Auto ISO Z8

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Antonia

Antonia

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Hello reader. Can you maybe tell me what are the best ISO Sensitivity settings on Nikon Z8. If I have auto off, I have the sensitivity on 100 and change it manually to the situation. But if I choose Auto Sensitivity Control ON. Ik would like to know what Maximum sensitivity and Minimum shutter speed setting is advisable. Great thanks in advance for your reaction
 
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I set my minimum at base ISO (64) and I chose 12,800 as the maximum. The maximum setting is really up to you and should be based on how much noise you can tolerate and your post processing software and skills. You DO need to monitor the ISO in the view finder so you can adjust your settings if the ISO is climbing beyond your comfort zone.

I suggest just going out and experimenting using Auto ISO..........
 
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Antonia said:
Hello reader. Can you maybe tell me what are the best ISO Sensitivity settings on Nikon Z8. If I have auto off, I have the sensitivity on 100 and change it manually to the situation. But if I choose Auto Sensitivity Control ON. Ik would like to know what Maximum sensitivity and Minimum shutter speed setting is advisable. Great thanks in advance for your reaction
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The Z8 native ISO for stills is 64. That's where you get the best dynamic range and lowest noise. There a second "good" ISO, as all invariant sensors have, around 500.

Practically, if you have enough light, shoot at 64. If you are at a low light situation, shooting at 500 will give you lower noise than 200 or 400.
 
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I don't have a Z8 but the overall approach I use may be applicable. I don't set a limit on minimum. My camera base ISO is 100 and I try to shoot as close to that as I can given the light, if I'm hand holding, movement of the subject etc.

For upper limit, I kind of follow Steve's "Sasquatch riding a pink unicorn" (I think it was one of Steve's books where I first saw that type of reference) line of thought. What it means is if I absolutely have to get the shot at what maximum ISO is the image still recognizable as an image. Over the years with different cameras, that has been improving.

What I do is take a few series of test shots of different subjects in field conditions with various types of background, cropping etc. I will shoot these subjects at ever increasing ISO from base up to the camera's maximum. I don't do this all on one day but over several trips with a new camera body. I look at the images and determine at which point the image is just unusable and set the maximum upper range of auto ISO about 1 stop beyond that (the Sasquatch shot can be blurry and it would be more believable if it was noisy and blurry anyway, especially if he is riding a pink unicorn. haha). I can always override the auto if there really is some must have shot that requires an ISO beyond the Sasquatch limit.

I see setting the upper limit on auto ISO as a convenience to make going way up on ISO as a conscious choice not an "oopsie"

I shoot Canon not Nikon so my upper limit would most likely not translate to your upper limit. However, I set it at 8,000 ISO. I find somewhere around 6,000 my images require a lot of de-noise to the point they look like someone laid a plastic veil over them so I try to keep it below 6000 but if I absolutely had to go to 8,000 the subject would still be recognized as the subject. If I had to go all the way to 12,800 for a unique once in a lifetime shot I could but it would be for personal memories only.

Hope this helps.

Jeff
[edited to correct an egregious spelling error]
 
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I think another way to look at it is to focus more about what shutter speed and f number would be ideal for the shooting situation. Then use the iso to keep the highlights near but off the right wall of the histogram. Then if you have to compromise due to low light think about if there is room to nudge the shutter speed slower and/or the aperture wider. When the iso is mostly invariant there really isn't an ideal I don't think.
 
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Antonia said:
Ik would like to know what Maximum sensitivity and Minimum shutter speed setting is advisable.
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We need to know the subject to suggest those setting.

I use auto iso and set to 64 for low and 26000 high.
I set my shutter speed and f stop manual, using a spinner dial to quickly change those settings judging by my subject
 
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Thank you all very kindly for your reply. The Maximum sensitivity and Minimum shutter speed are options in the ISO sensitivity Menu of the Nikon Z8. So I was just wondering who has the same camera what values they’ve set it on.
 
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Antonia said:
Thank you all very kindly for your reply. The Maximum sensitivity and Minimum shutter speed are options in the ISO sensitivity Menu of the Nikon Z8. So I was just wondering who has the same camera what values they’ve set it on.
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You will get a lot of different answers on the maximum setting. For minimum, most folks use the base ISO....64. I repeat.....

"The maximum setting is really up to you and should be based on how much noise you can tolerate and your post processing software and skills. You DO need to monitor the ISO in the view finder so you can adjust your settings if the ISO is climbing beyond your comfort zone.

