Higher and lower ISO settings:
1. Horse and rider: taken in an arena in daylight at ISO 100, aperture fully open. The shutter speed isn't fast enough to arrest movement.
2. ISO now bumped up to 1000. Movement arrested, and the technical aspects of the rider and horse can be analysed.
3. Magnified view of image 1. No significant noise.
4. Magnified view of image 2. Significant noise.
O.K. - that's enough of that. I'm a bird photographer and the one thing I learned after losing my milk teeth was the trade off between film speed and grain, blurred images and sharp ones. The one great advance that digital imaging has made is that of sensitivity of the recording medium. The shot below of the rare and enigmatic Red-billed Scimitar Babbler taken in South-west China is a classic example of how digital has freed up bird photography from the constraints of film. The shot was taken in dim conditions of thick jungle by poking a 500mm lens with 1.4 converter through a hole in the undergrowth, hand held, at ISO 3200, F5.6, which still allowed a shutter speed of 1/320 sec., which, combined with image stabilisation, produced an acceptable image. Yes, there is noise, but it's far better than ISO 3200 film grain, even if I'd had any loaded in a film camera. I'd never have got this shot using film.
ANYWAY - it's all becoming irrelevant. ISO settings on digital cameras will soon be a thing of the past. Sony's new 16 million pixel sensor , the IMX071, can produce acceptable images when 6 stops off the correct exposure (when shooting RAW format), so there is no need for "correct" exposure. This sensor is already available in consumer DSLRs. If you want to apply effects of grain or your favourite slide film characteristics, there are plenty of software programmes that can do this for you. So I don't propose to wander the streets of Scarborough at twilight to prove a largely irrelevant point, and I don't find blurry or noisy pictures "artistic".
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