DSLR users who have ISO 50 option: when to use?

[Garion]

Hi,

Just a question I'm wondering, for DLSR owners who have the ISO 50 option available, how often and when do you use such a function? I have a DSLR with such function but almost never used it at all in most shooting situations. Even for long exposure/night shoots, I tend to stick to ISO 100.

I'm just curious to know what kind of situations warrants the use of ISO 50. Any difference in noise, dynamic range, IQ btw ISO 50 and ISO 100? For film I believe such low ISO is normally being used for landscape and nite shoots?

TIA.

 

[lsisaxon]

Hi,

Just a question I'm wondering, for DLSR owners who have the ISO 50 option available, how often and when do you use such a function? I have a DSLR with such function but almost never used it at all in most shooting situations. Even for long exposure/night shoots, I tend to stick to ISO 100.

I'm just curious to know what kind of situations warrants the use of ISO 50. Any difference in noise, dynamic range, IQ btw ISO 50 and ISO 100? For film I believe such low ISO is normally being used for landscape and nite shoots?

TIA.

One more use is when you need to balance flash with ambient light and the shutter speed is still higher than sync speed for the aperture you want to use. Alternatively you can use ND filter.

Apart from that, in film, people use it when they want to blow the prints big. ISO50 is usually quite free from grains.

I don't have ISO50 on my DSLR, so I can't evaluate if it is less noisy than ISO100. If they are about the same, then I would suggest sticking with ISO100 because of the higher shutter speed you can use in most lighting situations. ISO50 for digital doesn't give a resolution improvement as it does for film.

 

[chansw]

Hi,

Just a question I'm wondering, for DLSR owners who have the ISO 50 option available, how often and when do you use such a function? I have a DSLR with such function but almost never used it at all in most shooting situations. Even for long exposure/night shoots, I tend to stick to ISO 100.

I'm just curious to know what kind of situations warrants the use of ISO 50. Any difference in noise, dynamic range, IQ btw ISO 50 and ISO 100? For film I believe such low ISO is normally being used for landscape and nite shoots?

TIA.

I think those who do product shot uses such ISO .Maybe because product shot need so much of a fine detail in large prints.Will someone who do product shot say something?:dunno:

 

[bigbun]

maybe useful for creating the waterfall mist effect?

 

[megaweb]

When you want to take long exposure or slow shutter speed, it is useful.

 

[blueaquarius]

I would say you need ISO100 and ISO50 when you use 50mm at f1.8
under a bright sun.... my 'x' D70 struggles when i shoot at f1.8 or f2.8 when sun is out..
particularly if you are at Aperture priority mode with no flash... camera always says 'HI'...
when i ignore the warning.. thats it... Overexporse...

now..no more 'HI' after having a cam with ISO100.. but it will be better if there is ISO 50..
As the saying goes.. the stronger the sun you have, the lower ISO you need
btw, not only the sun... even studio lights as well...

 

[XiaoMiaoWang]

"Night" shots (fireworks, sunrises) or any long exposure shot, where you want your exposure to be as long as possible and when f22, ISO 100 doesn't help.

 

[JediForce4ever]

when you just feel like shooting low ISO....haha

i can think of one....when you want motion blur on a subject in strong sunlight.

 

[theRBK]

DSLRs with ISO 50 at the moment seem to be doing it by adjusting the image similar to the way adjusting levels midpoint in Photoshop brightens an image...ie. it is done post capture and is not a function of sensor sensitivity...so you might actually have more noise than at ISO100, which is the native base sensitivity level of most DSLR sensors...and I believe the colours would also be affected...just to refresh my memory, I did a search and quote this webpage:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JJVE

In my experience with working with products shot with medium format and 35mm digital, ISO 100 has certainly been up to standard

but for exposure creativity rather than technical advantage, sure, ISO 50 has its place...there was even a now defunct Kodak camera with ISO 5...

 

[adamadam]

interesting! thanks for the linke theRBK!

 

[Artosoft]

I think those who do product shot uses such ISO .Maybe because product shot need so much of a fine detail in large prints.Will someone who do product shot say something?:dunno:

It is true on film. But on digital, ASA50 can bring more noise than ASA100.

Regards,
Arto.

 

[ST1100]

Each dslr has a base ISO where it produces the best images. For Canon, it's usually ISO100. ISO50 is like a digital density filter. AFAIK, ISO100 has higher DR and produces better quality pics than ISO50, on cameras where ISO100 is the base.

ISO50 can be used when you need to the lower sensitivity, like taking a f1.4-1/8000s flower/bokeh picture in bright sunlight, or taking a f22-1/2s picture of flowing water (again, in bright sunlight) - anytime it's too bright and the aperture/shutter speed has hit its limits.

Practically though, i've never needed to use it. Under testing i've found ISO50 and ISO100 to be indistinguishable, no matter how hard i stare at the two pictures.

 

[Wai]

just used it last week to shoot some long exposure (~2 sec) around sun set time

ISO50, f22

if i stayed for 5 more min, i would have caught the fireball in the sky

 

[westwest1]

correct me if i am wrong...

ISO 50 only available in the high end camera like D2X ya?? if thats the case...cannot afford liaoz...

 

[Francis247]

correct me if i am wrong...

ISO 50 only available in the high end camera like D2X ya?? if thats the case...cannot afford liaoz...

Don't think so. :think:
D2Xs specs.
Sensitivity - 100 to 800 (ISO equivalent); HI-0.3, HI-0.5, HI-0.7, HI-1 and HI-2 available

 

[hazmee]

I've used the ISO50 in my 1Ds before. I used it a few times and never used it again. I got slightly more shadow noise and lesser dynamic range when compared to ISO100. For long exposures or those 'misty' effects, I'd rather use a ND filter.

 

[Wai]

Don't think so. :think:
D2Xs specs.
Sensitivity - 100 to 800 (ISO equivalent); HI-0.3, HI-0.5, HI-0.7, HI-1 and HI-2 available

D2X not high end enough? :dunno: :bsmilie:

 

[Wai]

I've used the ISO50 in my 1Ds before. I used it a few times and never used it again. I got slightly more shadow noise and lesser dynamic range when compared to ISO100. For long exposures or those 'misty' effects, I'd rather use a ND filter.

according to the manual, ISO 50(L) and ISO 3200(H) are known as expanded range, these settings will lower the dynamic range...so what u have experienced is normal