Ok, pretty please, help me out. My 40D is is here and I'm loving it. I playing with all the different combo's and having a ball, but low light/night is completely throwing me. It has a night setting, but as I suspected it sucks (to be blunt). The slightest bit of light comes out completely over blown.

For the life of me I can't achieve any success in manual mode coming up with the right combination of ISO/Apeture/Shutter Speed. Help!!!!

Thanx in advance for taking the time to respond!

Rich

PS Yes, I have a tripod and a remote shutter release.

Rich - Hmmm...night settings come out completely overblown. Hmmm....you got a tripod and a remote shutter release, good! Hmmm....Sound to me like a Classic case of screwup somewhere. Hmmm....the camera cannot talk or write messages on the computer Stupid camera, so I have to blame someone with intelligence, You!
How long are you holding the shutter open? what is your ISO set at? try 100 What f stop are you using. I have one of those stupid cameras also, I also took night shots, it didnt work out well, I discovered a secret, I read the book. Did you adjust you meter settings up or down? I have learned that at most normal night shots at ISO 100 I seldom shoot over 1.5 sec If you are getting overblown at 1 sec, and I am assuming you are experienced, then your ISO setting is too Hi!

"and I am assuming you are experienced"

Lol, lol!

Until 6 days ago I was shooting everything with a FujiFinepix A800.

I tried reading the book...I did what they said and everything comes out dark. Really dark. Like black.

~~Yes, the lens cap is off~~

Thanx for responding, I'll make sure it's at ISO 100...suggestions as to f stops to start at?

Rich - the exposure level indicator may be set to overexpose. In live view you can adjust the exposure level, pushing the info button on the lower right of the view screen you can adjust the ISO and the Exposure Level using the master dial to suit your environment. Make sure the flash is shut off, and the AF and IS are off. On Bulb setting, you can attach your shutter release and begin at 1&1/2 sec exposure. Review your shot and adjust as necessary. This should work.

Rich, 100 might be a bit too contrasty for night photography. Try 200. 100 is a thing of beauty for bright, bold daytime colors. Then, adjust your aperture according to subject. Shooting a sweeping vista? crank that baby down (f22 or so) and enjoy a deep DOF. Shooting something specific, and want to isolate it? Open the aperture up, but not all the way. Try 5.6, 6.3, or 8. Or wider, such as 3.5 to 5.6 to really use a shallow DOF.

Then, adjust shutter speed until you get a decent exposure.

the above intsructions are with the assumption you're shooting a still landscape type shot. If you'd prefer not to set your own shutter speed, set your camera to aperture priority (AV in canon-speak I think) and it'll be set for you.

Another handy, and far under-used setting is EV (exposure value). It's setting looks like this: +/- and is surrounded by a black and white square, divided diagonally. try lowering your EV (a little at a time) if things are too bright, or raising it (again, in slight increments) if the scene is too dim.

Another trick is known as bracketing, which means taking the same shot, at different settings. (up and down three shutter speeds, for example, or one or two F-stops would be another).

Good luck :o)

Thanx Rob, I sure apprecaite it!

Okay, that is not the most professional way to do this, but I always try several combinations. That is, I set a f-stop I think works well with the image I want (typically around 10.0 for buildings or such), and then let the camera choose the appropiate shutter speed. Then I set several values for over- and underexposure. I'm quite sure there is a funktion on your camera where you can define a bracket of these values, then each time you press the release, three shots will be taken (one with the exposure the camera thinks is right, and one over- and underexposed). Later you can decide which one you like best, or combine them to an HDR image.

Of course, you might deduce from the fact that I haven't posted a night image yet, that this method doesn't work too well ;-)
So I'm open to any suggestions!

Edit: too slow...