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I think my response stems from a nuance that's lost in the terminology gap created by auto-ISO. We have a name for auto exposure control by shutter (Av), by aperture (Tv), but not by gain. For that, we say "manual with auto-ISO" and when the auto-something gets left off it sounds like plain old manual. And after all, the dial is set to M.
So when Nige says, "My main problem is with shooting manual. I used to shoot manual with the D500 happily enough, but with the Canon the exposure compensation takes on a life of its own...and have missed some owl shots when the exposure has decided to amp up to make the camera unusable" it's not really manual because he is allowing some level of auto-exposure. And even then, I don't think the EC would be what the camera is changing automatically. Again, my understanding of EC is that it's basically a static bias that you apply to the camera's metering, and it only would do anything if the camera is already performing some sort of auto-exposure function. If A, S, and ISO are locked down using the three dials (which is how I read the post) then there shouldn't be any C in the EC, at least to my way of thinking.
Bottom line is that we can take all exposure control away from the camera if desired.
I'm not an EC user and I'm actually pretty interested in how people use EC. Assuming your shutter and aperture are already locked down, how does spinning up EC differ from spinning up ISO? EC seems to be intended for ongoing exposure offset, rather than shot-to-shot offset.
I also shoot dynamically changing subjects (white jerseys, then black, then pale skin, then dark) and I see the in-camera metering swing wildly while the actual exposure stays the same. For nearly all cases I stay in full manual to prevent problems. If athletes are running in and out of shade, though, there's no sense trying to control this myself. That's just a terrible scene anyway, with light changing by two stops within the frame and major WB issues.
So when Nige says, "My main problem is with shooting manual. I used to shoot manual with the D500 happily enough, but with the Canon the exposure compensation takes on a life of its own...and have missed some owl shots when the exposure has decided to amp up to make the camera unusable" it's not really manual because he is allowing some level of auto-exposure. And even then, I don't think the EC would be what the camera is changing automatically. Again, my understanding of EC is that it's basically a static bias that you apply to the camera's metering, and it only would do anything if the camera is already performing some sort of auto-exposure function. If A, S, and ISO are locked down using the three dials (which is how I read the post) then there shouldn't be any C in the EC, at least to my way of thinking.
Bottom line is that we can take all exposure control away from the camera if desired.
Anton, as I state above, coming from Nikon where exposure can be based on the entire frame or just the focus point (which Canon doesn't have for some reason), EC factors in greatly, especially in wildlife situations where we have dark birds against bright backgrounds or constantly changing conditions with animals moving. I'm constantly spinning the back dial to over or under expose the frame so my subject is perfect.
I'm not an EC user and I'm actually pretty interested in how people use EC. Assuming your shutter and aperture are already locked down, how does spinning up EC differ from spinning up ISO? EC seems to be intended for ongoing exposure offset, rather than shot-to-shot offset.
I also shoot dynamically changing subjects (white jerseys, then black, then pale skin, then dark) and I see the in-camera metering swing wildly while the actual exposure stays the same. For nearly all cases I stay in full manual to prevent problems. If athletes are running in and out of shade, though, there's no sense trying to control this myself. That's just a terrible scene anyway, with light changing by two stops within the frame and major WB issues.