Natural ISO

[cletusjermal]

I was reading a book the other day and they were saying that digital cameras have natural ISO that produce the least noise. In the book they said that it is normally 100 or 200. I didnt see anything in the manual about it. Does anyone know what the natural ISO is for the 5D Mark ii?

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

It is the lower ISO's...100-200. I think Nikon's lowest is 200 on some bodies. Any Nikon owner can correct me if I am wrong. The 5d can go down to 50. I haven't checked that out yet though.
But the 5D is pretty amazing up to like 800-1600.
The higher you go, the more important it is to really nail the exposure.
Brightening the image in post will really bring out the noise.

 

[kundalini]

You might be referring to Native or Base ISO. Whatever it is on your 5D, it should be discussed in you manual. I know the Nikon D300 & D700 are base ISO200, while the D80 was ISO100.


Thanks for jogging my memory Bitter.....
The Nikon D300 & D700 have a LO & HI ISO setting. I think it converts to ISO100 & ...can't remember, but not truely.... with some idiosyncrasies, both above and below the stated ISO. I read enough to know not to use those settings unless no other choice was available.

 

[Dominantly]

Nikon's Sony sensor has a native IS0 of 200, but the camera can go to L1.0 which is ISO 100 equivalent.

 

[KmH]

But when you use the Lo or Hi setting dynamic range suffers greatly because the those settings are accomplished with software not electronically by a scaling of the image sensor amplifiers.