How high do you push the ISO on your K1?

Dericali · 05-14-2017, 02:47 PM

I have to shoot an indoor event this week, a trade fair, with high, dark ceilings to make bouncing flash difficult, and I'm guessing okay/average light.

I've been suggested to shoot around 5.6-8, and shutter speed1/60-1/100. A bit of motion blur will be okay. How high do you think I can push the ISO? I'll be editing RAWs in lightroom.

More importantly: how high have you push the ISO with the K1 with workable results? In this case, workable for me means images that are fine for web and general corporate use.

Adam · 05-14-2017, 03:05 PM

Pushing the ISO is way better than getting a blurry shot, IMO. I have my auto ISO range go up to 12800.

kooks · 05-14-2017, 03:20 PM

Originally posted by Dericali

More importantly: how high have you push the ISO with the K1 with workable results? In this case, workable for me means images that are fine for web and general corporate use.

for indoor weddings, I I push it sometimes up to 6400 and then do some post to reduce the noise.. and it works fine.

**Bob 256** · 05-14-2017, 03:59 PM

Same here - just did some dimly lighted church interiors handheld with anti-shake on and up to 200mm telephoto shots and they came out good. I was in program mode which stopped the lens down more than I would have preferred (for best image quality), but no problems at 6400.

MoiVous · 05-14-2017, 04:33 PM

I've been surprised how good the images are at high ISO - only tried up to 20000 so far.

Here are a few of examples - processed in Lightroom with a little luminance reduction (I take the Luminance slider to about 30) and some minor cropping. The grain looks quite reasonable before that. I took a test shot at 204800 once - not pretty, but usable as a record shot

These are at ISO 10000:

Alley walk

Croft Lane - drain

These are at ISO 20000 - the first ones are from a music gig with LED lights

Evan and the Hammond!

Erica and friend

Erica and the dancers

And this one was in almost total darkness through a hole in the hoarding at a demolition site - not as good as the music gigs but it was a first attempt

Ruin and demolition

Chris on Flickr

So you can see that it really is very usable. I haven't tried above 20000 yet - that might be a series that needs proper testing with one subject and lots of shots.

Good luck with it

leekil · 05-14-2017, 08:36 PM

I use auto ISO up to 6400. If necessary, I will manually set it to 12800. I suggest you test it out once you get there and set it to a fixed ISO that will provide sufficient shutter speed and aperture for your needs.

lesmore49 · 05-14-2017, 09:15 PM

I've had my K-1 for a couple of months now. I generally push the ISO up to 6400 for indoor shots.

My experience and thoughts as follows:

Family and friends have long complained that they're not happy and tense up...waiting for the inevitable flash to go off... when I use a flash...either my Pentax 360 or my Canon 430 EX ll (on my Canon camera). I use a Rogue lightbender and bounce the flash off the ceiling and although this doesn't bug them quite as much, they still don't like the flash. I think it's the anticipation and I end up with a number of shots...eyes closed or half closed.

So I've decided to work with natural light, no flash, given that the K-1 works well with high ISO. Today was Mother's Day celebration at our house and we had three mother's in attendance. I didn't use my flash, just 6400 ISO, mostly F 5.6 , opened the drapes up fully, put the lights on and clicked away. Worked well...was generally getting 1/100 th of a second shutter speed and little blurring if any.

I must mention, this was all from noon to about 3 PM...so natural light was aplenty in the house. So under the right circumstances I think very high ISO works pretty well. For a wedding, I would check light meter readings in the different parts of the venue very regularly. Might even carry my hand held Sekonic light meter, just to check out lighting to ensure that I could use 6400, F 5.6 to F 8 and keep the shutter speed over 1/100th of a second. BTW I was using my Pentax 28-105...geez I like that lens...not particularly fast, but excellent image quality and a zoom so I can compose rapidly.

The whole fast lens deal...F 1.4 to F 2.8 gives me pause anyways...you know the potential softness and limited depth of field at these F stops. I find myself usually using F 2.8 to F 8 and my new favourite F stop seems to be drifting towards F 5.6....so with cameras like the K-1 are these F 1.4 to F 2 F stops as important as they once were. In one sense I suppose they are...good bokeh.

