AE lock problem on 5d - is it defective?!

[stuart_ashall]

Hello everyone.

 

On the back of some very useful advice on this forum I have, a matter of hours

ago, bought a Canon 5d. Enthusiastic playing (sorry testing) was going very

well. However I seem to have a problem - for some reason the AE lock indicator

("*") does not appear in the viewfinder to confirm AE lock in manual mode. It

does in all of the other modes - just not in manual. Am I being galactically

stupid here or is there something wrong with it?

 

All responses very gratefully recieved.

 

(Incidentally picture quality straight out of the tin is superb...)

 

Thanks,

Stuart

[mendel_leisk]

"Am I being galactically stupid here" Yup ;D

[sheldonnalos]

:)

[mendel_leisk]

BTW, the camera is a delight, and I'm really coming round to using manual exposure more. Auto exposure modes are very handy, but if you have the time, dialing in manual exposure, especially with a few test shots, puts you in control of exposure. The top lcd display seems to stay on longer in manual mode, allowing you to easily shift aperture & shutter speeds up and down a stop or two.

 

It's also handy to put autofocus on the * button, with custom function 4 set to 1.

[William Michael]

> All responses very gratefully recieved. <

 

There is no AE lock icon visible, because there is no AE (Auto Exposure) for the camera to lock onto.

 

In the Manual Mode, exposure is Manually (user) selected.

 

regards WW

[mark u]

Of course, there are situations (e.g. spotlit performances) where it could be useful to be able to hold a spot reading and then adjust the manual exposure based on the reading. If you need to do that, Canon forces you to take your reading in say Av mode, and then switch to M to set the exposure.