ISO speeds and a cheap flashgun ?

[ecphoto]

Okay so I just purchased a 550D with a grip and had almost no money left over. I purchased a Bower SFD728C flash, cause it was 50 bucks. Here's where ISO comes in, if I set it too about 800 the recycle times go from a few seconds to about half a second. I got the idea from a video of Gary Fong on youtube, he suggested doing that when shooting weddings because it uses less juice and at ISO 800 there is virtually no noise. He also mentioned in his video that at 800 you get more foreground detail that would be lost otherwise and it lets you make use of shutter speed adjustments for effect at the same time.

My question to you all is, will I really see virtually no noise at ISO 800 or what kind of ISO's do you use in such indoor situations?

 

[2WheelPhoto]

I use ISO 200, shutter around 160-250 (unless balancing ambient in), WB set to the lighting.

 

[cgipson1]

When using flash, I usually shoot between 100 and 400 ISO.. depending on the need. If I need speed at 100, I attach an external battery pack to my SB-900 (which also has the advantage of the flash never overheating!).

 

[analog.universe]

I will go to 800 occasionally, but that's about where my camera starts to show noise, so I avoid it if possible... As you guessed, the price target of your flash is responsible for it's low output and slow recycle, but boosting the ISO as you mentioned is an effective way to make the best of it. I'd take a few shots at different ISOs, and see what the noise looks like on your particular camera. That way when you're out shooting, you'll know when it's worth it to wait a few seconds so you can shoot at 200, and when it's better to go to 800 or 1000 and deal with the noise.

 

[Derrel]

With a good exposure (meaning not an under-exposed image) ISO 800 results on modern, current d-slr cameras are pretty decent. Elevating the ISO to 800 does have benefit under many real-world situations! If flash recycle time is important, by all means, shoot in RAW mode and at ISO 800. As you mentioned, it uses less "juice", AND it also means subjects are not blasted with as powerful a flash pop...

For situations where you want the ability to shoot sequences of flash shots, elevating the ISO to 800 makes perfect sense.For bounce flash applications, I like to start at ISO 640. All this "lower noise at ISO 200" stuff so commonly harped about on web fora is really about 10 years out of date for general picture-taking,IMHO. It is far,far better to get a good PICTURE, than it is to make a low-noise image "file". Do what you need to do to get the PICTURES you want, and do not worry about the "noise" in the "files".

 

[KmH]

My question to you all is, will I really see virtually no noise at ISO 800 ...

As long as you nail the exposure. Image noise will still be visible in the under exposed portions of an image.

 

[ecphoto]

Ok. Thanks for the replies everyone.

My camera has some settings to reduce noise. Do those help or do they have consequences, like flattened colors or something like that?