[ManuH]

Is it me or the K-1 has a tendency to choose ISO 200 in auto ISO when ISO 100 would work perfectly (especially with SR on)? I had to stop using auto ISO in daylight because I don't see any reason to anything but ISO 100 in full daylight.

[MarkJerling]

Do you have bracketing or any other parameters set?

[kypfer]

The "auto" settings are there for those who wish to use them.
If you have a specific need to have ISO 100 set, that option is also there.
To set the camera to any of the "auto" settings, then complain that the camera doesn't perform as you would have preferred it to, is rather pointless, IMHO

[Mooncatt]

Do you have highlight protection on? I seem to remember this will expose the brightest areas of the sensor at a slightly lower ISO than your set ISO to avoid blowing out highlights, but only works when set higher than base ISO. The auto mode could be accounting for that protection setting.

[UncleVanya]

If highlight protection is set to auto; when it engages then iso 200 is the minimum iso.

This might explain why it is only sometimes happening.

[ManuH]

If highlight protection is set to auto; when it engages then iso 200 is the minimum iso.

This might explain why it is only sometimes happening.

You are correct. I feel stupid but I never use that fonction and the previous owner did set it up that way. Anyway thanks for giving me the solution.

[mlag]

There is on my K-3 also a menu for ’auto iso parameter’ adaption, ranging ”as little as possible...intermediate....actively”
Intermediate is probably default...yielding a iso200 to have bit more margin on other exposure parameters....?


In P mode the program line has also influence .
The following pentax article explains this option
The PENTAX Hyper Control system: A quick, effortless way to find the optimum exposure settings / explore | RICOH IMAGING
It might prefer dof/small aperture or high shutter speed rather than low iso...

[TheSwede]

The "auto" settings are there for those who wish to use them.
If you have a specific need to have ISO 100 set, that option is also there.
To set the camera to any of the "auto" settings, then complain that the camera doesn't perform as you would have preferred it to, is rather pointless, IMHO

This comment is also pointless IMHO. And I do not put a smiley after to make it look less rude.

Highlight protection makes the camera choose ISO200 even on a bright sunny day when ISO100 should have been choosen in AutoISO

[OrchidJulie]

Gentlemen, let's agree to disagree politely, please. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, whether you agree with it or not.

[jgnfld]

Re. the issues raised here two bedrock principles of comics come to mind:

--With great power to automate settings comes great responsibility.

--It's not (well not merely) the settings but the photog underneath that defines the picture.

[Wheatfield]

Re. the issues raised here two bedrock principles of comics come to mind:

--With great power to automate settings comes great responsibility.

--It's not (well not merely) the settings but the photog underneath that defines the picture.

Something that is often not well explained in owners manuals is how altering one function can have a cascading effect on other features suddenly not working.

[jgnfld]

Something that is often not well explained in owners manuals is how altering one function can have a cascading effect on other features suddenly not working.

Well, they ARE "working", it's just that to accept the intent of one setting/command, other settings/commands may need to be tweaked in order to actually perform that intent. The engineers know this. The technical writers perhaps not so much.

[Wheatfield]

Well, they ARE "working", it's just that to accept the intent of one setting/command, other settings/commands may need to be tweaked in order to actually perform that intent..

And therein lies the problem in owners manuals. I'm not sure about the particular situation the OP found himself in, but I have found that sometimes owners manuals don't do a great job of explaining how invoking one feature will disrupt some other feature, sometimes with that disruption causing some other seemingly unrelated feature to the one being altered suddenly not being available.
Sometimes it's easy to figure out, sometimes it's not.

[Paul the Sunman]

You are correct. I feel stupid but I never use that fonction and the previous owner did set it up that way. Anyway thanks for giving me the solution.

There is a point to highlight protection/correction, since highlights are much more difficult to recover than underexposed regions. Are you sure you want it off? I would be very hard-pressed to distinguish between iso200 and iso100 in most circumstances.

[ManuH]

There is a point to highlight protection/correction, since highlights are much more difficult to recover than underexposed regions. Are you sure you want it off? I would be very hard-pressed to distinguish between iso200 and iso100 in most circumstances.

I prefer to underexpose it myself and do it in post-processing. But I may try both methods to see what is more efficient since I have less time nowadays to sit in front of a computer. Whith the IQ I get from the K-1 I could even go back to pure JPEG and tweak them from the camera depending on the scene to shoot.