Originally posted by conradj Erm, forgive my ignorance, but if you're going to apply +.7 to +1 EV to ISO3200, why not just shoot with 0EV at ISO1600 to ISO2000?
EC applies to all iso range, not just iso3200, there could be reasons why you need to use iso3200, especially if you use TAv mode while I agree that it is more preferable to use lower iso setting.
Originally posted by chipvn Firstly, what we're discussing here is about the K-7 and high ISO. In this circumstance, I'd rather slightly overexpose the picture when shotting RAW rather than underexpose then bring it back in PP cause I will need to clean up to much of noise (also mean sweap away the details). For most situation, I don't think 1Ev overexposing is really that bad for recovering the details when shoting RAW.
Secondly, what we are trying here, as I did mention, is trying to bring the High ISO noise JPEG performace of the K-7 as close to its High ISO noise RAW performance as possible.
But yes, if you are RAW shooter and really concern about that, you can simply bring Ev Comp back to normal when shooting RAW. I'm just a lazy JPEG shooter.
First, Chipvn, I tried your suggestion on jpeg setting and I found the result is fairly good (liked your post), now that I can use both jpeg and/or raw depending on situations. Another thing about the importance of setting +1EC is similar to the idea of ETTR (expose-to-the-right) which reduces noise at any iso level and the high/low key setting -4 provides some protection of highlight clipping. The resulting jpeg has given us new life on the k-7 sensor where iso 2000 is relatively clean from noise (I used to keep it under iso800). Of course, the k-5 sensor would still out-perform the k-7 in regards to high-iso noise. But for now, I am good with it for the time being as I generally use flash when the lighting condition is less than adequate or desirable.
Originally posted by chipvn Oh, I overlooked this.
The result at each ISO is better but in reality, we need to trade back speed and there might not be much advantage. I need to do some more test again to see if it could have better than 0.7 stop or not. If not, then .... very sad!
Thanks for your question, Conradj!
Depending on scene and how you meter (center-weigh), I generally find both +1 and +1.3 EC work fine without clipping highlights.