Getting the Most Out of Auto ISO on the Sony a6700

The Sony a6700 has an ISO range of 100 to 102,400.

Of that, up to 32,000 falls in the native ISO range. If you’re shooting photos, you can also tap into the extended ISO, where software amplifies the signal electronically to get up to 102,400. (If you’re shooting video, 32,000 is the max.)

The base ISO for stills is 100. That’s where the sensor is cleanest and dynamic range is highest, and it’s where you want to sit whenever there’s enough light to get there. If you’ve seen the a6700 described as a dual base ISO camera, that’s a video thing: shooting S-Log3, CineD’s lab test measured base ISOs of 800 and 2500.

But if you’re using the Auto ISO feature — and there are good reasons to be doing so — you won’t get all of that range available if you just leave it on the default settings.

By default, the a6700’s Auto ISO feature has ISO 6400 set as its maximum ceiling. That’s a plus for maximizing image quality and minimizing the amount of signal-to-noise processing being computed by the camera’s processing engine. But there might be times you want to push that much further.

I was initially a bit confused as to why I was only getting relatively low ISOs, and poorly lit results, when I was out recently shooting with the a6700 at night. It’s because I was expecting it to go to higher ISOs, but it was being restricted by default to ISO 6400 and below.

So here’s how to change that to increase the maximum ISO when using Auto ISO on the Sony a6700.

Adjust the Auto ISO range limit

Auto ISO is on by default. You can disable it and revert to setting the ISO manually, but the camera is set to use Auto ISO out of the box.

And its default lower and upper limits are ISO 100 and ISO 6400. You can increase the lower limit (useful as a method for forcing a faster shutter speed), but you can’t go lower than 100 with Auto ISO. The camera does have an extended ISO 50 setting, but that one is only available when you set the ISO yourself — and it doesn’t add any dynamic range over ISO 100, it just costs you highlight headroom.

Method 1: Quick settings panel

There are two ways to access the settings. This first one is the one I find quickest and easiest.

To adjust it, go to:

1 Main

And then, in the grid, scroll across to the ISO box, which is at the very top right.

Click on that, and you’ll get a screen that shows the ISO AUTO Minimum (left) and ISO AUTO Maximum (right).

Go across to the maximum option. You can change the setting either by pressing the up section of the control wheel on the rear panel or using the rear dial (the unmarked dial on the top right corner of the camera).

Set it to whatever upper limit you find acceptable. Each photographer is going to have their own preference on where that threshold lies, but you can get pretty good results up to around ISO 32,000. If you go beyond that, you’ll notice the image quality dropping markedly.

One thing worth knowing if you shoot video as well as stills: the a6700 uses the same Auto ISO limits for both. S-Log3’s base ISO is 800, about three stops above the stills base, so a ceiling that makes sense for photos is tight in log video, and a ceiling picked for log video is higher than you’d choose for photos. There’s no way to keep a separate pair of limits for each, so it’s worth glancing at the numbers when you switch the dial over.

Method 2: Traditional menu system

This method isn’t any more difficult; it’s just through the regular menu system. The Exposure/Color section is the fourth icon down on the left, with the pink background and the +/- and camera icon.

Go to:

Exposure/Color > 1 Exposure > ISO Range Limit

You can see some of the photos I’ve taken with the Sony a6700 in these posts:

– Sony a6700 Sample Images / Image Quality Tests (general collection of sample images under a variety of conditions)
– Sony a6700 High ISO Sample Images (focusing on high-ISO images taken under low-light conditions)
– Sony a6700 High ISO Test Images (similar to above, but focused on sequences of images throughout ISO range for side-by-side comparison)

I also have a bunch of other posts on shooting with the Sony a6700.

Related setting: Minimum shutter speed

Another related setting I find very useful to adjust is the minimum shutter speed when using Auto ISO.

There are different ways to approach this.

By default, the minimum shutter adjusts according to the focal length of the lens. A wider lens will allow a slower minimum shutter than a longer lens. That’s because any vibration or movement is amplified at longer focal lengths, so a faster shutter speed helps mitigate that.

If you’re finding that motion blur is a problem, this is a good setting to experiment with. For instance, I often find with street photography or even photos of the kids, I’ll want to set the minimum shutter faster than standard.

The basic settings are relative. The default is Standard (STD). You can make this 1 EV faster by choosing Fast or another 1 EV with Faster. Likewise, you can make it up to 2 EV slower than the Standard, which can be especially useful if shooting with a tripod and want to maximize image quality but still want to use Auto ISO.

As I said, those are relative values that are based on the focal length of the lens.

Another approach is set an absolute minimum shutter. If either camera shake or motion blur is becoming an issue, you might want to set this at 1/125 or 1/250, for example.

As a practical example, if you’re shooting something where the subject is in motion — say, kids playing soccer or birds or wildlife on the move, even with a wider lens — a setting of 1/250 or 1/500 is going to be greatly reduce the risk of motion blur.

Why the Sony a6700 has Auto ISO enabled by default

There are of course times where you want the precision that manual control over the ISO offers. The situations where I find that especially useful are where exposure consistency is key (eg. panoramas or time-lapse), when I want to force a long (or dragged) shutter, or when shooting with off-camera flash (auto ISO can cause almighty messes with flash photography).

But there are advantages to shooting with Auto ISO, especially with everyday shooting. There’s a reason it’s on by default, after all.

One of the main advantages of shooting with Auto ISO is the ability to adapt quickly to changing light conditions. This feature allows the camera to automatically adjust the ISO setting based on the lighting environment, saving you the time and effort of manually adjusting it.

If you’re in a studio with controlled lighting, that’s not going to be much of an issue. But if you’re using the a6700 while traveling or just general shooting, the odds are good that Auto ISO will come in very handy.

Another advantage is the potential for better image quality. Auto ISO can help to prevent underexposed or overexposed shots by automatically optimizing the ISO setting for the best exposure. This can be especially beneficial in situations where the lighting conditions are unpredictable or constantly changing, such as at an outdoor event or during a sports game.

Auto ISO can also help to ensure a faster shutter speed, which can be useful for capturing action shots or reducing camera shake. By allowing the camera to automatically increase the ISO in low light conditions, you can maintain a faster shutter speed and still achieve a well-exposed shot.

By setting the lower and upper limits, you’re telling the camera to stay within that range. If you’re shooting in low lighting conditions that are trying to push beyond that upper limit, you’ll start seeing slowing shutter speeds and probably motion blur.

That’s what happens in the modes where the camera is choosing the shutter speed. In manual mode with Auto ISO left on, the shutter and aperture stay exactly where you put them, so once ISO hits the ceiling the picture simply goes darker instead. Exposure compensation still works in that combination — it shifts the brightness the camera aims for with ISO — but only until ISO runs out of room, after which the frame just underexposes.