Which ISO setting do you use for UW?

[HowardE]

Much less expensive too.

We have frequent flyer miles to burn... and your pictures of the PI look incredible... It's on my list of "must dives" - do you know when it is?

 

[Diver Dennis]

The Photo Workshop package includes 7 nights and 6 days of 3 dives per day with breakfast and lunch inclusive. Prepaid package pricing starts at US $1146 for double occupancy and US $1346 for single occupancy, prices will be slightly higher if paying on site. And with sponsors such as PADI, Cressi, Aquatica, Ikelite, iView Media Pro, UWP Magazine, Magic Filter, Think Tank Photo, and Marine Images graciously offering prizes, we are sure to have a great time!!

So, “do yourself a favour” and join us in the beautiful Philippines from June 3-10, 2007 to enjoy World Class Diving and facilities, amazing marine biodiversity, and improve your photography skills at the same time. Nitrox available on site by request. For full details and booking, please visit www.shootunderwater.com or www.asiadivers.com

 

[Diver Dennis]

We'll be back in Puerto Galera next month for 3 weeks. It is easy to take a private boat over to Anilao and spend a couple of days diving there too.

 

[HowardE]

Are you going?

Michelle sounded interested... I am very interested... that sounds like a great deal.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Yes, we'll be there for at least a couple of weeks. Flights around the Philippines are VERY cheap if you want to do some other resorts as well but PG has more than enough dive sites to keep you busy for 2 weeks. We always go over to Anilao for a few days as well.

 

[Diver Dennis]

The other great thing is that the resort arranges for you to be picked up in Manila and taken by private van and then boat to Puerto Galera. After you get off the plane, everything is taken care of.

 

[Darnold9999]

I shoot at ISO 100. Did read somewhere that the ISO setting in a digital camera isn't that useful as it just boosts the picture post CCD - you really can't change its sensitivity to light. You can do that post processing so why change? Having said that I often use 200 in the murk up here as I can then see what I have on the LCD right away at 100 it is often pretty dark.

As I am a beginner would like to hear what others have to say re this.

 

[_Bella_]

I had been shooting in ISO 100 - which is the lowest ISO setting on my camera. I was doing this for the highest quality and least amount of grain to my photos. It was suggested to me by a respected photog, to try shooting in AT LEAST ISO 200 instead, that I wouldn't really notice a quality difference, but I would have higher F-stops available, giving greater DOF flexibility. I tried it and liked it so far.

I was just wondering what other people did, and why - also probably you should mention what is the lowest setting that you have available.

ISO 100. I've never needed more than that in the majority of my shooting. I try and shoot my lenses at the point where they will be sharpest for long DOF shots which is generally around F16-F20, and for open aperatures, I probably wouldn't need the extra light anyway. The only time I'll go up is if I'm in a really really low light WA situation like a cave. Regarding your images, a fairer assesment would be a print of the images at a reasonable size. Most of my prints are A4 (umm..this is something close to legal paper) and A3 (this is double A4 or double legal, approx) at minimum and I wouldn't want to deal with the noise that *I* personally do notice.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

UW stuff, I try to stick with ISO100, although, on a bright day I'll go ISO64. This is with a PnS that doesn't handle high ISO noise as well as a dSLR. I've shot ISO400 with horrible results in very overcast days - NeatImage came in handy to make some of them decent enough for me(not saleable though) in a resized for the web-friendly.

New dSLRs handle ISO speeds up to 400 fairly cleanly if exposed properly. Newer Canons(especially) and Nikons should handle ISO speeds even faster without too much noticable noise - which can be cleaned further with software. I shot quite a bit in a lowlit wedding(ugh!) with my Olympus dSLR with ISO400(and above at times) that printed out quite well(nothing bigger than 8x10) without any noise suppression software.

I shoot at ISO 100. Did read somewhere that the ISO setting in a digital camera isn't that useful as it just boosts the picture post CCD - you really can't change its sensitivity to light. You can do that post processing so why change? Having said that I often use 200 in the murk up here as I can then see what I have on the LCD right away at 100 it is often pretty dark.

As I am a beginner would like to hear what others have to say re this.

ISO works the same with digital as film. Instead of the light hitting a negative, light hits a sensor. The speed it hits affects the image quality and can produce grain and/or help better expose a shot with like shutterspeeds/apertures. The lenses work the same way as far as allowing light through...

 

[Jamdiver]

I shoot in ISO 50 normally, but depending on the shot, depth, ambient light et cetera i'll boost it to 100...

There really isn't too much loss in terms of color fidelity, tones, noise et cetera using my compact Canon (Powershot A610).

Above ISO 100 though noise becomes an issue, generally if I do go above 100 it's for a specific type of shot, generally the moody/atmospheric type that i'll do a lot of creative post-processing on to create a particular effect (read B&W usually)

I'd recommend that if you're the technical sort and love pouring through diagrams to check out the Dpreview review of your camera.
Generally in the review they do comparison tests on cameras using different ISO's and form a conclusion to its relative useability or lack thereof.