Higher ISO = Less pictures !

Borats Baby

Borats Baby

Messages
2,126
Name
Rikki
Edit My Images
Yes
Only spotted this recently, the higher the ISO, the less pictures you can fit on your memory card.

I would have thought that higher ISO's meant poorer quality pics (in terms of noise at least) and thus MORE pics.....
 
What you're seeing is perfectly correct.

High ISOs lead to more noise in the pictures. Noise is essentially random, which means that compression algorithms (which thrive on pattern and regularity) can't do much with it. So, other things being equal, noisy JPEGs are larger than noiseless JPEGs because the files don't compress as well.
 
Makes sense really.

I was thinking about it from the wrong end of the wrong stick :)

Thanks for explaining Stuart !
 
seems to make perfect sense to me
take a picture of a grey card in JPEG and then of something patterned.
the grey card shot should be smaller
 
It was once described to me like this:

Noise from high ISO settings is data not connected to the image but does add to the actual image size which will affect your memory cards capacity.
 
Jpeg compression works by identifying adjacent pixels of similar colour. Digital noise makes adjacent pixels increasingly variable, hence the compression algorithm can't do it's thang as easily :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top