Wish I understood more the purpose of ISO. Is there an ISO what's it all about thread on here?

I second that Dave.

Agreed Phil, the later models seem to be creeping up slowly to some dizzy ISO ceilings now. Just look at the rumoured ISO abilities of the latest models from Canon and Nikon.

But I wonder how many of us want or use this feature? Personally I would like to see some R&D work done on dynamic range as well.

That was something I noticed with the very poorly light shot above, it is just one light (about 25 watts) in the corner of the room, yet there are no shadows.



Thanks Natalie, I did go through a phase of doing the odd noisy B&W pics, this is one I did some time back: HERE

You should give it a go some time Dave.

Steve, I completely understand, I to come from a background of 35mm film days and the highest film speed I used was 400 ASA but even that was quite noisy and only used if necessary

In the old days ISO number indicated the sensitivity of the film.

ISO 50 was less sensitive than ISO 200 and needed more light to expose the film correctly. This led to slower shutter speed, larger apertures. The upside was that there was less graininess with the slower speed films.

In the digital age the sensor is constant. What alters is the amplification of the electrical signal from each pixel site on that sensor. However the more a signal is amplified the noisier it gets, hence higher ISO's = more digital noise.

Steve

Sorry Ken, a bit slow on the keyboard here

Thank you for the explanation Steve, as i didn't understand why digital camera's had this, as i'm another one that started out with 35mm film,

Like the b&w Audi pic
It's it your car? Or is that what you photograph (cars)?

Really liked the photos Azz linked to, the wedding ones, they look so relaxed.

Thanks Natalie,

Yes, I've had it for a long time now, I can't see myself ever selling it. I fell in love with the whole design of it when they first came out in 1999.

I enjoy shooting cars, bikes, and planes the most as you'll see from the links in my sig at the bottom of my posts, but I enjoy all photography really .

Very rarely go above 400 myself, im not that adventurous, and as has been said often an afterthought for me.

ISO really is the last thing you want to be raising. Despite the fact that is undoubtably better with modern cameras, its still very limiting and not as good as an ISO100 shot.

However if you are only posting small non commercial images to the web, you'll probably notice very little difference, which is how this 'myth' started.

Print them properly at a decent size and you'll really see the difference.

Paul.

I try to not go over about 800 at a push - I use 200-400 for bird stuff outside, 800 only for stuff that's worth grabbing despite conditions. Anything over that only for music stuff and grainy arty B&W stuff

xx