Hi folks,

I often set the shutter speed and aperture that I want in manual mode, and set ISO to auto. I had a situation at the weekend, shooting the ocean in bright sunlight, where I wanted to be one or two stops under to minimise the chances of highlights blowing out. I found that I couldn't set exposure compensation... I could only set up a bracketing range, which meant multiple exposures for every one that I wanted to take. The light levels varied a lot across the area that I was covering, so there was no single "right ISO"... what I needed was to be x stops under, no matter what the light, with a fixed shutter speed and aperture and automatic ISO. Is there a way to do that on a 6D?

TIA

> What would exposure compensation do that you could not accomplish in Manual?

It would reduce the chance of over-exposure. The point I was trying to make was that I was shooting in an environment where the light levels were changing all the time - partly because of the weather and partly because I was shooting back and forth across a wide field of view, one end of which was pretty much into the sun. The action was fast moving - literally split-second stuff with surfers - and I didn't have time to be piddling around with the ISO setting, so I wanted to lock in the aperture and shutter speed that I needed, and have the camera worry about the ISO. I needed to avoid highlights blowing out so I wanted exposure to be safely "under".

I get what your saying about a safety net to avoid blown highlights. But, if the camera is on auto ISO(I would leave it on lowest if you are concerned with overexposure), and you want to set a specific exposure and aperture. What option is left for the camera to compensate with? I am not being argumentative, just curious that I am seriously missing a great option.....

You could also use shutter priority for the amount of action freeze you want, or aperture priority for depth of field and then use exposure lock on the subject before each shot.

Quote from: dbvirago on August 18, 2015, 07:04

In any of the modes that allow exposure compensation, doing so either changes the shutter speed or aperture. Since you are in manual, you are controlling both of these sot he camera will control neither. To do what you are wanting to do, while looking through the viewfinder, either turn the shutter speed or aperture wheel a couple of clicks until the exposure indicator is where you want it to be.

This actually doesn't work since the OP is using auto iso (unless you get out of range for the iso settings).

As far as I know there is no option for exposure compensation in M. You could do it by dialing up and down with the iso manually but if you have auto iso the camera will change it to meter neutral.

Ahh, missed the auto ISO part. Never used it. Of all the things I'll let the camera choose, ISO isn't one of them. For that matter, I rarely use M except in the studio. Outside, I'm in Aperture priority 80% of the time and use either exposure comp or exposure lock as needed

I ran into this Auto-ISO problem last week on my Canon 7Dm2. The workaround I stumbled on is to set Exposure Comp while in Shutter or Aperture priority. Then go back to Manual. It will stick and will work. You just can't change EC in Manual. See if this works for you.