D3 with ISO 100

[Claudia Brassel]

Dear folks,

just still trying and learning with my new D3 and wondering if there is somebody that uses the D3 with an ISO of 100 (LO 0.3) ? instead of the "standard" ISO 200.

I always used ISO 100 when shooting wildlife with my D2x.
In my opinion (of course that dont must be right...) I think that
quality should be better shooting with ISO 100 instead of ISO 200 (under normal light conditions).

Would be great to hear some suggestions.

Thanks to you,
Claudia

[DougAxford]

Since no one else has answered, I'll take a stab at it even though I don't own a D3.

We made the switch to 200 ISO as our standard in the past year when 100 was no longer a 'standard' on many DSLRs. There simply is no difference in quality that I could see from 100 to 400 ISO on any tests that I did. It's probably best to do your own tests to see for yourself.

DougA

Hi Caudia,

I'll have to suggest that Doug is probably right. Although, I have not specifically tested for this on the D3, my general understanding is that manufacturers will generally manufacture these chips to really only "expose" on one ISO (my guess is that this is usually the lowest standard setting). All of the other ISO settings can be thought of as simply the lowest setting with the gain levels pushed by the other electronic components and included processing software routines.

The only real advantage you would get is that you could use a lower aperture in very brightly lit conditions. I see nothing wrong with using it for this purpose, but I wouldn't expect less noise than at 200.

[Robert Lunak]

hi there

as far as i understand all the testing data the lo.03 setting on the D3 is a decrease in dynamic range and also in some degree´s also a IQ decrease, so i would suggest to use 200-800 (which are perfect on the D3) and use iso100 only if necessary!

i didnt test it but i think i have used the iso100 setting twice since i got my D3... and thats after 20k frames in some months...

isn´t a nice feature to use higher iso settings with similar IQ for wildlife and longer lenses?

hope that helps somehow :-)

best regards

robb

[Terry Zorich]

I agree with Robb; that is to say that I believe ISO 100 will offer no improvement in image quality or noise as compared to ISO 200. The only time I would suggest using ISO 100 is when you need less depth-of-field or a slower shutter speed than would lead to a proper exposure at ISO 200.

[Claudia Brassel]

Dear Friends,

many thanks to all of you who has post a reply, I really appreciate that.

Sorry for my delay but I'm in Alaska and havent an internet connection all the time.

I'm on full testing of my new D3 and have noticed some issues .. maybe I'm making some error or .. the camera functions this way...

I have set the ISO to standard 200.
What I notice is that almost all pictures are very.. very bright ... I wouldn't say they are overexposed but if you look at them they are really bright (if I compare them with the D2x pictures then they are really bright)...

For example, if I shoot a seagul, the white is nearly overexposed but the rest of the picture is okey ... ?!?
What I can do is to set EV to -0.3 to -1.0 to compensate it .. but . is this
the way it should work ?
Would be great to hear some suggetions.

The other problem is with the autofocus ...
When I'm shooting (I was at "C" continuous autofocus) then I could took some pictures and suddenly the autofocus gets crazy .. focusing back and forward and back and forward .. without finding or focusing the subject again ... too bad .. because I missed the whale :-( ...

Is there anybody out that has experienced this too and now what I can do against it ... ???

My firmware is 2.0 and I have dynamic autofocus set to 21.

Thanks again for your great help.

Claudia

[Roger_Martin]

Originally Posted by Claudia Brassel

Dear Friends,

many thanks to all of you who has post a reply, I really appreciate that.

Sorry for my delay but I'm in Alaska and havent an internet connection all the time.

I'm on full testing of my new D3 and have noticed some issues .. maybe I'm making some error or .. the camera functions this way...

I have set the ISO to standard 200.
What I notice is that almost all pictures are very.. very bright ... I wouldn't say they are overexposed but if you look at them they are really bright (if I compare them with the D2x pictures then they are really bright)...

For example, if I shoot a seagul, the white is nearly overexposed but the rest of the picture is okey ... ?!?
What I can do is to set EV to -0.3 to -1.0 to compensate it .. but . is this
the way it should work ?
Would be great to hear some suggetions.

The other problem is with the autofocus ...
When I'm shooting (I was at "C" continuous autofocus) then I could took some pictures and suddenly the autofocus gets crazy .. focusing back and forward and back and forward .. without finding or focusing the subject again ... too bad .. because I missed the whale :-( ...

Is there anybody out that has experienced this too and now what I can do against it ... ???

My firmware is 2.0 and I have dynamic autofocus set to 21.

Thanks again for your great help.

Claudia

1. I have ISO set for Auto 6400 and a minimum shutter speed of 800 with very good results. On a very bright day I have to increase my f/ stop number or I can get a nearly blown out picture at ISO 200 and f/2.8 or more open.

Sounds like your over bright pictures may be caused by reflected light from the ocean. Too bad you or someone else were not also shooting with a different camera. Changing the EV is a good temporary solution. If this continues on overcast days or inland, you will need to change the camera settings. You might also try using a filter on the lense.

2. I use C continuous autofocus with 9 pt Dynamic area with no problems. My wife used 21 pt and often gets back focusing. I set the AF-area selector to single spot, metering selector to Dynamic, and use the AF-ON button to lock focus. "You get what you see thru the viewfinder".