Performance of Canon 100D


patrick76

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Nov 27, 2012
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I am shooting at a children party yesterday. It is in an indoor area with not so bright lights. I find that I have to pump up my ISO to 1600 and even with a F2.0 prime lens, my shutter speed sometimes fall below 1/100 in AV mode. It is quite difficult to shoot children moving around and most of the time I find that my subject is blur.

What will be recommended in situation like that? I do not wish to pump up my ISO further as I find that my pictures start to get grainy beyond that.
 

I am shooting at a children party yesterday. It is in an indoor area with not so bright lights. I find that I have to pump up my ISO to 1600 and even with a F2.0 prime lens, my shutter speed sometimes fall below 1/100 in AV mode. It is quite difficult to shoot children moving around and most of the time I find that my subject is blur.

What will be recommended in situation like that? I do not wish to pump up my ISO further as I find that my pictures start to get grainy beyond that.

Either get a flash, or pump up the ISO. Most ISO grain can be cleaned up with simple noise removal tools, or does not show up in print or normal web sizes.
 

Use a flash. That is the best idea.
 

If got extra $, just get flash. Worth it. Else bump up ISO, 100D shouldn't be too bad.
 

Even coupled with 35/1.8 lens, @F2.0 my auto-ISO also can shoot up from 4000+ - 6400 depending on the lighting situation. Unless u use flash, you would have to bear with high noise.
 

I am shooting at a children party yesterday. It is in an indoor area with not so bright lights. I find that I have to pump up my ISO to 1600 and even with a F2.0 prime lens, my shutter speed sometimes fall below 1/100 in AV mode. It is quite difficult to shoot children moving around and most of the time I find that my subject is blur.

What will be recommended in situation like that? I do not wish to pump up my ISO further as I find that my pictures start to get grainy beyond that.

when shooting available light is not your cup of tea, don't be hero, use flash.
 

Photography is recording of light. If there is not enough, then switch on the lights = use flash.
Helps to maintain a fast enough shutter speed to freeze motion, but actually allows nice pictures with slow shutter speed ("dragging shutter").
Make yourself familiar with topics like diffuser, bounce flash, Flash Exposure vs. Exposure ..
Read ups:
Flash with Canon EOS: http://www.photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/
Strobist 101: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/lighting-101-balancing-flash-and.html
 

I am shooting at a children party yesterday. It is in an indoor area with not so bright lights. I find that I have to pump up my ISO to 1600 and even with a F2.0 prime lens, my shutter speed sometimes fall below 1/100 in AV mode. It is quite difficult to shoot children moving around and most of the time I find that my subject is blur.

What will be recommended in situation like that? I do not wish to pump up my ISO further as I find that my pictures start to get grainy beyond that.

Glad that you understand that higher the ISO is the grainy the image.
Get a basic flash like Canon speedlite 270ex II which cost below $300 or if you
don't mind second hand look for the same model at marketplace.

Shooting moving object can be challenging and it depends on how well you
know the right timing to get the right shot.
 

Another benefit of using flash is that the AF assist light would help locking focus faster (if subject within distance), might help to reduce likelihood of blur due to out of focus too.

Just a newbie 2 cents :)
 

Last edited:
External flash would be the best solution
 

Thanks for all your advice.

If I were to use a external flash, for freezing motion in situation like that, what would be the recommended setting?

Should I use TV mode and set the fastest shutter speed of 1/200?
 

Thanks for all your advice.

If I were to use a external flash, for freezing motion in situation like that, what would be the recommended setting?

Should I use TV mode and set the fastest shutter speed of 1/200?

If you get the more advanced flash unit where they would pass exposure data from the camera to the flash, then all of the computer-assisted modes will work.

To freeze action, a higher shutter speed is needed, so right about 1/200s is probably ok. You would have to balance exposure against capturing action, of course. And there is usually an upper-limit for the flash sync.
 

If I were to use a external flash, for freezing motion in situation like that, what would be the recommended setting?
Should I use TV mode and set the fastest shutter speed of 1/200?
First of all: there is no shortcut to learning and there are no magic settings that work out of the box and everywhere. Settings depend on conditions and intended outcome.
You should read the information provided and understand:
- Metering in different modes when using flash (exposure metering vs. flash metering, ambient light vs. flash light)
- Settings that affect flash exposure
Tv will result in wide open aperture (to cater for the dim ambient light), giving a very thin depth of field. Good chance to have focus errors especially when kids are moving around.
 

First of all: there is no shortcut to learning and there are no magic settings that work out of the box and everywhere. Settings depend on conditions and intended outcome.
You should read the information provided and understand:
- Metering in different modes when using flash (exposure metering vs. flash metering, ambient light vs. flash light)
- Settings that affect flash exposure
Tv will result in wide open aperture (to cater for the dim ambient light), giving a very thin depth of field. Good chance to have focus errors especially when kids are moving around.

Hi Octarine,

I have been reading up on flash photography and I am still a bit confused.

I have taken photo of still portrait with flash and I understand that aperture control the exposure of the subject while shutter speed control the ambient lights. Please correct me if I am wrong.

