[Rupert]

I'm no technician, but I find noise depends on a ton of factors from the lens being used to the grade of light you are shooting in......what I have found from viewing my own photos and tons of high ISO shots by others, is that not much if anything will beat the K5 at high ISO ranges. If you can't get it with the K5...you couldn't with anything else either.

12,800 @ 500 mm through a double pane window. Works for me!
[IMG] [/IMG]

Regards!

[RonHendriks1966]

I think that with a good setting made picture at iso6400 the K-5 is at it's end, where increasing the iso-setting is making the image quality fall very fast.

[raz-0]

I think that with a good setting made picture at iso6400 the K-5 is at it's end, where increasing the iso-setting is making the image quality fall very fast.

I think if you plan on shooting by the seat of your pants, this assessment is spot on. At 6400 you can fix a number of small mistakes and produce a very usable shot with some judicious post production applied.

If you are good at nailing it straight out of the camera under conditions where 12800 are needed, they can be useful especially when scaled down.

most of the time I limit max iso to 6400 because I'm probably indoors shooting something without a lot of prep.

[RonHendriks1966]

I think if you plan on shooting by the seat of your pants, this assessment is spot on. At 6400 you can fix a number of small mistakes and produce a very usable shot with some judicious post production applied.

If you are good at nailing it straight out of the camera under conditions where 12800 are needed, they can be useful especially when scaled down.

most of the time I limit max iso to 6400 because I'm probably indoors shooting something without a lot of prep.

I like my pictures to be printed when possible at A4 and iso6400 is the end I think.

Going on is just for fun or for pics that make a remembrance and not for image quality.

[Smeggypants]

I like my pictures to be printed when possible at A4 and iso6400 is the end I think.

Going on is just for fun or for pics that make a remembrance and not for image quality.

I disagree. image quality is subjective and many situations work great at ISOs higher than 6400. Others do not. personally I can't put a blanket limit on any number, 6400 or otherwise. better to judge on each shot

[Rupert]

I agree with Smeggy....it all depends on your needs and your use of the photo. I have tried to shoot a little Painted Bunting for ages, but they are fast moving and hard to shoot...and rarely come by my place. When I saw this one out my office window one day, I just picked up the K5 and set the speed at 1/125...it was a very dark and cloudy day, and I had the Auto ISO set to go as high as 12,800....and it did.
So....it is sometimes a matter of shot or no shot. I'll almost always take the shot over nothing, and the K5 will usually deliver.
Regards!

[reeftool]

I disagree. image quality is subjective and many situations work great at ISOs higher than 6400. Others do not. personally I can't put a blanket limit on any number, 6400 or otherwise. better to judge on each shot

Many of my 12800 shots are fine to me. As you mention, noise is subjective and what is acceptable to one person may not be to another. The basic rule still stands that always use the lowest ISO possible for the best IQ. The K5 does very well at ISO 12800 in my experience. I haven't shot at higher ISO than that because I haven't needed to. I can say without a doubt that the K5 at 12800 looks better than the K10D at 1600. The most important thing with high ISO is to get the exposure right because you won't be able to adjust much in PP.

[emalvick]

I've had mixed results with the ISO setting on my K5, and as others have indicated it ultimately just depends.

It is all about getting the exposure right. In dark images, I find that I am trying to compromise between shutter-speed, aperture, and ISO. In those cases, I tend to underexpose or have dark images because I am trying not to get the ISO too high or the Aperture too wide or the shutter speed too low, but it shows in terms of noise, and it will really show if I am boosting ISO to achieve my desired shutter-speed and aperture setting.

However, there are other cases where I can get a favorable exposure at a decent ISO setting. The image isn't necessarily dark, but I would like to use a faster shutter speed (action shot, hand held at a long zoom, etc) to get my image. My noise tends to be less of a problem.

Never-the-less, I am finding that I am overly critical of noise when I look 1 to 1. 1:1 is tough when we are dealing with such a high resolution. Coming from a K10d, I am still feeling out how much noise affects the final product. Printing, resizing, etc all tend to be much lower in noise than what is seen 1:1, especially when compared to the K10d. I remember struggling to get good shots over ISO800 with that camera. Now I'm able to get decent photos out to 25600 ISO on certain occasions, although at that level, the results are definitely less favorable. 12800 definitely seems to be reaching a limit in quality.