Last edited by lesmore49; 05-14-2017 at 09:25 PM.

**kiwi_jono** · 05-14-2017, 09:21 PM

While I normally try to keep ISO 3200 or below, I will use 6400 - 12800 when I need to.
From experiments I have found that with the right noise reduction and reducing the size of the image to under half, about the maximum I would ever likely to be comfortable using is 51,200. 100k & 200k are not really useful.

For example best I could get at 200K is: K1 ISO 200k with NR | Just a test shot to see if ISO 200K co? | Flickr
(NR in Rawtherapee, and preference to leave a little noise in rather than blur too much detail).

**shardulm** · 05-15-2017, 08:30 AM

ISO 6400 is good enough for a 9W LED (60w equivalent) bulb (about 900 lumens) @ f2.8 or f4 ifyou can hand hold a D-FA70-200/f2.8. The shots are clean and it gives me that feeling "I can do anything in this world" with ISO 6400.

cali92rs · 05-18-2017, 10:16 AM

Originally posted by Dericali

I have to shoot an indoor event this week, a trade fair, with high, dark ceilings to make bouncing flash difficult, and I'm guessing okay/average light.

I've been suggested to shoot around 5.6-8, and shutter speed1/60-1/100. A bit of motion blur will be okay. How high do you think I can push the ISO? I'll be editing RAWs in lightroom.

More importantly: how high have you push the ISO with the K1 with workable results? In this case, workable for me means images that are fine for web and general corporate use.

You mention "fine for web and corporate use"...for that ISO 12800 and even higher is no problem. In fact you can make good 8X10 prints with careful post processing with ISO 12800.

Rupert · 05-18-2017, 10:46 AM - **1 Like**

I find it still depends on the light available as to the result I get at ISO 12800. Half decent light will give me the speed I want and a decent result. Poor light generally won't.
My findings give best results at ISO 12800 on furry critters when I need a little speed. Raccoons and squirrels fit this criteria for me.

1/200 ISO 12800 @ 500mm

Birds need to stay at 1600 or below to maintain feather detail...with 800 doing very nicely.

1/100 ISO 800 @500mm

No expert here for sure, but the lower you can keep the ISO the better you are going to like the result in most cases. I don't personally find the K1 better at high ISO than my K5IIs, but the big difference is the K1 will focus accurately in very low light.....my K5 or K5IIs would not. This is major good!

Regards!

**clackers** · 05-18-2017, 10:44 PM

I usually employ flash to try not to go beyond ISO 1600, Dericali, because there's not just noise you then have to deal with, your dynamic range and colours start to take a hammering.

Ventzy · 05-18-2017, 11:21 PM

There is no any reason to use ISO higher than 3200... All RAW-s taken with ISO high than this are just digital processing in camera and there is no any more useful info. It is much better to leave this work for postprocessing... Of course I speak about shooting in RAW... About JPG I don't have idea, never try... and not interested...

Gimbal · 05-19-2017, 07:20 AM

There is at least one reason to go higher if needed, it can be very hard to judge focus or even see the picture at all on the back LCD if you underexpose several stops.

normhead · 05-19-2017, 07:23 AM

Originally posted by Ventzy

There is no any reason to use ISO higher than 3200... All RAW-s taken with ISO high than this are just digital processing in camera and there is no any more useful info. It is much better to leave this work for postprocessing... Of course I speak about shooting in RAW... About JPG I don't have idea, never try... and not interested...

3200 is it for me as well.

05-14-2017, 02:47 PM	#1
Dericali Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2016 Location: Berlin Posts: 298	How high do you push the ISO on your K1? I have to shoot an indoor event this week, a trade fair, with high, dark ceilings to make bouncing flash difficult, and I'm guessing okay/average light. I've been suggested to shoot around 5.6-8, and shutter speed1/60-1/100. A bit of motion blur will be okay. How high do you think I can push the ISO? I'll be editing RAWs in lightroom. More importantly: how high have you push the ISO with the K1 with workable results? In this case, workable for me means images that are fine for web and general corporate use.

