ISO advice/suggestion needed

Bill16

Senior Member
Hey all! What ISO would you say was a good high end for the D700? Being use to the D300 and being new to the D700, I admit to being fairly clueless! Lol ;)

I figure knowing the good ISO top end might be a real help if I try any lower light shots! :)
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Hi Bill, I'd say about 3200 iso is fair with the D700 IF you use a noise reduction program or shoot raw. But it all depends on your needs and the size of prints you intend to make with those shots. I think that since digital film is free, you should experiment by taking the same shot at different iso values and then see what YOU can live with. We all have different tastes and needs so try it for yourself would be my advice.
 

Bill16

Senior Member
Thank you buddy! You give me a great place to start with! I prefer 400 ISO max on the D300 so the D700's ISO is awesome!

I'll follow your suggestion/advice my friend! Well once I get over being so stunned at the info you just gave me anyway! Lol ;)

Hi Bill, I'd say about 3200 iso is fair with the D700 IF you use a noise reduction program or shoot raw. But it all depends on your needs and the size of prints you intend to make with those shots. I think that since digital film is free, you should experiment by taking the same shot at different iso values and then see what YOU can live with. We all have different tastes and needs so try it for yourself would be my advice.
 

kevy73

Senior Member
It all depends on the image too - images with lots of black tend to show noise more....

I would prefer a noisy image to a blurry one.
 

singlerosa_RIP

Senior Member
No wonder the D700 has such an outstanding reputation. 3200 is not bad for a 6 year old. I could get away with 400 all day long with my D100, so I'm surprised to hear that the D300 isn't any better. I max out around 1600 on my D7000 (fwiw). Just shot a dance recital at 6400 with my D600 and 70-200 VRII and noise is minimal at 100%. I've had it for 18 months and can only imagine what a D4S must be like. Enjoy your new toy.
 

Blacktop

Senior Member
No wonder the D700 has such an outstanding reputation. 3200 is not bad for a 6 year old. I could get away with 400 all day long with my D100, so I'm surprised to hear that the D300 isn't any better. I max out around 1600 on my D7000 (fwiw). Just shot a dance recital at 6400 with my D600 and 70-200 VRII and noise is minimal at 100%. I've had it for 18 months and can only imagine what a D4S must be like. Enjoy your new toy.

It also depends on your noise tolerance. I tolerate no noise whatsoever. I would rather not have an image then have to see noise. Noise to me is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I never went over ISO 400 on my D300. At 640 it was quite noisy when pulling shadows. Never went over 400 with it. On my 7100 I think I hit 1600 once. For some 3200 would be tolerable.
 

Bill16

Senior Member
For me, I guess it depends on if I can get rid of the noise in pp. But after posting some photos that had noise in them, that I couldn't see until posting them, I'm not tolerant of noise either! I hated those shots! :(
So I'll have to see what levels in ISO that will end up working for me. :)

It also depends on your noise tolerance. I tolerate no noise whatsoever. I would rather not have an image then have to see noise. Noise to me is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I never went over ISO 400 on my D300. At 640 it was quite noisy when pulling shadows. Never went over 400 with it. On my 7100 I think I hit 1600 once. For some 3200 would be tolerable.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Straight out of camera jpeg iso 8000 taken last night with the Df

100% crop
night 100% crop.jpg


Full shot
night full.jpg
 

aroy

Senior Member
In my case with D3300, I find noise in shadows event at ISO 100, when you have to blow the image a lot. So it depends. If the scene is lighted well and you do not want to recover shadows, the a high ISO will work. On the other hand if you want to recover details from shadows, the the lower the better.
 

J-see

Senior Member
Hey all! What ISO would you say was a good high end for the D700? Being use to the D300 and being new to the D700, I admit to being fairly clueless! Lol ;)

I figure knowing the good ISO top end might be a real help if I try any lower light shots! :)

I can't tell you what the best ISO is but what works for me at higher ISO is overexposing. I usually add 1.3th to 1EV up to 3200 and after that between 1 and 2 stops. The overexposure brings down most noise when normalizing it in post. Evidently you need to have the stops of light required to overexpose. But for me 3200 one stop overexposed does often better than 1600 correctly exposed.

You'll have to experiment how much your cam can handle in both ISO and overexposure.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
At higher ISO settings, it is extremely important to nail the exposure with the shot, or to overexpose a bit. Underexposure adds noise issues in PP like there's no tomorrow.

​WM
 
Last edited:

hrstrat57

Senior Member
I have shot pleasing photos at ISO 6400 in near darkness using 50 AF D f1.4

They are family photos I don't post on a public forum without permission but some taken in near darkness.....

I'll see if I have some less personal that I don't need permission of the target to post.

Agree nailing the exposure is key but with the D700 and 50 AF D f/1.4 the camera is nearly foolproof....and any needed fixes I easily do with capture NX-D freeware.
 

hrstrat57

Senior Member
test snaps ISO 1250 and 5000

Couldn't find any ISO6400 that are ok to post

Here is my grandson sans flash at ISO1250 and a test snap at Narragansett Pier at ISO 5000. It was near total darkness.......straightened it a bit but could use a bit more analysis. No artistic intentions here just examples of D700 performance.

Capture NX-D slight crop on each.

Pier pic is 50 AF D and the grandson pic I believe is 60 AF D f/2.8

RAW Jack_00001.jpg



RAW Pier_00002.jpg
 
Last edited:

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
And this is where Exposing to the Right becomes an important concept to understand. That first stop of EV, (by this I mean the brightest stop) contains half the data of the entire photo. Every subsequent stop down in EV contains half the data of the EV, or stop, that preceded it. That's something I try to remember.

Here's a really short article on Luminous Landscape that illustrates this on a nifty table.

....
 
Last edited:

Blacktop

Senior Member
And this is where Exposing to the Right becomes an important concept to understand. That first stop of EV, (by this I mean the brightest stop) contains half the data of the entire photo. Every subsequent stop down in EV contains half the data of the EV, or stop, that preceded it. That's something I try to remember.

Here's a really short article on Luminous Landscape that illustrates this on a nifty table.

....
Thanks for that link . I will definitely do some experimenting.
 

aroy

Senior Member
The thing to be careful of is not to blow the highlights while shifting the exposure to right. The Nikon's exposure algorithm is a bit conservative, and has a buffer of at least 1EV, so what appears blown in both camera and NX-D can be recovered (at least 1EV) by shifting the histogram right in post.

As long as you are aware of the metering modes, you can get perfect exposure. Matrix metering normally does not blow highlights unless there is a high dynamic range in the scene, in which case you can only use HDR to bring every thing in correct exposure. Spot and centre weighed do blow highlights if they are out side the metering rectangle.
 

Bill16

Senior Member
It's a good thing that I'm not in a hurry! Lol Because I have soooooooo much to learn! Shaking my head in wonder................ :)
 

J-see

Senior Member
Matrix metering normally does not blow highlights unless there is a high dynamic range in the scene, in which case you can only use HDR to bring every thing in correct exposure.

Matrix metering will blow out highlights and lose to the blacks when you start upping the ISO. The higher the ISO, the smaller the DR the cam can grab and the faster it has to clip.
 

hrstrat57

Senior Member
Off topic but in general @Bill16 how are you liking your new prize camera?

Don't forget your manual Nikon lenses the D700 loves those, yum! Need to replace my long lost 135 f2.8 Ai....waiting for the spring yard sales!!! Gonna find one for $10!!!

:)
 
Top