What happens to ±EV setting on manual?

[crisscross]

I set my D80 to aperture priority and put on +0.7 or +1.0 EV when shooting at birds in flight. As far as I can see from experiment, if I return it to Manual, which is my normal mode for most other things, it has no further effect. Tho in principle it could up ISO or do some other internal magic?

The bird to landscape (or sitting duck) switch also means changing focus from Dynamic (C) to Static (S), so if I can forget the EV setting it is a great bonus.

[Pearlman]

I believe the EV settings do nothing in manual mode. manual mode is all manual when it comes to exposure and f-ratio and ISO so it will disregard the ev setting. in my canon XSI as you change the exposure, f-ratio, or ISO it will show where you are on the EV scale. its a cool feature because it kind of gives you a base.

[dendrophile]

Chris,

Yes, I have to agree with Pearlman. EV is only used in P, Tv or Av. You're basically asking the camera to adjust what it thinks is the right exposure setting. In Manual the camera isn't making any decisions about exposure, you are. You get to decide how to under/over-expose by choosing the shutter speed and aperture. My Canon 50d shows me on its exposure meter where my M settings get me, and I am sure your D80 will do something similar.

Graham

[Colin Southern]

Quick expansion of the above replies ...

In aperture priority you're saying to the camera "I want a particular aperture, so you be a good boy and go work out the right shutterspeed for a correct exposure for me" (and obviously vice-versa when operating in shutterspeed priority mode).

Exposure compensation - as you know - is a way of telling the camera to bias it's calculations a certain amount, in a certain direction.

In manual mode there's no calculation to be done, as you're supplying both variables.

By the way, the amount of EC (is it EV for Nikon?) will vary depending on the size and colour of your subject, the colour of the background, and your metering mode (metering modes essentialy, simply tell the camera which parts of the scene - exposure wise - are the most important). Predominantly white scenes under-expose around 2 stops, predominately black scenes over-expose around 2 stops.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Colin - pbase.com/cjsouthern

[crisscross]

thank you all for contributions

It seems that leaving the ±EV setting when shooting in manual does not affect the real settings.

However, what it does do is alter the reading one gets on the exposure scale visible in the viewfinder, ie something that is ACTUALLY underexposed .3 reads overexposed .3 if I leave the ±EV setting -0.7.

I have the exposure set to single point reading, ie only the central point of a grid of 11 possible points. It would thus misinform on the 1st press & so not a good idea to leave it.

Assuming I have time, what I actually do is (1) get an 'intuitive average' EV reading by waving the camera over the intended frame (2) see if more than an odd spot or two of the playback show 'highlight' (ie probably blown) (3) look at histogram (4) re-take with manual settings adjusted until both highlight and histo result look convincing. So if I have sabotaged step (1) by leaving a ±EV bias, it might take an extra go to get to correct end result.