Sv Mode...

...I'm curious as to whether anyone here uses it. Since getting the K-5 my dial has been set to Av most regularly, but I've also used Tv, TAv, M and P modes depending on the situation. Sv doesn't strike me as being massively useful, mainly because Sensitivity can be set manually in most of the other exposure modes anyway.

If anybody uses it, in what kind of situation do you find it useful?

Tend to agree Mark. I believe it was set up to make people going through the digital transition behave more in a set ISO mode.

With the availability of the ISO button it does seem somewhat redundant. But I would also like to hear from people that use it as a benefit.

i think that i'd generally have no reason to use it.

but, i can think of one scenario, and only one, where it might be useful.

imagine that you're working in very poor light, that you need to bounce your flash of a very distant wall, and you really need to milk it. i'd want to set the iso up high, and the aperture as wide open as possible.

but still, it's the one camera mode that i've never used.

I use SV mode in rapidly changing light conditions, such as sunrise/set - but this is shooting with a K200, so I only have one control wheel.

TAv 80% of the time for me (M the rest). Set a max ISO and then I know the K5 will take care of it whilst I adjust Shutter and Aperture as required. I have never used SV mode.

I've recently discovered the usefulness of TAv, previously I shot in Av and M. It is very rare that I need to shoot in Tv. In fact I can't remember ever shooting in Tv, Sv or Green.

there is answer... I experimented with SV mode... the most useful application I found was for street photography in inclement weather or near sunrise/sunset when the light is changing rapidly...
You may want f8 for DOF and 1/30 to 1/60 second for motion blur and switch iso's as needed...

maybe it's time people just played with this setting for fun?

I use Sv mode all the time on my K7 for stock car meetings at night under floodlights.

I just set it on ISO 6400 and 'fire away'.

If there's a 'better' way than Sv mode for taking photos under floodlights then please let me know and I'll give it try.

Here's one I took on Saturday night at Birmingham using Sv mode - ISO 6400.

Regards, Chris.

Cool. It's nice to know people find it useful, though it still seems a little redundant insofar as one could just shoot in program mode and set the ISO manually anyway. Not that that is a bad thing. Redundancy in the form of providing multiple ways of doing this can be good as long as it isn't overdone to the extent that it becomes confusing.

You can make it as confusion as you want so i'm glad Pentax gave us the option to "personalize" our camera's

I have yet to hear a convincing argument for using Sv mode, although of course if it 'works for you' fair enough!

TaV is another thing entirely, very useful. I would use it for photos under floodlights in fact. Select an appropriate shutter speed for panning action shots, and an appropriate aperture and let the camera adjust the ISO. In Sv mode you sometimes might be using a needlessly high ISO.

There is only one thing that annoys me about TaV. At the moment if the camera can't select a low or high enough ISO for a correct exposure, you just get an over or under exposed image. You should be able to tell the camera to over-ride either the aperture or shutter speed setting to avoid this.

There is a way but not fully auto but semi.

The indication of your shutterspeed and aperture will blink in the LCD and in the viewfinder if it's out of reach, just click the green button and everything will be good again.
You can adjust in the custom menu if the camera should shift the Speed or Aperture or you can choose for MTF when you press the green button.

Pentaxophile, this is preciesely why I use SV mode. The K200 does not have TaV mode, and Sv mode makes it easy for me to make sure that I am not using a needlessly high ISO - the camera normally will prioritise 1/focal length shutter speed first, then start closing the aperture, so if my aperture is the wrong size I adjust the ISO.