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Comment by Marie Kazalia 1 day ago

Thomas,
This is extremely helpful info I will use in future decision making for camera purchases...I have Nikon high end digital, but I medium format would be useful to have too...

Comment by Thomas Hodges 1 day ago

Ciao Marie, to answer your question, 100 ASA tends to be used frequently, but I would suggest that it should never be considered "normal". ASA is indeed "film speed" and digital cameras should be treated much like analogue cameras, when it comes to film speed. Normally, the reason we shoot at higher film speeds, is because of low-light situations (the faster the film speed the lower the light requirements).

However, the problem generally with digital cameras, is higer film speeds (i.e. higher ASA numbers) tend to introduce unacceptable noise limits into the image. When shooting film, you would get increased grain, when shooting digital, you get increased noise.

If your camera has a decent sized image sensor, this problem will be much less apparent, which is why many high-end pro cameras have increasingly large sensors. The problem with the lower-end cameras, is that not only do they have small sensors, but the manufacturers have an increasing tendency to increase the pixel content of the camera whilst retaining the small sensor, which can actually degrade the quality of your image (often contrary to popular belief, as many consumers tend to believe the more pixels the better, which is not the case).

I frequently use 400 and 800 ASA film speeds, as I shoot extensively in low-light situations. However, I tend not to go beyond 800 ASA on digital, even though I am using a very high-end medium format camera, with a very large image sensor.

The Nikon D3S (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0910/09101403nikond3shandson.asp) which Nrupen mentions is actually using a much smaller sensor than the camera I am using, yet it can shoot at much higher ASA speeds. However, this is achieved by in-camera image processing, and if you look closely at the images, there is clearly a price to pay when it comes to image quality.

I hope this info is helpful :-)

Comment by Marie Kazalia 1 day ago

thanx--good to know...

Comment by Nrupen Madhvani 1 day ago

It's generally true that 100 is the preferred ISO. The noise factor comes in at higher ISOs especially 400 and above. Nikon has however come out with a DSLR, I think it is called D3S which allows you to shoot at really high ISOs like 12000 and above with very little or no noise.

Comment by Marie Kazalia on November 12, 2009 at 1:12pm

Hi everyone, I just want to check if others agree with this statement:

*100 ISO is generally accepted as ‘normal’ and will give you lovely crisp shots (little noise/grain).*

I read this in a digital photography newsletter explaining when to change the ISO setting on digital camera, which seems to roughly correspond to films speeds /ASA...

Comment by Patty O'Hearn Kickham on November 8, 2009 at 8:39am

I've been here a week and love the site and the concept. I am in some very talented company and feel that I have so much more to learn! Viewing your photos keeps me inspired to try new techniques and perspectives. I need to learn to keep my eyes wide open at all times.

Comment by debra ohearn on November 7, 2009 at 10:30am

I just joined too, so many very talented people here!

Comment by Marie Kazalia on October 29, 2009 at 6:11pm

LightRoom is a great program especially for emailing and burning images to disc easily...

Comment by Evan Lavine on October 24, 2009 at 3:30pm

Just wanted to reach out and say hello to everyone. I am new to this site and find the work very inspiring so far.

Best wishes,
Evan

Comment by elise  smith on October 22, 2009 at 12:31pm

Thanks for making me join this group... Photography is my other passion.

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