CAMERA SETTINGS IN LOW LIGHT (Page 2): 6D and 5Diii are comparable in IQ. 5DIV is noticesbly better and is ISO invariant. All 3 will work as you said. I have a 70D (crop) and also...

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

Gene51 wrote:

If you can get your hands on a full frame camera -... (show quote)

6D and 5Diii are comparable in IQ. 5DIV is noticesbly better and is ISO invariant. All 3 will work as you said. I have a 70D (crop) and also agree you will not get good low light results.

khorinek

Preferably a lens with constant aperture of f/2.8 or f/4. shoot 1/500 or faster, ISO will probably be quite high, 12,800 or more. You can shoot burst to capture action. It all depends on the light you have.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Lens as wide open as possible, Auto-ISO, and as fast a shutter speed as you can get away with. Also, try shooting bursts to catch a frozen action point.

Nukepr Loc: Citrus County, FL

I shoot theater plays at our local community theater, so this is familiar territory for me. I agree that shutter speed as fast as possible and lens as wide as possible, but completely disagree with auto ISO. Auto ISO will result in lots of blown out highlights. I learned this from bitter experience, because lighting varies from set to set and at different points on the stage and the camera ISO may or may not adjust to your liking. I prefer to set my ISO manually and adjust as necessary to achieve the best image. Also, I agree that shooting raw allows adjustment to compensate for shadows and lighting differences.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Nukepr wrote:

I shoot theater plays at our local community theat... (show quote)

Good to know about your Auto-ISO experience.

tombackman Loc: RHODE ISLAND

THANK YOU

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Nukepr wrote:

I shoot theater plays at our local community theat... (show quote)

and yet a member here who leads safaris recommends using ‘M’ mode with auto ISO as best way to control motion blur while also controlling DOF. I don’t see any reason that auto ISO should necessarily be connected to blown highlights; you could get exactly the same thing from fixed shutter speed and aperture with auto ISO as from fixed aperture and ISO with auto shutter speed .... and you’re even more likely to get it from fixing everything.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

rehess wrote:

and yet a member here who leads safaris recommends using ‘M’ mode with auto ISO as best way to control motion blur while also controlling DOF. I don’t see any reason that auto ISO should necessarily be connected to blown highlights; you could get exactly the same thing from fixed shutter speed and aperture with auto ISO as from fixed aperture and ISO with auto shutter speed .... and you’re even more likely to get it from fixing everything.

Agreed. If you’re getting blown highlights with auto ISO, then I would look to my metering mode for the issue. I shoot auto ISO for indoor sports and concerts and i don’t have any problem with blown highlights, BUT I pay attention to what and how I’m metering, especially if there is potentially high dynamic range in the scene.

rwww80a Loc: Hampton, NH

Break out the credit card and buy a spot meter (if your camera doesn't have an area limited metering selection) and shoot manually.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

rehess wrote:

My Pentax KP - an APS-C ‘crop’ camera - gives very good results at ISO 25600 or even higher.

I'd be interested in seeing a sample or two.

I have no experience with this camera, but from what I have read, it seems to be a tradeoff of detail for lower noise.

But I reserve judgement until I see a sample.

This article praises the KP's high ISO capabilities.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentax-kp-review/7

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Gene51 wrote:

I'd be interested in seeing a sample or two.

I have no experience with this camera, but from what I have read, it seems to be a tradeoff of detail for lower noise.

But I reserve judgement until I see a sample.

This article praises the KP's high ISO capabilities.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentax-kp-review/7

I asked the same question, and rehess posted two examples a page or so back that surprised me. Not perfect with respect to noise or detail, but frankly way better than I would have guessed considering the sensor size and ISO. There is some in-camera processing.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Gene51 wrote:

I'd be interested in seeing a sample or two.

I have no experience with this camera, but from what I have read, it seems to be a tradeoff of detail for lower noise.

But I reserve judgement until I see a sample.

This article praises the KP's high ISO capabilities.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentax-kp-review/7

Unlike what the article says, on the advice of other users I'm using sharpening a tad lighter than default - and this is the first camera I've done no sharpening of the resultant JPEG files. As @Trix mentioned, instead of having an extra processor devoted to AF, as Nikon does, Pentax has an 'accelerator' between sensor and processor that does something to improve high ISO behavior.

Here are the two files from the previous page repeated.

ISO 25600

(Download)

ISO 65536
ISO 65536...

(Download)

photodoc16

Gene51,
Is your comment about never seeing a good result with a crop camera in these situations based on the fact that the crop factor also affects the aperture and thus the maximum f stop will be reduced requiring a higher ISO with more noise?
Thanks,
Photodoc16

Schroeder

I use Nikon D7100 a cropped camera to shoot my granddaughters in their dance shows. Use a Nikon 35mm 1.8 prime, set speed to 320, and allow iso to float but limited to max of 8000. Shoot raw and jpeg and get very good results with editing inLR and On1 raw and On1 effects. Yes the editing takes time but well worth it.

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

Your 6500 is well suited for excellent imaging in low light. I would however consider a slightly faster lens if possible. If not, billnikon offers quality advice.