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Hello everyone

Apologies in advance if I'm asking a stupid question or if I'm confusing terms but I would really appreciate some technical advice.

I've just moved from the M240 to the M10-R.  The M240 had a 'base' iso of 200 but I tried to shoot it at iso 400 whenever possible, which I was told was the 'native' iso for that sensor.  I understand 'native' means the iso that gives the best dynamic range and image quality i.e the one where the processor does the least work extracting detail out of shadows etc.  This was great for me because, coming from film, 400 was the speed I used most frequently.

The M10-R has a lower 'base' ISO of 100, so I'm wondering if this means the 'native' iso has also dropped a stop, so should I now be shooting at 200 to get the best dynamic range?

I've done a lot of searching on this already and have found conflicting advice - possibly because I don't properly understand the terminology.

So, in a nutshell, can anyone advise me please at which 'native' iso does the M10-R provide the best dynamic range?

Many thanks

Masukami

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello Masukami,

 you might read this thread, even if mostly for M10, it can widen the concept of "optimum ISO'.

 

Where my answer here

"...

More practical as user.

I use since 2017 M10, never use ISO 100 in real (only to try out once or twice), as I do understand that the 'real ISO' (from some discussions, really ?) of it's sensor is between 160-180

So 200 is fine for me.

"

In practical, in your place, I'd just use happily ISO400 as usual to see if it can be "optimum ISO", then why not try out ISO200.

Practice is the only way to know.

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For some measurements, you can go to this site ( link to ...), then put in the chart whatever M (like M10-R +M240 ) to see

that the "optimum ISO' are almost the same "PDR", at those ISO 200-400.

then almost 1EV "gain" from 100 ISO.

https://photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm

Edited by a.noctilux
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@a.noctilux  first of all, thank you for the chart link - very informative.

https://photonstophotos.net/Charts/PDR.htm

Based on my understanding of the data, in terms of dynamic range, 400 iso on the M10-R gives me just under 10 stops of DR - more than enough for everyday use (and if I do need to squeeze more from a high contrast scene, if the situation allows, I can drop to 100 iso to achieve a DR of 10.71).  

For context, well developed Tri-X (my film stock of choice), exposed at iso 400 is supposed to have a dynamic range of about 10 and Portra 400 'feels' like it does similar, although I don't know the actual number.  

(Of course, it's not a perfectly fair comparison due to the way digital vs film each treat shadows and highlights)

 

On the separate subject of noise, it depends on the scene, but I'm usually comfortable shooting up to 1600 iso (7.86 DR) and, actually, only very rarely do I need more than 800 iso (8.75 DR) -  I don't try to 'turn night into day'.

 

So, basically, this is all telling me I need to stop worrying and just enjoy shooting more!  

I'll simply stay between 100 iso and 400 iso for everyday activity, only moving to 800 and (maybe) 1600 if I really need to.

 

Interestingly, the chart for the m10-R shows a slight increase in DR when moving from 318 iso to 400 iso (see attached screenshot) - this suggests the sensor may have two 'native values', one at 100 iso and another at 400 iso .  

 

 

 

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