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Stephanie Seto | profile | all galleries >> Fujifilm FinePix F10 Gallery >> ISO Test Shots with Low Artificial Light tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

ISO Test Shots with Low Artificial Light

Someone on the Digital Camera Resource Page forum had asked if the F10's auto ISO setting produced noisier pictures than when the ISO is manually set. Well, the answer is yes and no. In auto ISO mode, the camera will automatically pick an ISO sensitivity (in the scene below, it happened to be 800). So there is more noise in the picture than if I had manually set the camera to, for example, ISO 400. However when I manually set the camera to ISO 800 and took the same picture, I didn't notice an increase in noise over the ISO 800 that the camera selected in auto ISO mode.

I really hope that made sense.

Light source: artificial, one small 100W incandescent lamp and one halogen desk lamp (the latter contributing very little). No flash used. Manual white balance and +2/3 EV exposure compensation used for each shot. The photos taken at ISO 80, 100, and 200 are very underexposed; that's because the F10 does not seem to want to select a shutter speed longer than 1/4s. Apparently you have to go Night Mode or Long Exposure Mode to do that.

Sorry about using myself as the test subject again. No one else I know would agree to do this...

ISO 80
ISO 80		 ISO 100
ISO 100		 ISO 200
ISO 200		 ISO 400
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 800		 ISO 800 (from auto ISO setting)
ISO 800 (from auto ISO setting)		 ISO 1600
ISO 1600

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Stephanie Seto04-Jun-2006 21:40
Sorry for not answering sooner. I think that the main reason for the photos not being particularly sharp is because the subject (me) is not in perfect focus. Because I took the photos myself using the self-timer, I didn't have the subject to foocus on when I pressed the shutter button. I focused on the back of the chair that I'm sitting on, and I don't think that it was the best thing to do. It is also possible that, with the slowish shutter speeds, there is some subject movement, resulting in photos that aren't completely sharp. Because flash would have fixed the shutter speed at 1/100s or higher (unless you're using slow sync flash), I suspect that the results would have been sharper with flash. Hope that answers your quesetion!
Carli8020 25-Jan-2006 02:41
Hi Stephanie, a beginner's question - if flash was used, would the pictures have come out sharper? What ISO would have been used (Does ISO even matter with flash?)
Jose Canovas28-Jul-2005 14:26
Thank you very much for sharing your experiment with us. It's very useful for me!
Stephanie Seto12-Jul-2005 04:30
How did I manage the exact same smile...dunno really...that's just my "God, I'm tired, please let this shot turn out OK so I can stop" smile. I took way more shots than the ones you see here, believe me.

I've taken a few photography courses and I've owned an SLR for 4 years, so that's where most of my knowledge of things photographic comes from.

I was worried about the proprietary battery too, but with ordinary use, the F10's lasts a really long time. I haven't felt the need to buy a spare, as a matter of fact. I can easily shoot all day and then some and hardly drain the battery at all. If you're travelling and it's your only camera, the spare would still be recommended. But for me, it would be a backup for my Nikon F80.

Hopefully some day, Fuji will develop a successor to the E550 (which uses AA's) or the F810 using the F10's imaging technology. I know a lot of people would be VERY interested.
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