High ISO only in low light, or???

[svliegen]

Several times I noticed people shooting pictures at 400-800 ISO, resulting in very fast shutter times, even for landscape pictures with no moving objects.

I would have thought one would use the lowest possible ISO to avoid noisy pictures, unless there is the risk of motion blur.

Why are they doing that? Is there an IQ reason to do so or did they just forget to switch the ISO values back to the normal (low) settings?

 

[Anders Burlin]

sometimes i forget.. only reason

 

[rhlpetrus]

I use 400ISO for portraits, the sizes I print/see there's absolutely no difference from ISO100, if I'm going to shoot handheld and lighting may get a bit low (interiors, even at daytime). ISO800 is already stretching it a bit (D80). For macro and landscapes I use ISO100, since one needs more headroom for PPing.
--
Regards, Renato.

'Had my camera ready again. There was a jasmine scent at the roof's end. I photographed the scent.'
Manoel de Barros - Brazilian poet