5D Mark IV exposure issue

[gossamer88]

Hello All,

After being a Canon loyalist for over 10 years I joined this community (I belong to other photography forums) today. Not sure what took me so long!

Anyway, I just got the 5D Mark IV and I experienced a lot of exposure issues at Javits Center yesterday at the NY Comic Con. This was my first real outing with the Mk IV and went last year with the Mark III and did not have these issues at the same venue.

Admittedly, Javits has pretty bad lighting. So I mostly shot in Auto ISO and AWB. Set in manual mode with 1/125 + f/4. A lot of my shots were either over-exposed or under-exposed. I felt like I was in EC all day long!

Here are my best pics. I shot in RAW (thank goodness!) and was able to salvage 15% of my shots.

Has anyone else experince this issue with the Mark IV? Would love some insight.

[FFN]

Your post on DPReview included the photos that looked pretty good. What metering were you using?

[gossamer88]

I used evaluative. Never thought to change it.

Do you have better succes with center/spot?

[FFN]

No, that should keep the subject properly exposed. If you had been using spot, that may have caused exposure issues. There is another setting you may consider, highlight tone priority. See page 206 of your manual. According to Rawdigger, it affects raw as well as jpeg by expanding dynamic range. Useful for situations of high contrast lighting. http://www.rawdigger.com/node/280

Also, as suggested above, you can enable anti-flicker, see page 215 of your manual. If disabled, the camera may fire at a time when led or flourescent lighting is changing due to AC sine wave, causing an over or under exposure or even color changes. With it enabled, this is diminished or eliminated.

[FFN]

It seems you may have found your answer. Partial metering that you had set would favor exposure of things in the center of the frame - about a 6% spot, a lot wider than spot metering but more focused than Center weighted. That could have caused the exposure issues.

[gossamer88]

Yes, I was about to post that.

As I mentioned in another forum, I looked at the EXIF data and the camera was set at Partial Metering. Not sure how that happened except for the fact that it’s a touch screen. I might have inadvertently changed it from Evaluative.

I'll be going back to Javits for The PhotoPlus Expo. That would certainly tell me that it was me and not the camera.

[TTMartin]

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@gossamer88 wrote:

Yes, I was about to post that.

As I mentioned in another forum, I looked at the EXIF data and the camera was set at Partial Metering. Not sure how that happened except for the fact that it’s a touch screen. I might have inadvertently changed it from Evaluative.

I'll be going back to Javits for The PhotoPlus Expo. That would certainly tell me that it was me and not the camera.

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Yes, Partial Metering was probably the problem. Canon's Evaluative Metering is usually very good. So I was surprised when you said you were in Evaluative Metering. That you were in Partial Metering explains the inconsistent results. 

[Waddizzle]

I suspect that it just may simply have been the venue, and a host of light sources coming from all directions at once.  Do you recall seeing that icon in the viewfinder that tells you about "flashing" light sources? 

I have been to events at the Javits Center, too, mostly trade shows.  There's stuff competing for your attention coming from all directions.

Take the camera out again in a less chaotic environment, one without as many potential sources for light interference.

[diverhank]

The pictures look normal to me - about what you'd expect with any camera with Auto ISO.  There have been no reports of exposure problem with this camera at all.

The 5DIV does have exposure compensation in M mode (with auto ISO)...just dial it in as needed.  As long as you remember the exposure meter limitation of averaging the exposure you will know what exp comp you will need. For example, when the background is very bright (you had a couple of these), you know that the faces will be dark so dial in brighter...

For non action shots like this, I'd use Live View and you can readily see what you will get, making dialing in exp. comp that much easier.  For scenarios like these where the light don't change that much, I'd get off auto ISO and just adjust the settings to get what I want.  Again this is really easy with Live View (but you don't really need it).

[FLLi]

I've had a problem with using AUTO ISO for videos using my Canon 5D IV. I've tried filming a clock for 10-20 minutes in constant photographic lighting condition using manual shutter speed (30) and aperture (2.8). I filmed the clock with both a Mark IV and a Mark III camera at the same time using the same settings. The clip captured by the Mark IV camera has shifting exposure (turned dark in the middle, and after 6 minutes, went back to normal again) and then shifted to dark again for a minute and then back to normal), whereas the clip captured by the Mark III camera has a constant exposure level. I had upgraded the firmware for the Mark IV camera and it still happened. I wonder why this is the case - have I done something wrong or is there a problem with my Mark IV camera?