For my situation above, as my subject is moving, I tend to get blur images. Henceforth, I am thinking to set the shutter speed to the max (for my camera, it is 1/200) and let it controls my aperture. I do agree that with low f/stops the depth of field is very thin and if you focus at the wrong point, some parts of the subject will be blur as well.

Sorry, maybe let me rephrase my question...I am not asking for 1 setting which will work for my case but rather what are the steps that you guys take.
 

Thanks for all your advice.

If I were to use a external flash, for freezing motion in situation like that, what would be the recommended setting?

Should I use TV mode and set the fastest shutter speed of 1/200?

Usually I will keep the ambient light 2 stops below my flash exposure for general scene, if the ambient is not too dark, the shutter speed will be 1/60s
If I need a scene with more ambient, I will increse the exposure of ambient and lower the flash power,
I will give some motion blur with flash for action shots, don't have to be every time like "freeze!! don't move!"

since each scene the ambient light won't be the same, the camera, lenses you use, the requement of the shots are not the same as mine, not possible to give you a fix setting.
so you need to experiment with different combinations of ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and flash output to find what is most suitable to your taste.
 

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I am using a sigma F1.4 lens without image stabiliser. I will normally experience slightly blur image due to camera shake. Maybe 100D body is too light...hahahaha. I try to take at shutter speed above 1/160 to prevent that.

To solve the problem, it probably gives me an excuse to buy a better camera which supports higher ISO. LOL
 

Sorry, maybe let me rephrase my question...I am not asking for 1 setting which will work for my case but rather what are the steps that you guys take.
I concur with catchlights about the 2 stops. Here my suggestions, please do your own tests before you start shooting. For all settings check your manual if you are unsure. It is possible that certain settings are not available on 100D which I have on 50D.
Mode: Av, -2EV, ISO 800 (as start), Center weighted metering (or spot) => make sure your subject is in the center
Settings: f = 5.6 (otherwise DoF too thin), 0FEV
AF: center focus point
Check that you get shutter speeds above 1/60 to freeze motion. Actually, the flash freezes motion nicely ('flash speed' is much faster than shutter speed). The shutter speed determines how much ambient light comes in. If it's too slow, you get 'light streaks' (which can be a nice thing, too). If necessary, increase ISO or open aperture. Using Av will keep the camera in charge of shutter speed, depending on ambient light. This will result in a consistent ambient exposure even though the lights might change when you move around.
If the ambient light is evenly spread you can also use the readings from Av and feed M mode. Then you need to keep an eye on the exposure meter (below viewfinder) to avoid overexposure by ambient light. But in return you have more control over the balancing of ambient and flash light: fast shutter for less light, slow shutter for more light. With second curtain flash and slow shutter you can get nice streaks, creating images of motion (also called 'dragged shutter').
 

I concur with catchlights about the 2 stops. Here my suggestions, please do your own tests before you start shooting. For all settings check your manual if you are unsure. It is possible that certain settings are not available on 100D which I have on 50D.
Mode: Av, -2EV, ISO 800 (as start), Center weighted metering (or spot) => make sure your subject is in the center
Settings: f = 5.6 (otherwise DoF too thin), 0FEV
AF: center focus point
Check that you get shutter speeds above 1/60 to freeze motion. Actually, the flash freezes motion nicely ('flash speed' is much faster than shutter speed). The shutter speed determines how much ambient light comes in. If it's too slow, you get 'light streaks' (which can be a nice thing, too). If necessary, increase ISO or open aperture. Using Av will keep the camera in charge of shutter speed, depending on ambient light. This will result in a consistent ambient exposure even though the lights might change when you move around.
If the ambient light is evenly spread you can also use the readings from Av and feed M mode. Then you need to keep an eye on the exposure meter (below viewfinder) to avoid overexposure by ambient light. But in return you have more control over the balancing of ambient and flash light: fast shutter for less light, slow shutter for more light. With second curtain flash and slow shutter you can get nice streaks, creating images of motion (also called 'dragged shutter').

Thanks for the detailed explanations.

I shall try it out when I have a chance.

To side track a bit, can I say that for low f/stops, it is best that the subject is stationery?
 

"Check that you get shutter speeds above 1/60 to freeze motion"

Do you mean to say 1/160?
 

For a quick start, assuming acceptable ceiling height + rather constant lighting in the room, a quick way to benefit from the external flash would be to "bounce ceiling" (colour-cast issue aside).

For proper use of flash, some factors that affect flash / overall exposure:
- the effect of changing shutter speed / aperture / ISO to ambient exposure
- the effect of changing aperture / ISO / flash power / subject distance (moving subjects mean variable subject distances) to the intensity of flash to the subject / overall exposure
- the effect of 1st/2nd curtain
- ensuring shutter speed (metered / dialed in) doesn't go beyond flash sync speed (problem with over exposure due to shutter speed capped at max)
- dynamic of ambient lighting (e.g. club, stage spotlights, etc) versus camera exposure / flash exposure settings
- use of flash exposure compensation in non-manual settings
- recharging speed vs flash power used vs interval between captures
- etc

2 cents again :)