I suggest just going out and experimenting using Auto ISO.........."
 
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Butlerkid said:
You will get a lot of different answers on the maximum setting. For minimum, most folks use the base ISO....64. I repeat.....

"The maximum setting is really up to you and should be based on how much noise you can tolerate and your post processing software and skills. You DO need to monitor the ISO in the view finder so you can adjust your settings if the ISO is climbing beyond your comfort zone.

I suggest just going out and experimenting using Auto ISO.........."
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Thank you for your reply 👍🏻
 
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Antonia said:
Thank you all very kindly for your reply. The Maximum sensitivity and Minimum shutter speed are options in the ISO sensitivity Menu of the Nikon Z8. So I was just wondering who has the same camera what values they’ve set it on.
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I have a set of Z8 cameras! If you shoot in manual mode you control shutter and aperture and you let ISO, when on auto, "fall where it may" as the saying goes. If you shoot in aperture or shutter priority and set your camera to a max ISO you'll come up against a "brick wall" when the camera cannot do what it wants to do. This applies to all cameras. There are multiple ways to set any camera and you need to read and experiment to find the way that works for you. I'm in the Anchorage airport right now heading to Homer in a bit to photograph eagles over the next five days. I'm planning to experiment with using one of my lens rings set to ISO and turn off auto, at least for a bit, experimenting is how you learn what your camera settings do.
 
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Nimi said:
The Z8 native ISO for stills is 64. That's where you get the best dynamic range and lowest noise. There a second "good" ISO, as all invariant sensors have, around 500.

Practically, if you have enough light, shoot at 64. If you are at a low light situation, shooting at 500 will give you lower noise than 200 or 400.
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Nimi, is this written somewhere in the Z8 literature? This kind of technical detail is fantastic! Jim
 
Just to add on, because of the dual gain some folks shoot 200 or below or 500 or above, skipping the iso in between, to get the slight improvement in dynamic range/less noise. I think most ignore it since it is another thing to think about.
 
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The Z9 and Z8 have the same sensor and the sensor is a dual gain sensor. This means there are 2 base ISO's. ISO64 and ISO500. There will be lower noise at 500 then say ISO320, 400, 640 but also and even more noticeable is a higher dynamic range at ISO500 then the surrounding ISO's.

This is also one of the reasons why I never ever shoot AUTO ISO but full 100% manual 100% of the time. EC changes exposure but doesn't truly control the ISO as the camera can still bump you ISO down to ISO320 or 400 or up to 640 when I want to be at ISO500 when I am in that range. I will correct in post if need be or usually I just adjust my shutter speed when I have enough to be say between 1/2000 and 1/5000. I also have no problem going to ISO12,800 but if I am hovering around ISO500, I want to be at ISO500 specifically.
 
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EricKlees said:
The Z9 and Z8 have the same sensor and the sensor is a dual gain sensor. This means there are 2 base ISO's. ISO64 and ISO500. There will be lower noise at 500 then say ISO320, 400, 640 but also and even more noticeable is a higher dynamic range at ISO500 then the surrounding ISO's.

This is also one of the reasons why I never ever shoot AUTO ISO but full 100% manual 100% of the time. EC changes exposure but doesn't truly control the ISO as the camera can still bump you ISO down to ISO320 or 400 or up to 640 when I want to be at ISO500 when I am in that range. I will correct in post if need be or usually I just adjust my shutter speed when I have enough to be say between 1/2000 and 1/5000. I also have no problem going to ISO12,800 but if I am hovering around ISO500, I want to be at ISO500 specifically.
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I've read a lot of debates back and forth on this. Some say the same as you've expressed here about rather being at ISO 500 than 400 or 320 while others argue that this is a misunderstanding of the dynamic at play here.

For my part I can say this: I have been following the practice of trying to keep the ISO at 500 if it would otherwise be 400 or 320, but recently I have started to aim for the lower ISO regardless and at least my initial impressions has been that this is yielding better results. Why would that be?

Well remember: ISO does not cause noise: light levels cause noise (well, at least if we are talking about shot noise). We associate high ISO with noise because generally when we are using high ISOs it is when the light levels are low. This means something important: it means that if I require ISO 320 to get the correct brightness in my image that there is almost twice as much light as there is if I require ISO 500, and that means that there is going to be a much higher signal to noise ratio and less noise visible in the image. Yes, the ISO 500 will give me less read noise than the ISO 400, but it would make sense if the ISO 400 has less overall noise than at ISO 500 if I got to ISO 500 by increasing shutter speed or closing down the aperture and so reducing the actual light levels on the sensor.
 
