Nikon ISO Settings

ianbarber

ianbarber

Messages
882
Name
Ian
Edit My Images
Yes
Just a quick question regarding Nikon ISO Settings.

On all the Nikon cameras I have owned even the D3s, the lowest ISO seems to be 200. There is a setting below this that says L01 if my memory serves me right.

I have been told that this is equivalent to ISO 100 but I was just curious as to why they do not display it as 100.
 
It's ISO 200, it's not equivalent to ISO 100, it's 1 stop difference.

I think the real question is why don't a lot of Nikons have a proper ISO 100 setting?
 
Last edited:
don't think its a question of why they don't have a true iso 100 at all.

The 200 is just the native base ISO of the sensor. Anything below that is 'forced' by the processing software and will lose a little dynamic range
 
Maybe that's how Nikon get such a good High ISO performance? Nikon's equivalent ISO to Canon's ISO 100 is 200? So canon's ISO 800 is equivalent to Nikon's ISO 1600, hence Nikon always appears to have a better Noise to ISO performance at "higher"" ISO's????:thumbs:
 
wilko said:
Maybe that's how Nikon get such a good High ISO performance? Nikon's equivalent ISO to Canon's ISO 100 is 200? So canon's ISO 800 is equivalent to Nikon's ISO 1600, hence Nikon always appears to have a better Noise to ISO performance at "higher"" ISO's????:thumbs:
Click to expand...

Isn't ISO a standard though, so things have to match?
 
Its just Nikon don't need to go as low as 100 ISO as the noise is so low anyway :p :wave:
 
ISO 800 = ISO 800

Nikon might perform roughly the same at 1600 as Canon does 800, but that's only noise wise. The actual amount light needed for a correct exposure will different though, as ISO only refers to the speed/sensitivity of the sensor.
 
Last edited:
As someone has already stated, some Nikon and Sony CMOS sensors have a base ISO of 200. An extended ISO 100 in this case is simply ISO 200 overexposed by a stop and then pulled back again when the exposure is complete (the reverse of an exended ISO 12800, which in some cases is ISO 6400 underexposed by a stop).

Does it make a difference unless you need slower shutter speeds? I dunno, any Nikon owners care to comment? Is there noise at ISO 200?
 
I seem to recall Geoffrey Crawley writing about this in AP last year, I'll see if I can dig out the article.
I think there did used to be standards that were readable across films, so that a Kodak ISO400 film was equivalent to an Agfa 400 film in terms of sensitivity. However, I don't think that digital sensitivities are now comparable against each other camera to camera, but are simply twice as sensitive as the ISO below it. But I could be wrong on that.:shrug:
 
ISO 200 on one camera should be similar to ISO 200 on another camera, there are slight variances of course due to the different sensors utilised. The differences should only be slight though and certainly not a whole stop! Some Nikon sensors just don't have ISO 100 as their base ISO, that is all.
 
Actually yes, that makes sense, I've just re-read my post and realised I was talking rubbish. The sensitivity remains the same camera to camera, but the amount of noise / grain is totally different. My old D70 has the same amount of noise at 1600 as my D700 has at about 6400, but exposure settings will be the same at ISO1600 on both.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top