Sony A7R IV What MAX ISO have you landed on?

GregS

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As we all know at times a high ISO is advantageous, but of course must be balanced with the noise introduced.

So, in the real world, pixel-peaking lab tests and marketing spin aside, what is your mental max ISO you roll with?

TIA
 
On both the A7R4 and A9 my limit is 12800. I have my minn SS set to 'fast' by the way. I am on manual and just keep it on auto ISO. If I know I'll have good light for a session (not often) I'll limit it to 6400.
 
I've limited Auto to 6400, though if I'm struggling for light and it's a subject I really want a shot of I'll go to 10000. Topaz helps in this decision :)
 
I limit iso to 3200 if I am shooting in color. Above that I find the colors are hard to work with, and I process as black and white.
Black and white 6400 works
We will have different limits, as we all have different needs. Some of my work gets printed large- so the higher iso's fall apart.
Gary
 
I did a series of checks on shutter speeds that I needed with any old manual lens, by choosing a couple of fixed apertures and running a set of shots at different ss. For this, I let the ISO do what it wanted. It looks like I could probably go to 8000 if I had to.

Ps this was testing a 135mm lens on an a7 mk1, so no stabilisation anywhere, lens or body. And handheld i found that i was going to need at least 1/160s
 
i took loads of macro shots at 3200 iso and the grain was too much so now switched to 800 iso and its perfect, my old nikon d810 set to max 800 iso before it got bad the sony's 60mp ( almost double ) can handle the same which is great considering
 
I do not have the a7mk4 but I do not have the a9 and I am not keen on iso above 5000, although the a7iii is ok quite a bit higher
 
My 73 has defaulted to 12,800 max. This yields a pretty good pic with the 24 - 240 at night. The camera knows it is nighttime and does not try to make it look like daytime. Grain can be a problem but if the photo is good enough no one will care. I believe that what the image is saying will override all else, barring heinous flaws. But a crap photo is a crap photo regardless of how low the ISO is.
 
On both the A7R4 and A9 my limit is 12800. I have my minn SS set to 'fast' by the way. I am on manual and just keep it on auto ISO. If I know I'll have good light for a session (not often) I'll limit it to 6400.
Can you tell me a little bit about the "Min ss" on fast. Mine is automatically set to standard.
 
Min SS on Fast tells the camera to go for a somewhat faster shutter speed at the cost of a higher ISO. I only learned about this one recently. I must remember to set it, in fact.
 
Min SS on Fast tells the camera to go for a somewhat faster shutter speed at the cost of a higher ISO. I only learned about this one recently. I must remember to set it, in fact.
Thanks! My brain is on overload. I'm really diving in to my camera settings and learning important stuff I should have learned like how to read a histogram, actually using the zebra settings and the exposure value. I'm really wanting to learn how get it "right" in camera then tweaking it in post vs underexposing and trying to save it in post.
 
Can you tell me a little bit about the "Min ss" on fast. Mine is automatically set to standard.
Apologies missed this. This is out of the Sony manual. Note this only works in A and P modes. In M and S modes you are determining the shutter speed yourself. I have moved to S more now while keeping an eye on the autoISO. High pixel sensor cameras definitely benefit from using a slightly higher shutter speed than you are used to. Any extra noise can be controlled in Topaz Denoise or a similar noise reduction program.

This function is effective for shooting moving subjects. You can minimize subject blurring while also preventing camera shake.

MENU → (Camera Settings1) → [ISO AUTO Min. SS] → desired setting.
Menu item details
FASTER (Faster)/FAST (Fast):
The ISO sensitivity will start to change at shutter speeds faster than [Standard], so you can prevent camera shake and subject blurring.
 
Apologies missed this. This is out of the Sony manual. Note this only works in A and P modes. In M and S modes you are determining the shutter speed yourself. I have moved to S more now while keeping an eye on the autoISO. High pixel sensor cameras definitely benefit from using a slightly higher shutter speed than you are used to. Any extra noise can be controlled in Topaz Denoise or a similar noise reduction program.

This function is effective for shooting moving subjects. You can minimize subject blurring while also preventing camera shake.

MENU → (Camera Settings1) → [ISO AUTO Min. SS] → desired setting.
Menu item details
FASTER (Faster)/FAST (Fast):
The ISO sensitivity will start to change at shutter speeds faster than [Standard], so you can prevent camera shake and subject blurring.

Thank you for this tip! I'm in the process of tweaking my settings on my new A1 and also reviewing the settings I have on my A7R IV.... I always had the feeling that I hadn't done something quite right when it came to AUTO ISO and the settings for that, especially the minimum one. I 've now just set both cameras to the "FASTER" setting and I am thinking it will be much better than what I'd been using.
 
Anything past 12,800 is rough. When shooting sports I usually run 1/1250-1/1600 and ISO as low as I can which tends to be around 8,000. F 3.5 on a Sony 70-200 GM or 24-70 GM with a min of 2.8. Topaz DeNoise can be a life saver. For general distribution of photos to view on screen I can usually get by with LRc noise reduction of 40%. If I need to publish or print then I turn to Topaz DeNoise or Sharpen for the real keepers.
I have tried the ON 1 Noise reduction program that was recently released. Overall I am still a Topaz fan.
 
I do not have the a7mk4 but I do not have the a9 and I am not keen on iso above 5000, although the a7iii is ok quite a bit higher
So since I am an A7III owner, I wonder what makes the difference??
 

High Megapixels and Noise​

Many photographers believe higher megapixel sensors produce noisier images. Often, the exact opposite is true: higher megapixel sensors in Nikon and Sony cameras actually produce less image noise than the lower megapixel sensors in Canon cameras. So, why the confusion? The lower the megapixel count, the larger the individual pixels (known as photosites). Just like a larger bucket gathers more rain, a larger photosite gathers more light. The more light a photosite gathers, the less noise it will produce in that pixel. Therefore, since pixel noise is primarily determined by the amount of light a single photosite gathered, lower megapixel sensors have less pixel noise. When photographers compare the noise produced by two sensors, they often zoom in and view images on a pixel-by-pixel basis (1:1). When they do that, they’re comparing pixel noise, and lower megapixel sensors will seem to have less noise. But there’s an important difference between pixel noise and total image noise. We only see pixel noise when we compare photos on a pixel-by-pixel basis. In the real world, images are scaled to the size of our display or print, and multiple pixels are blended together. In the real world, we don’t notice pixel noise. Instead, we see total image noise. Total image noise is determined primarily by the total light gathered by the sensor, and the light gathered by each individual pixel makes no measurable difference. In practice, the higher megapixel sensors from Sony and Nikon actually have less total image noise than the lower megapixel sensors from Canon. In other words, if you take pictures with a 36-megapixel Sony a7R and a 24-megapixel Canon 5D Mark III and make a 20×30” print, the a7R’s print will have less visible noise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KYvp8PrCFc
Copied from https://northrup.photo/gear-basics/camera-body-features/noise/

I am not smart enough to write something like this.
 
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