High iso usage

[Mancanon]

I'm just curious; with all of the new dslrs boasting about their ability to capture images at higher and higher ISO, how many routinely go 800 or higher?

[Donald]

At the Canon 7DMkII and 5DS at 1600 for a shoot the other day. Indoors & natural light. No noise problems at all.

[Shadowman]

Only when necessary, you'll know when you need to and the resulting capture will show how high. I've gone as high as 25600 when needed but for optimum results I try to stay below 3200.

[Manfred M]

In my case I will always try to shoot at the lowest ISO I can get away with; which means I try to stick with the base ISO of my camera whenever possible. On the other hand, if there no other way of getting the shot, I will not hesitate to crank up the ISO as high as it will go.

With my Panasonic GC7, I try to stick below ISO 800. On the Nikon D90, I try to shoot at ISO 1250 and lower and on the D800, I do not hesitate to shot at IDO 2500 or ISO 3200. If I had a D4, I'd certainly be willing to push up past ISO 6400.

The issue to remember is that increasing ISO does have a negative impact on your image quality. Your digital sensor really doesn't have an ISO, the signal is amplified and the higher the level of amplification you apply, the higher the ISO rating you have. In photography, like anything else, you don't get these higher ISO for free, as when you increase the gain, you also amplify any noise in the system, and this results in deterioration of image quality. While noise is probably what concerns people the most when shooting at higher ISO settings, there are also two other key issues that deteriorate as ISO settings are increased. Your colour bit depth (the number of distinct shades of colours that can be recorded) and the dynamic range of the image (areas in the image where the least amount of shadow detail is still visible to the highest amount of highlight detail is still visible) decreases.

If you are interested in the specifics of a particular camera model, the DxOMark website has this information. Here for example is how by Panasonic GX-7 performs:

http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Panas...--Measurements

[Mike Buckley]

In my case I will always try to shoot at the lowest ISO I can get away with; which means I try to stick with the base ISO of my camera whenever possible. On the other hand, if there no other way of getting the shot, I will not hesitate to crank up the ISO as high as it will go.

The same for me. When I have the choice of getting the image with noise or not getting the image, I always get the image and decide later whether it's a keeper.

[Loose Canon]

I'm just curious; with all of the new dslrs boasting about their ability to capture images at higher and higher ISO, how many routinely go 800 or higher?

I routinely use high ISO values for a lot of work and have no qualms doing so!

Here is one at ISO 8000 (three zeros) due to low light.



And a recent studio production shot at ISO 1000 to help keep the studio stobe’s flash duration fast. This value is still low for a lot of studio work I do.

[dje]

High ISO noise performance is determined mainly by sensor technology and pixel size. For a given technology, the bigger the pixels, the better the high ISO noise performance.

Cameras like the Canon 5D Mk III and Nikon D610/D750 have similar high ISO noise performance (see Manfred's link to DXOMark). I am quite comfortable using ISO 3200 on my D610 but will go higher if necessary. But like the others, I always use the lowest possible ISO.

The final result with high ISO shooting depends on the noise reduction and sharpening techniques used. These tend to work against each other, sharpening can accentuate the noise and noise reduction can soften the image. If you are shooting jpeg, modern cameras seem to handle this side of the processing pretty well. If you are shooting raw, it takes a bit more effort on your part as the one in control of processing.

Dave

[DanK]

It depends on how picky you are and how large you intend to display the photo. You can get away with a considerable loss of image quality if you only intend to show a small image on a computer screen. The lower quality often won't be apparent at that resolution. If you intend to print or display larger, noise and the loss of dynamic range will be more of a problem.

Like Manfred, I tend to keep ISO as low as I can. With my 5DIII, which is a fairly low-noise camera, I can comfortably go to 800 with no appreciable problem at the sizes relevant to me. Above that, the deterioration starts becoming apparent.

I recently shot a play that wasn't all that well illuminated, and I had to go at least to 8000. I think a few may have been 12500. I could clean most of them up to the point where they looked OK on a small computer display, but any further enlargement showed the loss of quality.

