On a 5d Mk III set Exposure Compensation in Manual Mode (M) with Auto ISO turned on?

[Califdan]

On a 5d Mk III how do I set Exposure Compensation when in Manual Mode (M) with Auto ISO turned on?

On my New Canon EOS 7d Mark II, I can program the "Set" button such that when used in conjunction with the front control dial, changes the EC (Exposure Compensation) when in Manual (M) shooting mode.  In other words, when in M mode, one dial changes SS, the other dial changes Aperture and the camera picks the ISO, but by using the SET button along with the front dial I can tell it to select an ISO that will over or under expose by a dialed in amount of stops.  This is a great feature and for the first times makes shooting in M viable for rapidly changing scenes.  How can I do this on my 5d Mk III?

[Skirball]

You can't do it.  Canon added it for the $6,700 1Dx in a firmware fix.  Acknowledging that it is a worthwhile feature, but I guess they feel that it's a feature they need to reserve for only the highest of the high end.  It's absurd, concidering how easy it would be to implement.  It's one of the few (of the many) missing features that I truly regret not having.

[Califdan]

Thanks again for your reply, 

I guess they are re-thinking this a bit as it is present in the new $1,800 7d Mk II which is an APS-C body and therefore not in the "highest end" realm of Canon models.  I shoot with a 5d MK III and upgraded my 7d to a 7d Mk II at the end of October.  I just got back from 3 weeks in Guatemala where I had the 5d III and 7d II and fell in love with this feature on the 7d II, so went looking for it on the 5d - but to no avail.  

If I find out where to post feature requests for Canon I'll post a request to add this to the 5d III via a firmware upgrade.  As an Ex-boss of mine used to say;  "If you don't shoot, you can't score" - so probably a long shot but worth 10 minutes to post it --- just in case.

Dan

[Skirball]

Thanks for the info, still don't know too much about the 7D2.  I'm glad Canon started putting this in, finally.  I just wish they'd trickle down the firmware fix they did for the 1Dx to cameras like the 5d3 and 6D.  Yeah, I'm aware that Canon claims that the 1Dx is specially designed to allow more firmware fixes, I just don't believe it.

How do you like going from the 5D3 to the 7D?

[Califdan]

I tend to carry two bodies when I'm out shooting.  Right now it's the 5d3 and 7d2 (prior to that was the 5d3 and 7d).  The control layout on the old and new 7d's are for the most part identical to those on the 5d3 so it's a piece of cake continously swapping back and forth.  Now that the 7d's pixel count is similar to the 5d3, I feel much more comfortable grabbing the 7d2 than I did with the 7d.    On this trip to Central America I had only had the 7d2 for a week before we left which I felt was a bit risky.  But after shooting 50 or so frames I decided to chance it.  Fortunatly it worked out pretty well.

In my pre-trip testing I tried the GPS image tagging  with it also saving a track log.  This really drained the battery - especially since the track log recording continues even when the camera goes to sleep - and, I think, when it is powered off as well   As I tend to power on my cameras when I leave the hotel in the morning and not power them off till I go to bed that night (after uploading the day's images to my laptop) having the GPS logging on was not an option.  However, leaving just the GPS image tagging operational all day did not seem to be a power issue.  There was no day in my trip where I had to go to my 2nd battery during the day, and some days started at 4:00 am and didn't end till 10:00 pm.  Half the time I was using a new LP-E6N battery (same form factor and charger as the LP-E6 but a bit more power) and half the time an LP-E6 from my old 7d (I don't have the  BG-E16 Battery Grip so it's just the one battery in the base body).  As long as I can get a whole day's shoot on one charge I'm happy.  I recharge each day's battery overnight each night (when the hotel has electricity).  I also rarly use live view and also rarely shoot video or use flash all of which are battery drains, 

I'm really loving the 7d2.  Especially the auto-ISO in Manual Mode with easy Exposure Compensation.  In fact, where the (effective) focal length I wanted for a shot was in an overlap range between the two bodies I found myself grabbing the 7d2 over the 5d3 many times, especially when there was strong backlight or an overly bright or dark subject.   I usually had the Canon 24-105 on the 6d3 and either a Tamron 28-300, Canon 10-22, anon 100-400, or Canon 100mm Macro on the 7d2.  I haven't gone through my images in detail yet but from what I've seen the noise on the 7d doesn't seem to be much different at any particular ISO then the 5d3.  I haven't done any controlled tesing and also have not yet read any reviews where they've done controlled testing so I may just be delusional, but so far I'm real happy with the 7d2.

