TG-6 minimum shutter speed feature only works with flash?

Just got my TG-6 and have been playing with it on land before getting wet in a couple weeks.

The early reviews all pointed to the new minimum shutter speed setting as one of the big upgrade over the TG-5. Essentially, you can set a minimum shutter speed as high as 1/500, as long as you're in Auto-ISO mode (with option to set maximum ISO as low as 400).

After experimenting with it, though, it seems like the minimum shutter speed feature only works if the flash is turned on. With the flash off, the shutter speed seems to be back on an auto setting, with the camera selecting values much lower than the minimum I set.

This is fine for shooting with strobes, but I would love to be able to have some shutter speed control when shooting ambient light - for example, snorkeling with dolphins, where a fast shutter speed is critical.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? The manual does not mention this limitation to the shutter speed control, so I wonder if there's something I'm missing.

Just got my TG-6 and have been playing with it on land before getting wet in a couple weeks.

 

The early reviews all pointed to the new minimum shutter speed setting as one of the big upgrade over the TG-5. Essentially, you can set a minimum shutter speed as high as 1/500, as long as you're in Auto-ISO mode (with option to set maximum ISO as low as 400).

 

After experimenting with it, though, it seems like the minimum shutter speed feature only works if the flash is turned on. With the flash off, the shutter speed seems to be back on an auto setting, with the camera selecting values much lower than the minimum I set.

 

This is fine for shooting with strobes, but I would love to be able to have some shutter speed control when shooting ambient light - for example, snorkeling with dolphins, where a fast shutter speed is critical.

 

Has anyone else encountered this issue? The manual does not mention this limitation to the shutter speed control, so I wonder if there's something I'm missing.

I wasn't sure, so I grabbed my TG-6 and experimented. YUP - when you turn the flash off in A mode with minimum speed (I had 1/125) and maximum ISO (I had 400), it ignores you completely. I just took a 4second shot of my keyboard. :-)

I suppose it's not totally unexpected - the shot would have been totally black if the settings had been honored.

What I do find most disappointing is how "crummy" the manual is for the TG-6. I understand if this was the "user manual" and there was a more detailed "expert manual" or "technical manual", but the manual you download is all there is for the camera.

I found two other horrible omissions in the manual:

1. It says nothing about what aperatures are ACTUALLY available in A mode. It also says NOTHING about how displayed aperature changes when you zoom. You can figure it out pretty quickly, but only 3 f-stops when first turned on? (2, 2.8, 8). Really?

2. It also says NOTHING about how to attain 1cm focus in A mode. If you just turn the dial to A and then switch from auto-focus to macro-focus, it doe NOT focus to 1cm. More like 2in.

I had to read about zooming to 1.2X in order to activate the 1cm focus. It's weird to have to do that in the first place (why?) but not to mention it at all in the manual is just terrible.

I love the camera, but am really disappointed in the manual.

-R

You don't want it to be active in anything other than flash - if you lower the shutter speed the picture is under exposed - you need to turn it on it's head and use the other half of the exposure equation aperture and ISO. Olympus persist in not providing Tv mode probably because the the camera really only has two apertures being f2 and f2.8 at the wide end and f4.9 and 6.3 at the tele end. You can get f8 and f18 at wide and tele respectively - but you don't want that for ambient light images because it is achieved with an ND filter - you might use it for video to reduce shutter speed in very bright conditions, but in ambient light stills you're just wasting light. Some compacts provide f4 and 5.6 but all you are doing is creating diffraction mush as you stop down further, the small sensor means DOF is big anyway, equivalent of f12 and f16 on a full frame camera.

If you shoot wide so you can get close f2/2.8 is quite fast and should provide high shutter speeds unless conditions are very dim. Put it in Av and choose your aperture Set ISO to get the shutter speed where you want it. The sunny f16 exposure in full sun is 1/3500 @ f2.8 ISO100 on the surface you should get pretty good shutter speeds close to the surface in bright conditions.