05-14-2017, 03:05 PM	#2
Adam Administrator Site Webmaster Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Arizona Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 51,595	Pushing the ISO is way better than getting a blurry shot, IMO. I have my auto ISO range go up to 12800. Adam PentaxForums.com Webmaster (Site Usage Guide \| Site Help \| My Photography) PentaxForums.com server and development costs are user-supported. You can help cover these costs by donating or purchasing one of our Pentax eBooks. Or, buy your photo gear from our affiliates, Adorama, B&H Photo, KEH, or Topaz Labs, and get FREE Marketplace access - click here to see how! Trusted Pentax retailers:

05-14-2017, 04:33 PM	#5
MoiVous Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Photos: Gallery Posts: 677	I've been surprised how good the images are at high ISO - only tried up to 20000 so far. Here are a few of examples - processed in Lightroom with a little luminance reduction (I take the Luminance slider to about 30) and some minor cropping. The grain looks quite reasonable before that. I took a test shot at 204800 once - not pretty, but usable as a record shot These are at ISO 10000: Alley walk Croft Lane - drain These are at ISO 20000 - the first ones are from a music gig with LED lights Evan and the Hammond! Erica and friend Erica and the dancers And this one was in almost total darkness through a hole in the hoarding at a demolition site - not as good as the music gigs but it was a first attempt Ruin and demolition Chris on Flickr So you can see that it really is very usable. I haven't tried above 20000 yet - that might be a series that needs proper testing with one subject and lots of shots. Good luck with it Last edited by MoiVous; 05-14-2017 at 04:53 PM.

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05-14-2017, 03:20 PM	#3
kooks Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: San José, Costa Rica Photos: Albums Posts: 794	Originally posted by Dericali More importantly: how high have you push the ISO with the K1 with workable results? In this case, workable for me means images that are fine for web and general corporate use. for indoor weddings, I I push it sometimes up to 6400 and then do some post to reduce the noise.. and it works fine.

05-14-2017, 03:59 PM	#4
Bob 256 Site Supporter Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Idaho Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,375	Same here - just did some dimly lighted church interiors handheld with anti-shake on and up to 200mm telephoto shots and they came out good. I was in program mode which stopped the lens down more than I would have preferred (for best image quality), but no problems at 6400.

05-14-2017, 08:36 PM	#6
leekil Pentaxian Join Date: May 2016 Photos: Albums Posts: 2,003	I use auto ISO up to 6400. If necessary, I will manually set it to 12800. I suggest you test it out once you get there and set it to a fixed ISO that will provide sufficient shutter speed and aperture for your needs.

05-14-2017, 09:15 PM	#7
lesmore49 Pentaxian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Western Canada Posts: 12,343	I've had my K-1 for a couple of months now. I generally push the ISO up to 6400 for indoor shots. My experience and thoughts as follows: Family and friends have long complained that they're not happy and tense up...waiting for the inevitable flash to go off... when I use a flash...either my Pentax 360 or my Canon 430 EX ll (on my Canon camera). I use a Rogue lightbender and bounce the flash off the ceiling and although this doesn't bug them quite as much, they still don't like the flash. I think it's the anticipation and I end up with a number of shots...eyes closed or half closed. So I've decided to work with natural light, no flash, given that the K-1 works well with high ISO. Today was Mother's Day celebration at our house and we had three mother's in attendance. I didn't use my flash, just 6400 ISO, mostly F 5.6 , opened the drapes up fully, put the lights on and clicked away. Worked well...was generally getting 1/100 th of a second shutter speed and little blurring if any. I must mention, this was all from noon to about 3 PM...so natural light was aplenty in the house. So under the right circumstances I think very high ISO works pretty well. For a wedding, I would check light meter readings in the different parts of the venue very regularly. Might even carry my hand held Sekonic light meter, just to check out lighting to ensure that I could use 6400, F 5.6 to F 8 and keep the shutter speed over 1/100th of a second. BTW I was using my Pentax 28-105...geez I like that lens...not particularly fast, but excellent image quality and a zoom so I can compose rapidly. The whole fast lens deal...F 1.4 to F 2.8 gives me pause anyways...you know the potential softness and limited depth of field at these F stops. I find myself usually using F 2.8 to F 8 and my new favourite F stop seems to be drifting towards F 5.6....so with cameras like the K-1 are these F 1.4 to F 2 F stops as important as they once were. In one sense I suppose they are...good bokeh. Last edited by lesmore49; 05-14-2017 at 09:25 PM.

