8 Great Used Convertibles Under $10,000 For 2019
The FIAT 500 is awfully small, but it's also awfully cute. This tiny hatchback is excellent for city driving with its nimble handling and its very small footprint making parking a breeze. Since the FIAT 500c is already the most affordable convertible on the new market, they've gotten even more affordable on the used market and can be found fairly easily with a 4-digit price tag. Its convertible mechanism is quite simple just being a soft top that rolls all the way back like a huge sunroof, but that just adds to the car's already immense charm. If you're shopping on the quirkier side of used convertibles, you might like the Volvo C70. Unlike many of the convertibles on this list, the C70 actually has a fairly roomy back seat and can comfortably seat four adults. The controls and technology are a bit, shall we say, unconventional? But like with any other car, once you get used to the controls, using them becomes second nature. This Volvo doesn't have the driving dynamics of some of its German rivals, but it does have practicality and value.
Once you鈥檝e set the exposure you don鈥檛 need to change it. I like to use Manual mode when making portraits in natural light. Once I鈥檝e set the exposure I鈥檓 free to concentrate on directing the model. In this situation, you have plenty of time to assess exposure. Manual mode is ideal because you can set a low ISO (for image quality), a small aperture (for depth of field) and change the shutter speed to suit the light levels. It鈥檚 also easy to make adjustments to allow for any polarizing, neutral density or graduated neutral density filters you may be using. If you鈥檙e shooting landscapes at dusk, while the light is fading, Manual mode also works well. After you take a photo, just check the histogram. As it moves to the left, which it will as the light fades, dial in a slower shutter speed to compensate. If you鈥檙e using a flash set to manual the output from the flash is the same every time.
In that situation, it鈥檚 best to adjust the camera settings manually so the exposure is consistent from frame to frame. To create the portrait below, I worked with both the camera and flash set to manual. Setting your flash to manual only works when the flash to subject distance doesn鈥檛 change. If you鈥檙e doing long exposure landscape photography and your shutter speed (exposure time) is longer than 30 seconds then you need to use Bulb mode. This is another form of Manual mode. Except that rather than telling the camera what shutter speed you want it to use, you do so by using the camera鈥檚 bulb setting and a remote release. I used Bulb mode to make this landscape photo with a shutter speed (exposure time) of 82 seconds. The alternative to Manual mode is to set your camera to an automatic exposure mode and use exposure compensation to override the camera鈥檚 settings.
The three best automatic exposure modes to use are Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Programmed auto. Other exposure modes, such as Landscape and Portrait, don鈥檛 give you enough control. On some cameras (such as Canon EOS) you can鈥檛 adjust exposure compensation when using one of these modes. These are some of the situations where exposure compensation may be better than Manual mode. If you are taking photos of people in the street the required exposures can vary wildly. One moment you may take a photo of something in the sun, the next you may photograph something in the shade. The sun may also be going in and out between the clouds. In this situation, you want to concentrate on finding interesting things to photograph and creating a good composition. If you have to stop and think about exposure, then you may miss the shot. Automatic exposure modes help greatly. If you have the on-camera flash set to an automatic mode, then the camera needs to be set to evaluative or matrix metering, the camera鈥檚 most advanced metering mode, to take full advantage of that. The camera and flash work together to calculate the correct exposure.
