mookie said:Err..why is it desirable to get some grain in B&W photos?
Hello Mookie & Nokkieg,
I've spent some time with film and only forayed to digital for a year plus. If we equate digital noise with film grain, then Olympus's relatively visible noise is rather film-like in characteristic. I used the E-1 at ISO800 and with my background with film, I actually like the grainy effect both on-screen & in print, I find it adds to the atmosphere. If one follows the Oly forum on dpreview, the same is mentioned. More importantly, posters there mentioned that the E-1 at ISO1600 bests its film counterpart. While that's certainly not something one would rest one's laurels with the march of technology, you're not losing to film when using ISO1600.
In the world of B&W, advancements in film emulsion technology has reduced grain effects in film at their rated sensitivity, yet there exist a market of photographers who favour the 1950-introduced, grainy, Tri-X look (yes that look of grain is 50+ years old). It's an aesthetic kind of desirability, where the overall image formed by the particular & obvious grain structure of Tri-X is sought rather focusing on the particular size, shape, clumpiness of grain. The same appreciation may explain why Voightlander offers single-coated lens for the domestic Japanese market while offering the world sharpness is everything, multi-coated variants of their lenses. It depends whether you look at the picture from a technical or aesthetic perspective, whether a softer, grainier look is a reinforcement or an obstacle to the final image you seek.
For myself, rather than question noise alone, I will consider other imaging characteristic of my sensor in totality, eg. dynamic range, signal capture quality.
Finally to a point which I thought was missed in Nokkieg's initial post, +2EV to ISO400 amounts to overexposing the image. While boosting the ISO to ISO1600 is equivalent to boosting the sensitivity of the sensor while introducing nose in the process. The former increases the amount of light to an ISO400 rated sensor by twofold while the latter involves boosting sensor sensitivity when ambient light is insufficient to properly expose an image. I think you meant to say ISO400 -2EV.
Cheers,