Only two minor issues.  1) would like to see compass direction added to view finder (will help find the north star before dark to set up camera for star trails images - yeah I know my smart phone has an app for that), and 2) the USB data cable now has a diffent plug at the camera end (It's a flat thing, not the standard trapezoid plug we're used to) so I have to bring along one more cable than before. 

Thanks -- Dan

www.danhartfordphoto.com

[Skirball]

That's good info, thanks.

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@Califdan wrote:

In my pre-trip testing I tried the GPS image tagging  with it also saving a track log.  This really drained the battery - especially since the track log recording continues even when the camera goes to sleep - and, I think, when it is powered off as well

 2) the USB data cable now has a diffent plug at the camera end (It's a flat thing, not the standard trapezoid plug we're used to) so I have to bring along one more cable than before. 

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Yes, the GPS likely continues to run when the camera goes to sleep, much as it does with the 6D

I'd guess that the USB cable is just a Micro USB 3.0.  I don't think (hope) that Canon would be so ignorant as to introduce a completely new cable format.  Micro 3.0 is a terrible design, and it's about to be outdated by 3.1 which will be back to the same form factor.   However, if you look closely you'll see that 3.0 is just a 2.0 plug with an additional plug beside it.  So you can still use a 2.0 cable, just by plugging it into the trapezoid part.  You won't get 3.0 speed, but you don't have to drag multiple cords around.

[RobertTheFat]

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@Skirball wrote:

I'd guess that the USB cable is just a Micro USB 3.0.  I don't think (hope) that Canon would be so ignorant as to introduce a completely new cable format.  Micro 3.0 is a terrible design, and it's about to be outdated by 3.1 which will be back to the same form factor.   However, if you look closely you'll see that 3.0 is just a 2.0 plug with an additional plug beside it.  So you can still use a 2.0 cable, just by plugging it into the trapezoid part.  You won't get 3.0 speed, but you don't have to drag multiple cords around.

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But the 7D and the 5D3 don't use any form of micro-USB. They still use mini-USB (as does every card reader I ever saw). The mini and micro cables are incompatible. There are adapters, of course, but they're small and easily lost.

[Skirball]

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

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@Skirball wrote:

I'd guess that the USB cable is just a Micro USB 3.0.  I don't think (hope) that Canon would be so ignorant as to introduce a completely new cable format.  Micro 3.0 is a terrible design, and it's about to be outdated by 3.1 which will be back to the same form factor.   However, if you look closely you'll see that 3.0 is just a 2.0 plug with an additional plug beside it.  So you can still use a 2.0 cable, just by plugging it into the trapezoid part.  You won't get 3.0 speed, but you don't have to drag multiple cords around.

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But the 7D and the 5D3 don't use any form of micro-USB. They still use mini-USB (as does every card reader I ever saw). The mini and micro cables are incompatible. There are adapters, of course, but they're small and easily lost.

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Yes, of course, micro not mini.  Well that's interesting now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen a mini-USB 3.0 cable.  I wonder if they finally are moving to micro connectors.  Amusing that they'd do it now, with a plug type that probably won't be around for very long.

[RobertTheFat]

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@Skirball wrote:

Thanks for the info, still don't know too much about the 7D2.  I'm glad Canon started putting this in, finally.  I just wish they'd trickle down the firmware fix they did for the 1Dx to cameras like the 5d3 and 6D.  Yeah, I'm aware that Canon claims that the 1Dx is specially designed to allow more firmware fixes, I just don't believe it.

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I think I do. The trivial way to specially design a camera to allow more firmware fixes is to include more unused memory. In a body the size of the 1DX they have plenty of room to throw in another memory chip or two.

[Skirball]

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@RobertTheFat wrote:

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@Skirball wrote:

Thanks for the info, still don't know too much about the 7D2.  I'm glad Canon started putting this in, finally.  I just wish they'd trickle down the firmware fix they did for the 1Dx to cameras like the 5d3 and 6D.  Yeah, I'm aware that Canon claims that the 1Dx is specially designed to allow more firmware fixes, I just don't believe it.

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I think I do. The trivial way to specially design a camera to allow more firmware fixes is to include more unused memory. In a body the size of the 1DX they have plenty of room to throw in another memory chip or two.

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Really?  Memory?  You think they can't solder on a slightly bigger chip that cost next to nothing?