Hey anchchile

Just on your point of shooting fast moving creatures such as dolphins. I got some terrific dolphin images in the Red Sea a couple of years ago. A very fast moving pod of about 10-12 with young alongside. I must have shot 50-60 pics and ended up with 8 cracking keepers a couple of which have sold really well. Shutter speeds are either 1/60 or 1/100 ISO 200 in ambient light. So I wouldn't fret too much if you can't get 1/500

This is frustrating however if you have access to A mode it can be accomplished.

Just set the wider aperture it still gives you decent image quality and focus and then move your ISO until you get your shutter speed of choice at that point lock AE. I would recommend a -0.7 to -1 exposure compensation

If the resulting image is useable you are good to go if not you need to take compromises. Typycally your camera will have a max ISO to go anyway

At surface in bright conditions even in program mode at ISO 100 I get regularly 1/250 with f/5.6 - f/8 in Egypt at the surface I am sure you can work it out

Thanks, everyone, for the replies. Super helpful to think about using ISO as my variable to get the shutter speed I want. Presumably once I get it, I can set it and forget it as long as my angles are consistent.

This is frustrating however if you have access to A mode it can be accomplished.

Just set the wider aperture it still gives you decent image quality and focus and then move your ISO until you get your shutter speed of choice at that point lock AE. I would recommend a -0.7 to -1 exposure compensation

What do you mean by "lock AE"? Do you just mean to leave ISO and aperture alone once I have them dialed in for the shutter speed I want?

Isn't the SPORT mode specifically designed for high shutter speeds and no flash?

Thanks, everyone, for the replies. Super helpful to think about using ISO as my variable to get the shutter speed I want. Presumably once I get it, I can set it and forget it as long as my angles are consistent.

 

 

 

What do you mean by "lock AE"? Do you just mean to leave ISO and aperture alone once I have them dialed in for the shutter speed I want?

Ae lock locks the exposure so the camera doesn’t loose it however the tg6 may not have that control

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I've also been thinking about how the new minimum shutter speed setting would affect the recommended settings for shooting with strobes. Here are my initial thoughts for now - would love feedback:

MACRO:

Shutter speed: lock at 1/500 and never touch it. Auto ISO will likely always be at 400

Aperture: f/8 (no depth-of-field benefit over f/2.8, but the ND filter will better block out ambient light.

Notes: For dark backgrounds, these would be set-it-and-forget it settings, and all you need to worry about would be strobe power. Shutter speed would come into play if you want blue backgrounds, for example.

WIDE:

Shutter speed: lock at 1/500 to start, but be prepared to adjust to get blue backgrounds right

Aperture: f/2.8 for max depth-of-field. Adjust down to f/8 only if backgrounds are still too bright at 1/500 shutter speed.

Notes: Backscatter's TG-5 settings say to use f/8, but I don't see any benefit to that unless you need to block out more ambient light. Also, adjusting the min shutter speed setting is a pain (have to navigate deep into the menu), but probably worth it.

I'm also thinking about using the two preset modes to easily switch between two commonly used shutter-speed settings. You could have one locked at 1/500 and the other locked at, say, 1/400 or 1/350.

I experimented with exposure compensation while in Aperture Priority mode with a minimum shutter speed of 1/500 set and auto-ISO defaulting to 400 in dark conditions. The controls allow you access to it, but it seems to have zero effect, which makes sense, since there's no variable left to adjust.

For Macro, yes that would be right at the wide setting. At the tele setting it's f6.3 so probably dark enough already and in macro you may be more likely to be there than at the widest setting. You could also try Av at f6.3 in tele or f8 in wide and ISO100, at depth the 1/30 shutter speed won't let a lot of light in and strobe will probably still be the main light. On that little sensor I'd like to get ISO100 if I could.

For wide you may find that you don't need to invoke minimum shutter speed if you are f2.8 - for the most part slower shutter speeds are fine and they won't drop unless the light is getting quite dim. For ambient shots of course at f2.8 you will almost always have plenty of shutter speed.

Once you've worked out settings assign one custom function to flashed macro and the other to ambient lighting or wide angle with flash.

On your comment about Backscatter's recommendation - they don't seem to realize f8 is actually f2.8 plus an ND filter.