ISO settings

D10S

D10S

Well-known member
I've been reading of people shooting at ISO 200 as the "normal" setting for the camera rather than the 400 it comes set at. Then using 400 and above for low light situations.

Is this the consensus? Is the image that much better at 200? In still photography 200 makes sense for outdoor exposure. But what about with the AF100?
 
We used to shoot alot on our HDV cameras at -3db Gain, that is essentially what you are doing by shooting at 200. Just cleans it up a little more. But in all honesty we have gotten great results with our AF100 at: 200, 320, 400, 640, 800, 1600 and in one case even a usable shot at 3200.
 
I am seeing no advantage to shooting at ISO 200 and believe it actually has a negative impact on dynamic range while not making for a cleaner image. I've long been a fan of -3db in controlled lighting with 2/3" CCD cameras, but not with the AF100.
 
Oops, OK. So there's no quality difference between adjacent ISOs, where a higher ISO might actually look better than a lower one- just a gradual increase in noise?
 
We did testing with Chroma Du Monde charts. Also, just capping the camera and looking at the pedestal, I see the same amount of "grass" at most of the ISO's. I do see more chroma noise at the high ISO's, however, and there is nothing film like about chroma noise.
 
sweet spot ISO are native ISO. 160, 320, 640, 1250, etc.. so does this not translate into the af100 like it does with dslr(video and photo)?
 
manglerBMX said:
sweet spot ISO are native ISO. 160, 320, 640, 1250, etc.. so does this not translate into the af100 like it does with dslr(video and photo)?
Click to expand...

That would be dependent on the camera and the sensor in the camera, and not all cameras and sensors are the same. Typically we've seen more noise at those ISOs (vs 200, 400, 800, 1600) with Panasonic cameras (GH1, GH2, and AF100).
 
manglerBMX said:
sweet spot ISO are native ISO. 160, 320, 640, 1250, etc.. so does this not translate into the af100 like it does with dslr(video and photo)?
Click to expand...

You're talking about a phenomenon on the Canons. I haven't seen any other camera behave that way. Certainly not the normal video cameras, which have a basically linear approach to more gain = more noise. And the GH1/GH2 don't do that either.
 
ISO 400 is 0db of gain though correct? Or is it a different number. It's hard to retain all this new info floating around.
 
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