Camera Talk

On a digital camera which is one of the best every day ISO numbers to use? Does the same theory apply as a film camera?
My wife found a Panasonic FZ70 that will be on sale later this month and asked me if I would be interested It would the farthest away from a Thriftstore camera I have ever owned .
But I have problems reading instruction books. {thriftstore cameras don't usually come with books

Ron B

Basically, Ron, the higher the ISO on a digicam, the more noise you will get. Call it digital grain, but some cameras handle it better than others. You can always do a search for reviews of that model (which has been out of production for a while) to see where the unacceptable point is. Of course, unacceptable is a relative term. It all depends on if you are just posting on the Web, or plan to make large prints. The more noise, the smaller an acceptable print will be.

PF

Ron, I am a dyed-in-the-wool film user and have been for forty years. But for the past two or three years I have been dabbling in digital. For the past six months I have shot a lot more digital than film. [Gasp. Confession!]

To answer your question directly, I use my digital camera with regard to the light and take advantage of the ISO setting for that. In bright outdoor weather I usually have it set at 100 or 200. It goes to 400 (I think Tri-X when I do it) when it's cloudy. Indoors I try to use 400 but I often have to switch to 1000 to get the handheld speeds I want to use, since I dislike the flash. If I were using the flash, I would probably keep my ISO at 100 or 200.

My camera (the Fuji X100) makes ISO switches pretty simple. With other cameras with different placements of the settings, I expect the choices of speed would be different because of it being a different set of hassles in changing.

In daily use, I use the ISO speeds on my camera the way I use the 18 speeds on my bicycle -- I probably use three or four of the speeds ever.

Ron, I am a dyed-in-the-wool film user and have been for forty years. But for the past two or three years I have been dabbling in digital. For the past six months I have shot a lot more digital than film. [Gasp. Confession!]

It is funny that you brought up the film subject Philip. My wife brought it up also, 'if we buy this new digital camera what will happen to all that film taking up space in the freezer?'.
And she is right -- 'again'
So I guess it will be awhile before I -we buy a new digital, besides, I have a bunch of P&Ser 1.3 mp to 16??mp. Plus a couple of SLR Canons, an EOS D60 and a EOS XTi. So guess I had better learn to use these first
If weather and health permit I believe I had better use up my film. For now it may be better to spend my money on developing. I plan on using Dwayne's as the price for the service is pretty steep locally.
I also have quite a bit of 120 film hiding down there.

So the new Digital is on the back burner for awhile.

Ron B

Yep, if I see some cheap film, still, I buy it. My fridge & freezer have a lot of film, too. Right now I am accumulating film at a faster rate than I am using it. This is a bad situation! I am looking forward to retirement (in a year or so) when I have promised myself I will develop more film. I hope that's when I'll start using up my film.


Philip