Tag Info

ISO is very useful as it helps overcome read noise by amplifying a weak analogue signal prior to digitization (which adds a more or less constant amount of noise) thus giving a better signal to noise ratio. That's all raising the ISO does, amplify the signal. It does not make the picture noisier because it only amplifies what's already there. See this ...

Body - you can get better high ISO performance from a full frame body, if you're willing to rent one. That's worth a couple of stops. Lens - another couple of stops if you buy/hire an f/1.4 or f/1.8 lens, especially if you're shooting at the long end of your zoom at f/5.6 Light - in the picture you've given as an example, you seem to be standing in the ...

Assuming all other exposure settings with and without flash are equal, then using flash means you are adding light to the scene. Increased light in the scene means increased light down the lens, which means more light at the sensor. That means you have a higher signal to noise ratio at the sensor, which generally means less noise. Signal to Noise ratio, or ...

Yes, it is useful as there are some situations where there just isn't enough light to take photos at low ISOs. I take quite a few photos of the am-dram productions I'm involved in, and even with a F1.8 lens I often find myself shooting at an ISO between about 800 and 1600 in order to be able to have a short enough shutter speed to freeze the action. It's ...

Shooting action in low-light conditions or freezing very fast action are common situations where you might need to compromise on the ISO to get the shot. For example, I recently shot some pictures of jets passing by at an air show. I found that even at noon on a day with clear skies and the aperture at 2.8, ISO 100 was too low to get me the shutter times I ...

There has been an improvement between the 40D and 650D, but not that great. Certainly less than a stop. You'll get a far far greater improvement in image quality by getting more light onto the sensor. There are a number of ways to achieve this: Depending on what lens you're currently using you may be able to get a three stop improvement by switching to a ...

The cheap option: create monochrome images. (some may even look great in monochrome) The image you have shown there is mostly lit by tungsten light. This light contains very little blue light, and therefore the blue channel in the image will have a very poor signal to noise ratio. When you perform white balance correction, the blue channel will be amplified ...

High ISO performance has greatly improved over the last few years but if you scrape the bottom of the barrel you wont see much improvement! While test results for the T4i are not out yet, if you compare the T3i to the 40D at DXO lab, their scores is almost identical (54 vs 64) and looking at the low-light scores in particular, you will see 793 vs 703, ...

This problem is caused by electromagnetic interference generated by the SWM in many Nikon lenses, and possibly by the camera's own electronics as well. There are cases where Canon lenses with USMs have caused banding. See this dpreview forum thread for an instance of sensor banding caused by a USM lens mounted on a Canon DSLR.

Sure, high ISO is relevant. I'm a journalist and very often I have to take pictures in conditions where I can't use flash, but to have a picture is much more relevant than the quality of the picture. Moreover, if you take a picture for a regular newspaper there is no difference if one uses ISO 200 or 1200 - printing will be worse either way...

I have a D4 and can see very very slight banding from 10000/12800, and if under exposed can be seen at 25600 especially at 51200. If over exposed banding is visible slightly on 25600. If post process +1 exposure then banding is visible above 8000/10000 iso. Tested with AF on and OFF and makes no difference, is very random and is mostly seen in the darker ...

This isn't specifically a Canon example (it's the Pentax K-5), but here's a shot I took at ISO 20000 (converted from DNG): You can see a larger version here. Of course, I did noise reduction and you can easily see detail loss, but it's a very usable shot. Heck, I did use it as part of my Project 365 back in 2010. So, the technology of the sensors have ...

I'd say it's extremely useful, because photography is about capturing good looking light, and it's easier for light to look good when there's not much of it, e.g. at night, at sunset/dawn, in pubs, at concerts, in the woods. That's why the industry strives to make sensors (and film, in the past) with good high iso performance and fast lenses, and ...

To answer the second question you ask, ISO really does affect the performance and one thing to keep in mind is that the higher the ISO you use the more noise you will end up with in your image. Although, this is being improved upon and becomes less of an issue with each successive generation of cameras.

Just found out this line of products from Ilford. The description is the following: The ILFORD XP2 Super Single Use Camera gives the convenience of being able to have the film processed at any High Street photo-processing centre using C41 colour negative systems, with proof prints made on colour paper. These can either be close-to-neutral black and white ...

You need a 'faster' lens. A lens that can go in the 2.8 range like a 70-200mm f/2.8 or a 35/50/80mm f/1.4 that goes down to 1.4. Renting is definitely an option for these if you just need them. But the 35mm f/1.8 should help dramtically and is quite cheap - so is the 50mm f/1.8. These will let in more light, resulting in better exposure.

The following detailed article describes some specific techniques for holding your camera steady in low light situations. http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/long-exposure-handhelds/introduction.html The author compares taking pictures with the military approach to shooting a riffle, that involve the following components: "Steady Position, Breathing ...

it depends on a sort of photography. Sometimes bad quality photo is better than no photo :-) It also depends on type of sensor. My Exmor CMOS chip on my Pentax K-x has very good quality so I can use ISO 800 for very good photos, ISO 1600 for web and small sized and ISO 6400 when really necessary and when you do not have much alternatives how to take the ...