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SCoombs said:
I've read a lot of debates back and forth on this. Some say the same as you've expressed here about rather being at ISO 500 than 400 or 320 while others argue that this is a misunderstanding of the dynamic at play here.

For my part I can say this: I have been following the practice of trying to keep the ISO at 500 if it would otherwise be 400 or 320, but recently I have started to aim for the lower ISO regardless and at least my initial impressions has been that this is yielding better results. Why would that be?

Well remember: ISO does not cause noise: light levels cause noise (well, at least if we are talking about shot noise). We associate high ISO with noise because generally when we are using high ISOs it is when the light levels are low. This means something important: it means that if I require ISO 320 to get the correct brightness in my image that there is almost twice as much light as there is if I require ISO 500, and that means that there is going to be a much higher signal to noise ratio and less noise visible in the image. Yes, the ISO 500 will give me less read noise than the ISO 400, but it would make sense if the ISO 400 has less overall noise than at ISO 500 if I got to ISO 500 by increasing shutter speed or closing down the aperture and so reducing the actual light levels on the sensor.
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Of course ISO does not cause more noise or create it. ISO is basically a gain. So for explaining purposes think of being in a car listening to a radio station as you start to drive out of the range of the signal you start to get static. Turning the volume up or down does not create more static it just makes it more apparent makes it louder. This is the same with ISO. The noise is there or will be there ISO just makes it more apparent same with trying to raise shadows in post processing it's still going to be there as you lighten an image you just expose more of the noise or signal to noise ratio.

But you have to understand what the dual gain sensor means. It has been shown that at ISO 503 there is significantly more dynamic range and the shadows that's the biggest thing that you will get out of the dual game shooting it at its base ISO and it's second base ISO. There will be a bit of less noise at ISO 500 compared to ISO 320 or 400. I can see that in my own files. But it's not nearly as noticeable as the increased dynamic range. What causes more noise in your image is shutter speed not ISO ISO only exposes what's already there like I said.

But I can see a bit of a difference being an ISO 500 and the surrounding close isos like 32400 640 like I mentioned before as well.

I also don't mind cropping as much as 100% as well so if you're not cropping you won't see very much of a difference but if you crop heavily you will certainly see that difference.
 
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EricKlees said:
Of course ISO does not cause more noise or create it. ISO is basically a gain. So for explaining purposes think of being in a car listening to a radio station as you start to drive out of the range of the signal you start to get static. Turning the volume up or down does not create more static it just makes it more apparent makes it louder. This is the same with ISO. The noise is there or will be there ISO just makes it more apparent same with trying to raise shadows in post processing it's still going to be there as you lighten an image you just expose more of the noise or signal to noise ratio.

But you have to understand what the dual gain sensor means. It has been shown that at ISO 503 there is significantly more dynamic range and the shadows that's the biggest thing that you will get out of the dual game shooting it at its base ISO and it's second base ISO. There will be a bit of less noise at ISO 500 compared to ISO 320 or 400. I can see that in my own files. But it's not nearly as noticeable as the increased dynamic range. What causes more noise in your image is shutter speed not ISO ISO only exposes what's already there like I said.

But I can see a bit of a difference being an ISO 500 and the surrounding close isos like 32400 640 like I mentioned before as well.

I also don't mind cropping as much as 100% as well so if you're not cropping you won't see very much of a difference but if you crop heavily you will certainly see that difference.
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I don't know that it makes sense to try to discuss dynamic range and noise as though they're two different things. In fact, dynamic range is literally defined (when speaking of the various tests that are supposed to measure it) in terms of how much noise will be found in the shadows for a given exposure of the highlights. If you have ever looked at any of the dynamic range charts for different sensors out there, this is what they are charting. Thus, saying that a sensor has more dynamic range at a given ISO is extremely similar to saying that the sensor will exhibit less noise at that ISO.

I'm not quite sure what you mean, then, when you say that at ISO 500 you notice an increased dynamic range, because using the standard definitions this is just saying that you see less noise in the shadows at ISO 500.

The thing is that if a given exposure calls for, say, ISO 250 or 320 you can't get to ISO 500 without changing the shutter speed or aperture, and this reduces real light on the sensor and this increases noise substantially. I suppose you could go into manual ISO and keep your SS and F stop where they are and just increase the ISO, but then you are going to lose an awful lot of highlight information.
 
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