ISO 400: The Death Of An Image

[Laziferous]

For those of us that own less than SLR quality cameras, a high ISO setting will surely suck the detail out of an image, not to mention, replace it with that horrendous noise.

I've done the following twice now...
Mess around with ISO setting in low light, when I know that the final image will only be used to send to someone in an email or, when the only purpose of the picture, is to be able to show someone something (nothing artistic). I can usually clean it up well enough for an email transmission easily.
I should IMMEDIATELY set the ISO back to 50, and change the format back to RAW. Yeah, I said "should", not to be confused with "did".

What happens? Well, if you don't get enough sleep the night prior, or have your coffee in the morning... then take off for a walk in the park to shoot pictures for the day, you won't be in the "ideal" state of mind, to understand why your camera has suddenly become a little more sensitive to light.

Yes, that's right. All of the pictures you shot for the day are garbage. Unfortunately, you don't realize this until you see them full screen. What an evil realization. All 512MB of images you shot are trash. They have succumbed to the evil, that is ISO 400. But you are your own worst enemy. They have died by your very hand. They cried out to you with their overexposures, and you shunned them, adding to their horror. Yes, you have killed the very thing you love. Only you can prevent forest fires..... oh...... wait a minute. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, Disassociative Personality Disorder. Wait... that's not it. Ahh, high ISO's. Oh yes. Pardon me.

Well friends, avoid this little taste of hell, by ALWAYS double checking your ISO setting, before taking 512MB worth of shots, that will eventually end up flushed from your recycle bin like a swirling brown log.

I love my G2, but anything above ISO 50... is just doo-doo. NeatImage can only do so much.

I need a DSLR. And not that I'm hinting, just a general comment here... I'm not too humble to accept a 10D as a gift

In closing,
DON'T SHOOT AT HIGH ISO's WITH A CONSUMER CAMERA!

Thank you, and goodnight.

[la-psycho]

i'll second that :-D

ISO400 will put so much noise into a picture it's not even funny....but i have to do that to get some sports pictures for school newspaper...but they print at such a bad resolution the noise disappears some....

i shoot with a g2 also....and have been arguing with my parents to let me spend my 3k that i've set aside on a 10D or D100 (studying the E1 right now heh) + goodies :-D

we'll see how my college applications turn out heh...

[raaf]

Yes, its true; sometimes I forget my previous camera setting and start shootin' with ISO 400 or the wrong WB or whatever which results in garbage.
Unfortunately, the camera doesn't warn the user for these 'wrong' settings. This happened to my during my holiday (fortunately just for a few shots).
We're still learning I guess..

[mike]

Hi All
As a relative newbie to this new technology, I haven't succombed to this scenario as I leave my setting in the idiot position "P" full auto LOL
But no doubt as I experiment and get used to play around a bit more I no doubt will fall into the trap, perhaps a yellow sticky on the camera case, reminding us to check the settings might help!!!
Lets hope santa fullfills your dreams !!!!

[IcarusFree]

I've been on the same boat many times ... checking the histogram helps a lot to avoid or at least detect this problem.

The problem of using a higher ISO is not just the noise, but the blown highlights. Noise can be "corrected" later, but detail lost due to blown highlights is unrecoverable.