What is your maximum iso?

• OM-1: ISO 12,800
• E-m5 mark III: ISO 6,400
• E-m1 mark II: ISO 6,400 (I think)
• E-m1 mark I: ISO 6.400
• E-m5 mark I: ISO 3,200
• Stylus-1: ISO 1,600
• E-1: ISO 200 or 400

Trees said:

Honestly, I shoot at whatever ISO I need to get the photo. Since I started using DXO, I’ve realized M4/3 is way more capable as noise reduction has improved.
I’ve gotten plenty of very usable photos at 12,800 ISO, like this one.



A blurry photo is harder to fix than high ISO. Just sayin’.

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tomhongkong said:

I keep reading concerns about raised ISO when using short zooms (say up to 60mm) with apertures of f2.8 or f4.0. Are these valid?

Like many who take bird shots I frequently use lenses with maximum aperture of around f6.3 (either 100-400, or 300 +1.4x) I use a default shutter speed of 1/2500. Unless I deliberately constrain ISO, my OM-1 (I am sure the same with a G9) will often choose an auto ISO of 6400 or more. I shoot 100% RAW and process with DXO7

The recent stunning shot by Lokatz was taken at iso6400.

I don't see any perceptible reduction in IQ (for normal purposes) until the wrong side of ISO8000. At that point I have to consider a slower shutter speed and put up with some shots spoiled by motion, but at a pinch to get a great shot I will go up to 12,800.

Do you set a limit?

Tom

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Michael Meissner said:

It depends on the camera, and to some extent what I'm shooting. However, my defaults are:

• OM-1: ISO 12,800
• E-m5 mark III: ISO 6,400
• E-m1 mark II: ISO 6,400 (I think)
• E-m1 mark I: ISO 6.400
• E-m5 mark I: ISO 3,200
• Stylus-1: ISO 1,600
• E-1: ISO 200 or 400

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SmokeAndMirrorless said:

What is the correlation between the type of lens or aperture and ISO you're concerned with? Noise is noise. What does using a "short zoom" or a particular focal length have to do with it?

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SmokeAndMirrorless said:

My primary concern for action is having a fast enough shutter speed to capture what I want without blur. I left the ISO land wherever it does. For landscapes or product shots I'll use base ISO with stabilization if possible and a tripod as needed.

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tomhongkong said:

Do you set a limit?

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ahaslett said:

There is a big difference (about 10 stops) between the highlights and shadows of an MFT sensor at base ISO. As you increase the shutter speed at the same aperture, you capture less light than the full capacity of the sensor, so shot noise starts to increase. As you raise the ISO, you typically increase analogue gain, so input referred read noise in the darkest parts of your image is reduced. I'll leave long exposures and dark frames to astro shooters.

The ISO is either set manually, or in auto. How ISO, aperture, shutter speed and metering are linked depends on what settings you use.

How noise appears is very scene dependent. You can have an image which is metered at high ISO where all the interesting detail is in the highlights and where you can suppress noise with AI NR and darkening shadows. You can also have a sunny scene at base ISO with blue sky where sky noise appears with even a small amount of sharpening and local contrast increase in processing, and where cloud detail is smeared if you apply AI NR. This is because there is little signal in the red and green channels in the blue sky and the metering looks at the rest of the bright scene in the sun - rocks for example.

If you want to lift shadows in the shade in a landscape, then shooting at base ISO makes sense. If you are shooting birds hopping around under heavy foliage on a dull day, then you set the smallest f-stop you can get away with and the shutter speed you need in S mode and let the ISO float to wherever metering puts it.

My maximum ISO on MFT is around 12,000, but that's more a comment about shooting animals and birds and rescuing the highlights by processing. For people indoors, faces in a group in partial shadow become a problem beyond ISO 800, even with AI NR. Trying to manage the lighting is one approach.

The larger you view images, the more intrusive noise becomes, especially noise patterns from heavy processing. I find DeepPrime (XD) very helpful, but it seems to have been trained on people, so sometimes it makes other subjects look worse.

TLR Anything over base ISO is a problem for high DR scenes with important detail in the darker parts of the image.

If you want a related perceptual effect, people often post pictures with less than sharp lenses at high subject magnification. There is therefore very little photographically important detail at the scale of the sensor resolution, so the image looks sharp because the magnification shows the detail. Distant foliage and structures like cranes on the skyline are what separates lenses, although a canny photographer lets the skyline blur out where that suits the composition. Hair reasonably close up with an eye in focus and bright highlights in the hair is another lens test, of a different kind.

Andrew

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SmokeAndMirrorless said:

ahaslett said:

There is a big difference (about 10 stops) between the highlights and shadows of an MFT sensor at base ISO. As you increase the shutter speed at the same aperture, you capture less light than the full capacity of the sensor, so shot noise starts to increase. As you raise the ISO, you typically increase analogue gain, so input referred read noise in the darkest parts of your image is reduced. I'll leave long exposures and dark frames to astro shooters.

The ISO is either set manually, or in auto. How ISO, aperture, shutter speed and metering are linked depends on what settings you use.

How noise appears is very scene dependent. You can have an image which is metered at high ISO where all the interesting detail is in the highlights and where you can suppress noise with AI NR and darkening shadows. You can also have a sunny scene at base ISO with blue sky where sky noise appears with even a small amount of sharpening and local contrast increase in processing, and where cloud detail is smeared if you apply AI NR. This is because there is little signal in the red and green channels in the blue sky and the metering looks at the rest of the bright scene in the sun - rocks for example.

If you want to lift shadows in the shade in a landscape, then shooting at base ISO makes sense. If you are shooting birds hopping around under heavy foliage on a dull day, then you set the smallest f-stop you can get away with and the shutter speed you need in S mode and let the ISO float to wherever metering puts it.

My maximum ISO on MFT is around 12,000, but that's more a comment about shooting animals and birds and rescuing the highlights by processing. For people indoors, faces in a group in partial shadow become a problem beyond ISO 800, even with AI NR. Trying to manage the lighting is one approach.

The larger you view images, the more intrusive noise becomes, especially noise patterns from heavy processing. I find DeepPrime (XD) very helpful, but it seems to have been trained on people, so sometimes it makes other subjects look worse.

TLR Anything over base ISO is a problem for high DR scenes with important detail in the darker parts of the image.

If you want a related perceptual effect, people often post pictures with less than sharp lenses at high subject magnification. There is therefore very little photographically important detail at the scale of the sensor resolution, so the image looks sharp because the magnification shows the detail. Distant foliage and structures like cranes on the skyline are what separates lenses, although a canny photographer lets the skyline blur out where that suits the composition. Hair reasonably close up with an eye in focus and bright highlights in the hair is another lens test, of a different kind.

Andrew

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Shot noise decreases as you reduce exposure. Shot noise increases as signal increases . No signal = no noise. It is related to the square root of the signal.

You also ignore the role of dual gain sensor readout. For the OM-1, there is a subtle change in the otherwise linear relationship of ISO to DR between ISO 800 and 1000. While base ISO 200 always has the best DR performance, it behooves users to know where their particular camera's dual gain switching occurs. In the OM-1, it makes sense to avoid ISO 800 and simply push up to ISO 1000 as you gain 1/3 stop of usable exposure via shutter or aperture without any cost in DR.

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