How high do you go with your ISO?

[sonsw87]

Whats your highest ISO you will use with E-M5?

 

[drewbot]

3200

6400 is a little too mushy for me. IBIS allows for me to shoot static scenes at 3200 very well.

 

[RT_Panther]

I've taken my E-PL2 to 3200 but prefer to regularly max out at 1600....

 

[efoo]

In my E-M5, auto-ISO max up to 3200. Manually I am willing to go up to 6400. Most reviews show when going higher than ISO 6400 to 12800, there is a big increase in noise.

 

[Lawrence A.]

3200, but I find with the IBIS and fast lenses I never have to.

 

[gsciorio]

25,600 FTW

 

[MrKal_El]

At first I didn't want to go above 1600 since I was so used to the PEN's...then I bumped to 2000, then 2500...Now I think I'm set at 3200

 

[mister_roboto]

3200 with the E-M5. The noise on the E-M5 is pretty well controlled. My E-P2: 800 iso

 

[kevwilfoto]

My auto-ISO high stop is 1600 right now.

 

[tanngrisnir3]

The lowest possible for the shot, always.

Landscape shooters live at base ISO.

 

[Ray Sachs]

For the kind of shooting I do, I use 3200 very comfortably. I've used 6400 but its pretty funky, even shooting raw and applying my own NR. But 3200 usually allows for a decent shutter speed with the faster primes I tend to shoot with, even in pretty dark conditions, so I don't often feel the need to push it to 6400. I've never been really comfortable above 1600 with any previous m43 cameras - the GH2 and G3 were better at 3200 than any of the previous Oly models, but not good enough to feel comfortable with, but the EM5 is fine at 3200. With my X-Pro 1 I shoot VERY comfortably at 6400, even with jpegs. And I haven't had any need to use it, but 12,800 is not that bad - I could use it in a pinch, but I can't imagine what it would take to feel the need.

-Ray

 

[JJJPhoto]

If I MUST shoot with available light and I need a fast shutter speed I'll use up to ISO 3200. Still, I'd rather use flash or use a tripod (or stable surface) and use a slightly lower ISO like 1600 or 800.

Regardless, sometimes you just need to capture that one brief moment in time and ISO isn't your concern:

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[Luckypenguin]

I leave my Auto ISO limit set at 1600. If ISO 1600 isn't high enough I'd rather decide for myself if I want to go higher or instead try to make a slower shutter speed work. Given that I shoot at base ISO probably > 90% of time, my lack of familiarity with higher ISOs makes it hard to describe them as having good IQ.

My reaction to high ISO shots isn't "that's really good for ISO 3200", but instead "that's really bad compared to ISO 200".

 

[gsciorio]

Surely I'm not the only one here that's shot at 25,600?

 

[tonyjuliano]

3200 max, but 6400 B&W will do.

 

[David A]

I'm with tanngrisnir3—as low as possible. Do what you need to get the shot but don't push ISO any further than you need to get the shot.

A noisy shot is better than no shot, but the noisy shot should be no noisier than it has to be. Normally I want as little noise as possible but if I do want noise in the shot because I want the shot to look that way, then the principle is still the same, don't increase ISO past the point where you're getting the noise looking the way you want it to look.

 

[c_henry]

If I MUST shoot with available light and I need a fast shutter speed I'll use up to ISO 3200. Still, I'd rather use flash or use a tripod (or stable surface) and use a slightly lower ISO like 1600 or 800.

Regardless, sometimes you just need to capture that one brief moment in time and ISO isn't your concern:

Thats a great point that's often overlooked. If you thumb through almost any edition of National Geographic, you'll see many photos that are very grainy, but they're great photo's nonetheless due to the content.

I haven't played with my OM-D at high ISO's that much yet, but if it looks more film-like than digital at higher ISO's then I'll happily use them.

Colin

 

[Agent00soul]

I have the auto iso max limit set at 1600 iso. Since I mostly use gradation=auto, that corresponds to higher iso in the shadows.
On the E-P1, I set the max limit to 400 iso and on the E-M5 I get noticably less shadow noise, although the iso limit is two stops higher.
If I need more than 1600 iso (hasn't happened yet), I set the iso manually and turn off gradation=auto.

 

[bongestrella]

I actually prefer blurry-free over noise-free. And no matter how good IBIS is, sometimes it's just not good enough. Specially if your subject is moving even ever so slightly. ISO 6400 FTW!

 

[DizzyV6P]

I had to shoot my daughters ballet performance using the Panasonic 45-200 lens. I initially used Shutter priority, 1/160, and 1600 ISO. I went up to 1/200 and 3200 a few times, but got scared and went back down to 1600. Needless to say, after going back over my shots, both large fine jpegs and Raw, I probably should have gone to 3200. (It's hard to chimp in the dark...I'm sure I got some dirty looks my way the few times I chimped). I'm very impressed w/ the EM-5's IBIS and how it handles high ISO's. The firmware upgraded 45-200 w/ faster AF helps a lot too!