Question about extremely high ISO (Page 6): The D6, with its astronomic price tag, might be able to push the bounds of physics WRT ISO but I think it is mainly marketing at ISO...

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Howard5252 wrote:

The Nikon D6 ad claims regarding the ISO: "... can be further expanded to ISO 50-3280000 (Lo 1 to Hi 5) to handle the most challenging of situations."
Does anyone know what the noise looks like at ISO 3,280,000 ??? Are the images actually usable?
I wonder what they mean by "challenging of situations"? Can it really take a photo of a black cat in a coal mine??

The D6, with its astronomic price tag, might be able to push the bounds of physics WRT ISO but I think it is mainly marketing at ISO 3,280,000. Images off other more affordable cameras start to fall apart big time at 25,600-51,200, and are only usable above this range for marketing purposes. Of course, one can always go with extreme noise reduction and obtain a 'picture'. Whether it is reasonable or not depends upon your idea of acceptable image quality!

The attached image shows the before and after image quality of a shot taken with a Sony A7 III at ISO 51200. Yes, the result is better than the original. No, it is not a great image but it is better than nothing (a little better)

. I would hope the D6 could do considerably better!?

Enjoy!

bwa
.

Late Evening Picture - Sony A7 III, Sony FE 200-600mm, Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, ISO51200, handheld

(Download)

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Mickey Mantle wrote:

As you raise your ISO, you see more noise. You should almost never go over, at the most, 800. I set my Sony’s to ISO Auto and then shoot in Manuel mode. I use minimum 100 iso and maximum 6400 and then adjust if I need to

OK, I have tried not to become involved again, but this is ridiculous. Your statement depends on the camera you have. The 51K Photo that I linked to on page one is not perfect, but it shows what one can do.

Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

Yes it does but when would you ever set to 100,000 iso?

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Mickey Mantle wrote:

As you raise your ISO, you see more noise. You should almost never go over, at the most, 800. I set my Sony’s to ISO Auto and then shoot in Manuel mode. I use minimum 100 iso and maximum 6400 and then adjust if I need to

That depends on your camera and what you are shooting. For indoor sports or concerts, I am almost always higher than 800. Noise is better than motion blur.

Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

I have never heard of anyone shooting in an iso of 100,000

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Architect1776 wrote:

Do you want to shoot at 4.5 M ISO?

I don’t foresee that as anything I’ll need.

Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

Camera makers use it for marketing.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Mickey Mantle wrote:

Yes it does but when would you ever set to 100,000 iso?

Mickey Mantle wrote:

I have never heard of anyone shooting in an iso of 100,000

OK, I was just getting used to my camera, and if I were taking it today I might use a slightly higher ISO setting. I had to hand-focus using "LV" because the camera couldn't handle AF. Far from perfect, but bearable for an SOOC JPEG photo with ISO setting of 812K. Sometimes you shot what you are given {only light came from one 60w bulb on the back of our house}. Shutter speed was 1/125 and aperture f/5.6. This photo was taken with an "APS-C" camera that cost me $700; I can only imagine what a more expensive "FF" camera will be able to do.

(Download)

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

f8lee wrote:

Well, here are samples at various high ISO settings that DPReview did with the D5:

https://www.dpreview.com/sample-galleries/4688833174/nikon-d5-real-world-high-iso-samples/7028772976

I must say that even at ISO 409600 it's a pretty decent image - it does fall apart above that and at the 3 million mark is barely useful (unless you are a paparazzo stalking a celebrity or something)

It looks like the lighting has a lot to do with the high ISO settings results and I suspect that the results would be a lot less acceptable for prints but are usable for some purposes, although they may not be of gallery quality on my 27" iMac.

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Mickey Mantle wrote:

I have never heard of anyone shooting in an iso of 100,000

Living a sheltered life ... photo-wise.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

bpulv wrote:

It looks like the lighting has a lot to do with the high ISO settings results and I suspect that the results would be a lot less acceptable for prints but are usable for some purposes, although they may not be of gallery quality on my 27" iMac.

The main place I see higher ISO settings being useful is in high school basketball games. Those photos are not hung on gallery walls, but they will be valued by parents/grandparents and for that reason may sell lots of cameras all by themselves.

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Seems this whole thread assumes that the only users who matter are shooting still photos in RGB.

And that is not unreasonable given the membership of UHH. But what is unreasonable ... or just unthinking ... is the OP query. That query ignores that just having ISO 3million on the camera doesn’t mean it’s intended for RGB stills use. It ignores monochrome reportage and RGB video, both of which exhibit less noise than RGB still images ... especially video, where the eyes of viewers never linger on a single image.

The corrected OP query would be “Is ISO 3million only acceptable for video ? Or can it produce useful stills ?” But it wasn’t asked that way. Not accusing anyone of trolling, just of unfortunately constrained thinking.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Mickey Mantle wrote:

As you raise your ISO, you see more noise. You should almost never go over, at the most, 800. I set my Sony’s to ISO Auto and then shoot in Manuel mode. I use minimum 100 iso and maximum 6400 and then adjust if I need to

When I was shooting a D200, 800 was the highest ISO I was comfortable with. Once I got a D3, my comfort level went up to 3200. With a D4 or D5 I try to keep it below 12K although I peak at 50K on rare occasions.

It all depends on the end use of your photos and how much you pixel peep.

Mickey Mantle Loc: New York City

With the Sony’s, I rarely go over 6400

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Mickey Mantle wrote:

With the Sony’s, I rarely go over 6400

I’d be bored near to death.