General iso settings

Hi i was wondering what everone else used as an Iso setting.I seem to be struggling shooting indoors and would like to shoot at iso 100 or at the most 200 but the shutter speeds are a bit slow.

I've took a few test shots with the k10 in half decent light on auto iso with a range from 100 to 500 these seem fine actually a little better at the 300 to 500 end.

But i wonder if the quality will degrade as the light does if i use the same range.I wouldn't really like to go above this range because of digital noise.But i've never tried it before' i also have the noise reduction set to off would it be ok to leave this on all the time?

thanks for any replies

What ISO? It depends entirely on the circumstances

I used the K10D from ISO100 to around ISO800 - shooting RAW and using Silkypix Developer Studio to remove most of the noise. Occasionally I would use ISO1600.

The K20D I use comfortably up to ISO2000, and infrequently up to ISO3200.

You cannot escape slow shutter speeds at low ISO in low light! It's down to the laws of physics! So, you have to judge a compromise:
* Use slow shutter speed with SR, but possibly have subject movement blur?
* Up the ISO and more noise?
* Use a wider aperture and result in shallower depth of field?

The nice thing about the K10D & K20D is you can map the ISO onto one of the e-dials I usually use Av mode with aperture on the rear, and ISO on the front.

It takes a bit of getting used to - looking at three values in the viewfinder, but after a while it becomes second nature


If you shoot JPG, then have a look at products like NeatImage which do a great job of cleaning the noise out! If you shoot RAW then, depending on the converter you use, either master the noise reduction settings (e.g. in Silkypix), or run the output through noise reduction software like NeatImage (e.g. if you use Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw etc - which have pretty primitive noise reduction abilities).

Hope that helps!
Matt

I also mostly use Av mode Matt so will give that a go and i always shoot in RAW.I am just a bit worried about the noise factor.Should i leave the NR on all the time. Cheers Matt

Using the K10D and K20D I normally shoot at 200 ISO. But if it needs to be faster, I'd rather the shot be sharp and grainy than blurred through camera shake, so I'd use whatever ISO was necessary to get the shot.

Just mapped the iso to the rear edial in Av mode Matt thats excellent cheers

Martin,
With the ISO on an e-dial you can press the Green button to instantly switch to Auto-ISO.
If you want to override the ISO just rotate the e-dial
And press the Green button for auto again

Matt

Cheers Matt.
I noticed that while i was playing around with it.I also went through the other modes Sv' Tv and made sure that the front edial controls the main item.

Such as the sensitivity in Sv mode and the shutter in Tv mode so that those three modes work in the same way.So not to confuse myself. Thanks again

I have a differend logic since I use Manual a lot. In M mode you have the aperture on the rear and shutter speed at the front, I keep that the same with Av and Tv. Then I've Ev compesation on the other dial since iso is still accesable when you press the ok button just like in M mode.

Glad to see that everyone has their own way of working

Martin, much of what you ask about comes down to personal preference. You need to experiment with different ISO settings to see the noise effects, then decide what you find aceptable. Same with noise reduction - whether to use it at all, and whether to do it in-camera or via post processing.

Sorry if that's a bland answer, but I think it's a fair one.

[quote:3496ace15f="Sorry if that's a bland answer, but I think it's a fair one.[/quote]It's not a bland answer Pete.The k10/k20 have so many settings i am willing to listen to everyone's point of view. Thanks for the reply