High ISO on NEX-7 with LR

[flyalf]

Anyone knows if there is a ISO point where one can reduce noise better by NOT increasing ISO but rather underexpose and compensate post-processing by LR 4.x?

As an example; for Leica M9 this is aprox ISO 500.

 

[Joe S]

High ISO on NEX-7 with LR

This may help.

http://blog.kasson.com/?paged=3

 

[Pablito]

This may help.

http://blog.kasson.com/?paged=3

That seems to be very informative, but what does it say in a nutshell (for those who are mathematically challenged)?

 

[dbm]

That seems to be very informative, but what does it say in a nutshell (for those who are mathematically challenged)?

The way I read it, there was a summary type line in there for the NEX-7: "This set of curves shows that, for the shadow SNR, there’s no point in turning up the ISO setting over the native value of 100; you’ll get slightly better results adding Exposure in Lightroom."

Then in a later post (Higher on the screen), it looks like he believes that if you can't get a good (Expose to the Right) exposure out of ISO-100, it would be okay to increase ISO up until ISO-800. After that, fixing exposure in LR is about the same or better than bumping the ISO. Only go above ISO-800 if the image is so dark that you'd be correcting the exposure above ISO-3200.

 

[flyalf]

The way I read it, there was a summary type line in there for the NEX-7: "This set of curves shows that, for the shadow SNR, there’s no point in turning up the ISO setting over the native value of 100; you’ll get slightly better results adding Exposure in Lightroom."

Then in a later post (Higher on the screen), it looks like he believes that if you can't get a good (Expose to the Right) exposure out of ISO-100, it would be okay to increase ISO up until ISO-800. After that, fixing exposure in LR is about the same or better than bumping the ISO. Only go above ISO-800 if the image is so dark that you'd be correcting the exposure above ISO-3200.

Thanks,

This is how I read it as well.

Also looking at the M9 analysis it agrees with other published results, that is above a certain ISO value (i remembered 500, but this article says 640) its worse SNR-wise to increase ISO insted of underexposing and compensate in LR.

 

[uhligfd]

I agree with those magical 800 ISO max from my own practice completely, not from an analysis, though.

 

[MIkhail]

It maybe a good idea, but what about shutter speed in aperture priority mode, which I, for one, use a lot?
If you keep the ISO 100, camera will try to compensate with slow shutter speed. What if I need the sharpness at this point?
I guess, you counter it with exposure compensation dial, right?

Personally, I keep the ISO on AUTO which means- up to 1600, and that's is fine with me. On NEX3 this would almost meant no grain at all, with NEX7 - just a little worst.

 

[flyalf]

It maybe a good idea, but what about shutter speed in aperture priority mode, which I, for one, use a lot?
If you keep the ISO 100, camera will try to compensate with slow shutter speed. What if I need the sharpness at this point?
I guess, you counter it with exposure compensation dial, right?
...

Yes, instead of increasing from lets say ISO 800 you use -1 on exposure compensation effectively using the same time/aperture as you would have used with ISO 1600. Instead of ISO 3200 compensation -2.