ISO recommendation

[panblue]

If the 20D was too noisy for you at ISO 800, the LX5's tiny sensor can't hope to match it.

What ISO # would you use in a fairly decently lit concert like this (and the background/foreground lighting quite different)? Or maybe even a spotlight on the subject at times? 400? (Not overly sensitive?) And use exp compensation maybe for this type of light situation, too?


Just bought an LX5 and I'm used to a Canon DSLR 20D. Panasonic's explanations (or lack of) ISO # aren't very good. Seems like ISO range is wider with LX5. With Canon 20D I would avoid ISO 800 at concerts because of grainy photos.


(I took this photo w/Canon 20D - with exp compensation set incorrectly by accident.)

View attachment 24060

 

[lizzys]

Wow, I rarely shoot shows with my ISO set over 2500... even in small venues. I'm very picky about noise, and I can see it on photos from my D700 even at 2500. I also rarely shoot shows at a 2.8 aperture either because musicians are always moving at concerts and having such a shallow DOF gives you even less focus room to work with.


This is from when I shot ZZ Top back in June - and believe it or not, this was with the micro four-thirds Panasonic Lumix GF2. I had an adapter with the Olympus Zuiko 50-200mm 2.8 lens.
ZZ Top is a pretty big production band and they have GREAT lighting. This shot was at f/4, ISO 800 and a shutter of 1/200th with no exposure compensation.


For sake of comparison, this is a recent shot from one of the venues in my area with the most bland lighting ever (a couple blue, a couple red, and TONS of white wash out).
This one was taken with my D700 and the 24-70mm 2.8 lens at F/3.2, ISO 2500 and shutter at 1/60th.
I'm pretty confident when I say I could not have achieved a shot like this with the GF2 - anything over ISO 800 on that camera was too much noises for me, and 1/60th a second is already a pretty slow shutter speed for a concert.

 

[Animonster]

Some great advice in this thread. I agree that ultimately don't miss out on a nice shot because you don't want to bump the ISO up, but at the same time don't go overboard or you'll have noisy shots all the time