Originally posted by Michael Rothman I just read an article about ISO in digital cameras. It explained that each sensor has a native ISO and when we increase it we are just turning up the gain and therefore introducing noise. Well we all kind of knew that.
I think that is pretty much true.
Originally posted by Michael Rothman The part I found really interesting is that when we shoot below the native ISO of the sensor the camera throws out info in post processing of the data. That is data from the sensor enters the image processor and is lost to make the lower ISO. The article goes on to suggest that because of this, the lower ISO settings (below native ISO) don't really produce a good an image as the camera is capable of. They suggest shooting at the native ISO and not going to much above that.
My question is what is the native ISO of the sensor in the K10D. As most of my shooting is done with studio lights, I can shoot at that ISO with out any concern for lack of light.
I don't understand how you can shoot
below the native ISO of the sensor. If your sensor natively has a sensitivity of ISO 100, and you shoot at ISO 50, you are going to dump 2x the light into the sensor vs. what it can handle. That means you're going to fill up all the CCD cells with 2x the photons that they can handle, and every photon that doesn't fit will get lost (clipped). So I don't think it's possible to shoot below the native sensitivity of the sensor without blowing out all the highlights.
Can you point us to the article in question so that we can see what you're referring to? I must be missing something.
-- Michael