With my 7D generation 1, I try to stay no higher than 400.

[Black Pearl]

Almost every time I go out. I have never been afraid to use an appropriate iso to get the aperture and shutter speed I require for a shot I'm taking. In fact I will often use a higher iso than I might otherwise require just to make sure I have a fast enough SS or a little more DoF. Digital noise is a doddle to deal with using only the most basic of software tools so I just don't worry.

One thing I was never happy about was the way the dynamic range (DR) plummeted with my previous two cameras as the iso went up. This was a factor when I recently switched to the Fuji X-T1 which has an astonishing ability to maintain DR across a huge range of iso's.

Here is a comparison with a Nikon Df which uses the highly recommended sensor from the D4s. They are both 16mp but the Df has a FF sensor while the Fuji has an APSC one. Obviously there are other factors that will come into play that will have an impact on the final image but you have to admit the results from the Fuji make for a very versatile iso range:

[MrB]

As I hand-hold in Av Mode for almost all my shots, I usually set the camera to Auto ISO, from 100 to 3200, as low light performance is acceptable (Pentax K-5IIs) within that range. I also select the setting that forces the ISO to be as low as possible, and then the camera will not raise the ISO any more than is needed to give a shutter speed no slower than 1/f.

Cheers.
Philip

[Geoff F]

I'm mostly increasing Iso to deal with low light levels when I also need a bit of shutter speed and fairly narrow aperture. So I get nervous at 800 and 1200 is the absolute limit for me, when the shadows begin to show excessive noise.

[tclune]

When I go birding with my long lens I shoot manual with auto-ISO and let the ISO raise as high as it needs to. My long lens needs to be stopped down to at least f/7.1 to be sharp and the shutter speed needs to be up around 1/1000 to avoid blurring when I shoot. So the degradation of current Nikon sensors at high ISO is less than I would have from either of the other two parameters. As always, YMMV.

[rtbaum]

ISO 3200........cuz I forgot

Still impressed though

[William W]

If I recall correctly, you just bought an EOS 5D.

This is an EOS 5D used at ISO “H” (‘equivalent’ ISO3200):



*

This is another from the EOS 5D at “H”:



*

This is the EOS 5D at ISO1600, I regularly used/use the EOS 5D at ISO 1600:




These all are fine for printing at 14~16” by the long side, probably also 20~24" if needed.

WW
All Images © AJ Group Pty Ltd Aust 1996~2015, WMW 1965~1996

[William W]

I routinely use high ISO values for a lot of work and have no qualms doing so!
Here is one at ISO 8000 (three zeros) due to low light.

Stunning!

What Camera, please?

WW

[pnodrog]

Stunning!

What Camera, please?

WW

EXIF data give Canon EOS 5D MarkIII

Not too bad is it! Not really a question.

[William W]

Ta. Thought it might be. Thanks for doing the work for me.

[pnodrog]

Ta. Thought it might be. Thanks for doing the work for me.

No problem - you must get exhausted with all the typing you often have to do..

[Black Pearl]

I'm mostly increasing Iso to deal with low light levels when I also need a bit of shutter speed and fairly narrow aperture. So I get nervous at 800 and 1200 is the absolute limit for me, when the shadows begin to show excessive noise.

Are you saying you wouldn't take the shot if you had to use a higher iso?

[IzzieK]

I'm just curious; with all of the new dslrs boasting about their ability to capture images at higher and higher ISO, how many routinely go 800 or higher?

I do...sometimes without thought I must say as I am a bad judge of temperature despite the Kelvin guide to weather conditions and light. This is because I am still studying different atmospheres and conditions as I go along. Christina told me to use high ISO in sunny conditions when photographing birds, sometimes using the Auto ISO does it by itself...I am used to using manual exposure so that was strange for me for a while even if it changes with the light or lack of it...

So actually my answer to your question is it depends...