ISO 3.28 million, are you kidding me!

[Timmyjoe]

Just saw the specs on the newly released Nikon D6. ISO can be pushed to 3.28 million! I remember when I got my D4 eight years ago and thought, ISO 51,000, that's ridiculous, who would need an ISO that high. Well jump 64 times that ISO and that's what Nikon is claiming with their new flagship DSLR. Pretty amazing.

Where will it all end?

Have a great day everyone.

Best,
-Tim

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

Extra six stops is pretty helpful, but it depends as always on the image quality...

 

[sepiareverb]

Won’t that fog even with the shutter closed?

 

[jsrockit]

Well... is it usable or just there? High iso in a camera like this is for high shutter speeds in low light of course...

 

[zuiko85]

Yeah, even my 5 year old EM10 goes up to some ridiculous (for that year) ISO. Even tried it out once. The results looked like a badly executed paint-by-number picture that were all the rage in the 60’s.

Olympus probably called it ‘a feature’.

 

[tsiklonaut]

How times change, before it was about megapixel numbers, now it's about ISO numbers?

Maybe I'm oldschool, but give me any ASA 100 film (which I'll develop around ASA 64-80 most of the time anyways so it's not a fixed number) and a tripod and I'm happy with that for decades to come.

I better leave the astronomically high ISOs for the number supremacists...

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Pushed or selected?
https://www.dpreview.com/news/7615938748/the-nikon-d6-here-are-the-official-specifications

ISO Auto, 100-102400 (expands to 50-3280000)

Pushed usually means post-processing.

If some is OK with ISO400 as maximum and five megapixels, it doesn't mean the rest has to follow.

I meet professional cinematographer, cameraman and photographer two weeks ago. He has to recently trade his Canon DSLR to FujiFilm GFX. The size of the prints he has to do now clearly demands 40+ MP and larger sensor.
So is ISO. It is very obvious if you think not just me-me-me.
Sport. High shutter speeds, narrow apertures. Forensic reports is another one. Shallow DOF is for forums dwellers .

 

[retinax]

This may be some use for technical purposes, where something is better than no picture, but even if the sensor and data stream are well behaved, photon noise must kill any pictorial application.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

How times change, before it was about megapixel numbers, now it's about ISO numbers?

Maybe I'm oldschool, but give me any ASA 100 film (which I'll develop around ASA 64-80 most of the time anyways so it's not a fixed number) and a tripod and I'm happy with that for decades to come.

I better leave the astronomically high ISOs for the number supremacists...

Having taken a look at the results you get with your methods, (and having a copy of your book), I can only say that you are someone who is well worth paying attention to. I am not seeing anyone anywhere do better, in terms of results, and most, not as well. Kudos.

The D6 will undoubtedly be a superb camera, but the (legitimate) advance in capabilities won’t do anything for the kind of results most people want most of the time in most situations. Were I hired to shoot the Olympics in Japan in a few months, I’d want one. It’s for those people, and Nikon hopes to also sell to many who think that they are those people. I hope they sell a lot of them, for Nikon’s sake.
It’s interesting that the real pros this body is aimed at don’t need more than 20.6 MP from a full frame 35mm sensor, nor would they usually be well served by more. If you have a D6 you probably also have a superb 600mm AF lens as well, so there’s little need for major cropping. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

 

[Timmyjoe]

There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

Processing 20.6MP on the fly to make deadline is much more manageable than trying to process 45MP in the same time period. And they're not going to be billboards, they are going to appear in print or on the web, so 20.6MP is more than enough.

Best,
-Tim

 

[raid]

Oh well; I am still mostly using ISO 160. What am I missing?

 

[Mackinaw]

I have a roll of Efke 25 loaded in my M3 right now.

Jim B.

 

[Scottboarding]

Here's an example of the D5 at 3 Million ISO: https://petapixel.com/2016/01/12/this-is-nikon-d5-image-quality-at-iso-3280000/


There might be a slight increase in quality with the D6 but I can't imagine it being even close to usable that high. Seems to me as more of a marketing thing.

 

[ptpdprinter]

Oh well; I am still mostly using ISO 160. What am I missing?

Bragging rights?

 

[charjohncarter]

How times change, before it was about megapixel numbers, now it's about ISO numbers?

Maybe I'm oldschool, but give me any ASA 100 film (which I'll develop around ASA 64-80 most of the time anyways so it's not a fixed number) and a tripod and I'm happy with that for decades to come.

I better leave the astronomically high ISOs for the number supremacists...

I've seen your work also. I'll stick with you. I think you also use a drum scanner (not sure), but that is another form of quality I can get behind.

 

[Huss]

I think my Olympus C8008 (8mp!) went up to ISO 800. And I thought it was so cool that I could adjust ISOs any way I wanted as it was a digicam.
The highest shoot is ISO 800, and that is with Lomo 800 film.

But I do admire the tech advances. C'mon, 10, 15 years ago? Could you imagine this?

 

[filmtwit]

$5 says that Nikkor lens won't auto focus in that light

 

[james.liam]

Forget 3.28 million.
If it can accurately focus & produce pristine files at ISO 500,000 no one will complain

 

[robert blu]

Extremely high iso can be necessary for a few very special application...I think sport il low light photographer with a very long lens...but...

...I still remember the times and the emotion when I could push an HP4 at 1600 iso...and that was high iso...

I know, I'm old

 

[nickthetasmaniac]

Oh well; I am still mostly using ISO 160. What am I missing?

I don't know what you're missing, but I'd hazard a guess and say you're not shooting the Olympics (and if you are, you're probably not mostly using 160iso...)