native ISO sensitivity (which typically offers the highest image quality)

Hi all, I just read the following:

Exposure

For landscape photography I typically have my camera in aperture priority mode
and set to its native ISO sensitivity (which typically offers the highest image
quality).

I never read this before. Does the Canon T3i have a native ISO setting? If so, what is it?

baneling wrote:

set to its native ISO sensitivity (which typically offers the highest image quality).

There's quality, and then there's quality. And quality, and quality. There are a zillion different things that contribute to IQ (image quality), and using the "native ISO sensitivity" trades off depth of field and image sharpness in order to get a reduced noise level.

When you're trying to get the best image quality in a landscape photo, the ISO setting should be the last thing you'll be concerned about in the exposure triangle. First is the aperture. Pick an f-number high enough to get the depth of field that you need, but no higher. Then pick a shutter speed sufficient to deal with camera shake (if you're not using a tripod or Image Stabilization) and subject motion. Yes, landscapes move, unless there's absolutely no wind at all. Personally, I like 1/200 or so as a starting point.

Once you've got the aperture and shutter speed selected, then pick the ISO that will let you use that combination. Note: you'll probably find that if you're using a polarizing filter, you'll need to use a higher ISO than you'd like. In a Sunny-16 situation, getting 1/200 at f/11 is going to call for ISO 100 without a polarizer and ISO 400 with a polarizer.

Although I own a very nice, very pricy polarizing filter, I almost never use it on landscape photos. I'd rather have increased shutter speed, higher f-stop, and/or lower ISO. I can get nice blue skies simply by not over-exposing — I usually have about -2/3 Ev of Exposure Compensation dialed in on my XT/350D.

[A side note that's not really relevant to this particular situation: I also use ISO 200 as my minimum ISO when shooting Raw, because the XT/350D has limited highlight headroom at ISO 100. This doesn't affect in-camera JPEG, and as far as I know, it doesn't apply to any later "Rebel" models.]

ok so there is no official native ISO setting for cameras then is what you're saying?

thanks for the pointers.
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Canon T3i
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

All sensors have an idel ISO, which is the lowest standard (not expanded), setting. For Canon dslr cameras this is ISO100.

thanks
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Canon T3i
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

criticalstories wrote:

They're not really groking what you're asking. "Native ISO" is the actual ISO that the sensor works at and also has the WIDEST dynamic range. It's really important to those of us shooting video. My guess is that it's 800 as it is on the full frame sensors, but I'm not sure about that.

There's so much more to picture quality than DR.  DR may be marginally greater at ISO ~800, but noise is also higher than at 100-400.

IMHO, YMMV