05-14-2017, 09:21 PM	#8
kiwi_jono Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Christchurch, New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,437	While I normally try to keep ISO 3200 or below, I will use 6400 - 12800 when I need to. From experiments I have found that with the right noise reduction and reducing the size of the image to under half, about the maximum I would ever likely to be comfortable using is 51,200. 100k & 200k are not really useful. For example best I could get at 200K is: K1 ISO 200k with NR \| Just a test shot to see if ISO 200K co? \| Flickr (NR in Rawtherapee, and preference to leave a little noise in rather than blur too much detail).

05-15-2017, 08:30 AM	#9
shardulm Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Cumming, GA Posts: 793	ISO 6400 is good enough for a 9W LED (60w equivalent) bulb (about 900 lumens) @ f2.8 or f4 ifyou can hand hold a D-FA70-200/f2.8. The shots are clean and it gives me that feeling "I can do anything in this world" with ISO 6400.

05-18-2017, 10:16 AM	#10
cali92rs Veteran Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 3,354	Originally posted by Dericali I have to shoot an indoor event this week, a trade fair, with high, dark ceilings to make bouncing flash difficult, and I'm guessing okay/average light. I've been suggested to shoot around 5.6-8, and shutter speed1/60-1/100. A bit of motion blur will be okay. How high do you think I can push the ISO? I'll be editing RAWs in lightroom. More importantly: how high have you push the ISO with the K1 with workable results? In this case, workable for me means images that are fine for web and general corporate use. You mention "fine for web and corporate use"...for that ISO 12800 and even higher is no problem. In fact you can make good 8X10 prints with careful post processing with ISO 12800.

05-18-2017, 10:46 AM - 1 Like	#11
Rupert Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Texas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 25,123	I find it still depends on the light available as to the result I get at ISO 12800. Half decent light will give me the speed I want and a decent result. Poor light generally won't. My findings give best results at ISO 12800 on furry critters when I need a little speed. Raccoons and squirrels fit this criteria for me. 1/200 ISO 12800 @ 500mm Birds need to stay at 1600 or below to maintain feather detail...with 800 doing very nicely. 1/100 ISO 800 @500mm No expert here for sure, but the lower you can keep the ISO the better you are going to like the result in most cases. I don't personally find the K1 better at high ISO than my K5IIs, but the big difference is the K1 will focus accurately in very low light.....my K5 or K5IIs would not. This is major good! Regards!

05-18-2017, 10:44 PM	#12
clackers Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Melbourne Photos: Albums Posts: 16,397	I usually employ flash to try not to go beyond ISO 1600, Dericali, because there's not just noise you then have to deal with, your dynamic range and colours start to take a hammering.

05-18-2017, 11:21 PM	#13
Ventzy Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Sofia Posts: 62	There is no any reason to use ISO higher than 3200... All RAW-s taken with ISO high than this are just digital processing in camera and there is no any more useful info. It is much better to leave this work for postprocessing... Of course I speak about shooting in RAW... About JPG I don't have idea, never try... and not interested...

05-19-2017, 07:20 AM	#14
Gimbal Pentaxian Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Sweden Posts: 2,106	There is at least one reason to go higher if needed, it can be very hard to judge focus or even see the picture at all on the back LCD if you underexpose several stops.

05-19-2017, 07:23 AM	#15
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451	Originally posted by Ventzy There is no any reason to use ISO higher than 3200... All RAW-s taken with ISO high than this are just digital processing in camera and there is no any more useful info. It is much better to leave this work for postprocessing... Of course I speak about shooting in RAW... About JPG I don't have idea, never try... and not interested... 3200 is it for me as well.