 2:30 in the afternoon. ;) I like my night photos to look like they were taken at night, which is where M mode really comes in handy.

*Or using exposure compensation, but then you're stuck if you want to go past the EV your camera allows while using it

I use the M mode exclusively. Manual controls, manual ISO, WB, Flash etc. I do use autofocus tho... I kinda carried that way of working from when I came from film...

OOPS. double post.

The key to using the M mode, dear friends, is understanding, as I'm sure you all know: light. Knowing how to read the amount of light within your environment is without question the first thing you should be on the look out for whenever you raise your camera in order to take a shot.

If you know your lens, then you know its capabilities...as it relates to how much light it will be able to capture and its DOF functionality.
If you know what the subject will be doing and how you want to capture it, then you know your desired shutter speed.
If you have a good understanding of the available light, then setting your ISO is fairly simple.

The only time I go into A mode, is when the light is changing so unpredictability, that it interferes with my getting the shot...such as when their are lots of clouds and the sun keep coming in and going out. I usually set my ISO to about 300-400...and flip to A.

msmoto said:
I must apologize for my forgetting how the ISO limits some of the situations I now take for granted. I do have a D90 and recognize its limits. When shooting two cameras, which is quite rare, this issue does present itself with the D90.

I was shooting in a bowling center ("10 pin bowling lanes" for the Brits) recently and of course flash photography was not allowed as it would "disturb league players". Never mind it was the league players that asked me to come in and photograph them. Oh well.

Anyway, I was using two bodies and bumped into the same ISO limits as you had MS.M.

My D7000 was doing an acceptable job at the higher ISO levels, not incredibly wonderful as low light always limits what you can do without flash, but it was not too "terribly" bad at all.

My old backup D3000 body was delivering results that looked like I was pushing ASA 100 film to 32000, with areas of color all splotchy and blocked out. WOOOOOO... Man! :-) If the subject was in deep shade it was bad. really bad!! Directly under the lights, it was just about OK.

I ended up not using the D3000 after the first few shots at all and realizing it was having such a hard time of it.

Haven't we come a long way since the early days of digital?

...But of course, if we still only had manual exposure, there is nothing we could not do at least as well as we do with all the other ranges.

golf007sd said:
90% of the time I shoot in M model only. 9.9% in A and .01 in S. I never use P mode. The end.

I think I'm 90% A, 9.5% M, 0.5% S, never P.

Usually I'm walking around conventions or doing portraits. At conventions, usually my biggest concern is keeping people isolated from the background so I'll set Aperture Priority and put it between 1.8 and 5.6 depending on lens and ambient lighting then let the camera handle everything else since my focus is on getting shots. If I have a group pic I'll just change it to f/8 or f/11 then switch it back.

For portraits, the in camera metering tends to be jumpy depending on my composition when I'm photographing someone that is fair-skinned but is wearing a dark outfit (or dark skinned with a bright outfit) so that's usually when I set it to M for consistency.

S mode.... I've set that a few times when I was trying to do a few panning shots of cars going by and I didn't want to freeze motion entirely. That's pretty much the only time I can remember using it for a specific purpose though, I consider it a good option when you need a certain shutter speed to stop action but for what I usually shoot it's rare that I'd need it.

90% of the time I shoot in M model only. 9.9% in A and .01 in S. I never use P mode. The end.

I would say ALMOST the only time is when I have my studio lights set up. Otherwise it is in A or S mode.

I sometimes carry my camera in auto mode in case one of those once in a lifetime shots pops up and I had my setting for X and this NEEDS to have Y to not over/under expose the shot.

chris_weinert said:
Sorry, I'm new to the Nikon marketing terms, what's the difference? I think on my flash display, it just says "TTL".

If you have your camera set to spot metering, you will get TTL and the camera will supposedly correctly set the exposure of the person come what may. If you set your metering to centre-weighted or matrix, TTL on your display changes to iTTL and then the flash is supposed to balance the exposure of the person or subject to the background.

I use full manual when I don't like the results the camera is trying by itself or it is low light and I don't want to get the flash involved.

Sorry Chris

i was thinking of outside events, when the daylight is fading

you are thinging of inside events, were the light is constant

spraynpray said:
When you say automatic mode chris, do you mean TTL or iTTL?

Sorry, I'm new to the Nikon marketing terms, what's the difference? I think on my flash display, it just says "TTL".

sevencrossing said:
it depends on what you what to happen to the background , with auto ISO off and the camera set to manual, the background will get progressively darker, as the light fails

Well, you have to take this into account with your settings, as friedmud already described pretty well. The cool thing is, though, that once you found your setting, you can keep shooting, and you flash takes care of the right amount of light on the people. I never use Auto ISO in this situation, because it will usually only crank the ISO up to ridiculous values, but it would usually be set around 800.

Plus, I never use direct flash, but bounce it off the ceiling, pointed directly upwards. This provides some light also as ambience, but mostly, it make people look a lot better than direct flash. Using a CTO filter or gel also makes the light situation look more natural. I usually manually set WB to something like ~3800k, that will preserve the warm color temperature of the light but not exaggerate it too much.

chris weinert said:
Exactly, M mode is perfect for this (i.e. low-light event shooting), as you set all of that in advance, and you can just shoot and pictures will always be perfect.

The thing to understand is that the flash is still in automatic mode when you shoot M, it will "compensate" for all the missing light automatically – making it ideal for low-light people shots.

it depends on what you what to happen to the background , with auto ISO off and the camera set to manual, the background will get progressively darker, as the light fails