TG6 shutter speed setting not working in aperture mode

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White Chocolate

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Messages
40
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Location
Bellingham, WA
# of dives
200 - 499
I’ve been struggling with my TG6 to get shots to stay in focus or expose correctly in any wide angle or lower light settings. I have my max ISO set to 400 and was trying higher shutter speed limits with no luck. Even with the lowest shutter speed set at 1/500th it is still taking shots with exposures between 1/15th and 2 seconds. Am I confused on how to make this setting actually work, or is my camera the issue? I’ve followed a few of the best settings guides out there and am definitely in aperture mode. I am shooting with a fixed video light and the flash turned off. Any feedback would be appreciated!
 
the minimum shutter speed setting only works when you are using flash. If there is no flash and you fix the aperture and cap the ISO, there is no flexibility to change shutter speed from what the camera is giving you. The minimum shutter setting is designed to keep shutter speed high to exclude ambient light when you use flash as the sole light source.

what aperture are you using? at f2/2.8 on wide the video light should give enough light to give a reasonable shutter speed. It must be pretty dark to give shutter speeds that low at f2/2.8 and ISO400> assume the video light is on constantly when you are shooting.
 
In short, you need the flash turned on and it will work.
 
Minimum shutter speed works in aperture priority mode with flash turned off—within limits. Let's say you've used "Custom Menu>C>ISO-Auto Set" to set minimum shutter speed to 1/500 (the fastest possible) and maximum ISO to 400 (the slowest possible). And let's say you've set aperture to f/2.8 (or whatever). In very bright available light the camera will go to default ISO (100) and use a faster shutter speed than 1/500 in order to avoid overexposure. As available light is reduced, the camera will slow shutter speed and maintain default ISO until a shutter speed of 1/500 is reached. With still lower light, the camera will begin increasing ISO while maintaining 1/500 shutter speed. Once available light is so low that ISO 400 at 1/500 results in underexposure the camera will start reducing shutter speed as needed. (Obviously, setting maximum ISO to a higher value will give you more latitude here.) Aperture is fixed all the while. This is how it's supposed to work, and it does. I use it all the time to shoot fast-moving fish while snorkeling.

So if it's not working for you with your video light, the video light is probably not bright enough.
 
Thanks for the tips. It definitely works in flash mode. My video light actually has a flash actuated burst so I am going to start experimenting with that and see what happens. I’ve heard that it tends to overexpose shots but it’s pretty easy to change the minimum shutter and max iso so we will see what happens!
 
It took a little practice but playing with the shutter speed wasn't too bad, and the shots definitely had some improvement. I am using a Kraken 2500 video light that bursts to 4000 lumens. I was told here that in normal mode the TG6 would overexpose every time with the burst, but by setting to F18 and bumping up the shutter speed everything worked out ok. When you press menu on the TG6 it automatically goes back to your last location, so once you open the iso/shutter adjustment and then shoot, it is very minimal button pressing to make adjustments.

48954301591_b808356546_z.jpg

48954298001_4495f505c5_z.jpg

48954472312_a8fde75697_z.jpg
 
You can preset and save settings so that you don't need to do that again.

Also you can use the contrast dial as well. 1/250 sec. f/4.9 18mm ISO 200

HERMIT CRAB 2 .JPG
 
1/60 sec. f/10 11.09mm using two big blue VL4200P video lights

Takes time to learn how the camera works with visibility lighting and other settings

MANTIS CLOSE UP.JPG
 
Okympus is crap. I had the tg-5 and i was annoyed by the lack of shutter speed control, almost making the camera unsuable with flash.

I was a little too excited and bought the tg-6 when it came out because of that shutter speed control. Funny enough I had sent an email to their tech support suggesting a firmware update to implement that feature (as everybody was complaining about it).

Anyway, what they came out with is a totally crappy feature. This is obviously my last Olympus product.
 
Peterak, Thanks for the excellent description of this function. Most of my photography is snorkeling/freediving using ambient light so conditions are highly variable and I am not loaded up with time on bottom. Much as it pains me to reward Olympus for failing to update the TG-5 firmware, I think I really need to update to the 6. I am either losing too many photos to slow shutter speed or spending my time fiddling with the controls instead of taking pictures. Can you please comment on the proposed ‘set and forget’ setup?

Default ISO: 200
Max ISO: 1200
Min shutter speed 125
Base aperture F2.8/6.3
Exposure comp: -1

I shoot in raw and process with Lightroom so I think I can deal with the occasional high ISO shot. I just wish there was a way of preventing exposure compensation dimming the lcd screen. It is hard enough to see when snorkeling as it is.

Anyway, thanks for any input you can provide to improve this.

Graham
www.sailingleela.com
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hFsE8nFYCAjPXsUx6

Minimum shutter speed works in aperture priority mode with flash turned off—within limits. Let's say you've used "Custom Menu>C>ISO-Auto Set" to set minimum shutter speed to 1/500 (the fastest possible) and maximum ISO to 400 (the slowest possible). And let's say you've set aperture to f/2.8 (or whatever). In very bright available light the camera will go to default ISO (100) and use a faster shutter speed than 1/500 in order to avoid overexposure. As available light is reduced, the camera will slow shutter speed and maintain default ISO until a shutter speed of 1/500 is reached. With still lower light, the camera will begin increasing ISO while maintaining 1/500 shutter speed. Once available light is so low that ISO 400 at 1/500 results in underexposure the camera will start reducing shutter speed as needed. (Obviously, setting maximum ISO to a higher value will give you more latitude here.) Aperture is fixed all the while. This is how it's supposed to work, and it does. I use it all the time to shoot fast-moving fish while snorkeling.

So if it's not working for you with your video light, the video light is probably not bright enough.
 

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