Originally posted by kmccanta Havent you guys heard of poorly lit gymnasiums?
Or reception halls, playing fields under flood-lights, auditoriums, churches, rainy/grey days, etc?
I might find the practice of limiting ISO to 400 or less more admirable if I didn't find it so stifling. I've found high ISO, and high ASA film to be useful, simply because they allow the photographer more latitude in making correct, creative exposures. 800/1600/heck, even 3200 in a pinch, aren't 'specialist' applications. They are "realist" options for everyone who wants to shoot anything other than flowers and seashells on a sunny day, or studio shots.
As for the subject of noise, in the vast majority of relatively mundane instances, any image is better than no image. Frankly, Joe Ordinary with his compact, auto-everything, fixed-lens, p&s isn't going to be able to capture the shot of Grandma Davis sacking the snot out of the UNM Lobos quarterback. Ordinary is so used to blurry, "digitally"-zoomed, crappy images--and he
treasures them!--that the noise of the aforementioned shot at...1600(!) ISO isn't going to mean anything.