CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

One of the headlines at the launch of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 was the extended ISO range of the new 24MP X-Trans III sensor and the ability to record RAW files at all settings. I don't tend to use high ISO very often but it does come in useful for low light sports photography so this is one aspect of the X-Pro2 that I was very interested in.  The X-T1 is no slouch when it comes to handling high ISO as this shot taken last year at The Circuit of The Americas in Texas shows. Fujifilm X-T1+ Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R LM OIS WR + 1.4x converter (1/40 @ f4 6400ISO) I set up the X100 camera as the test subject and using the X-Pro2 fitted with the XF18mm f2.  Focusing on the 'Fujinon' text on the lens I took a shot at each of the native full ISO settings (200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800) and one at the 'H' setting which I had set to 51200 ISO.  I then cropped 100% to give a better view of the grain structure for each shot. These are JPEGs straight out of...

All digital cameras have sensors that can be set by the user for sensitivity using a setting called ISO.  The higher the number the higher the sensitivity to light which means a photographer can take pictures in lower light. The trade off is what is referred to 'noise' in the image, artefacts that, in the days of film, was referred to 'grain'.  This has the effect of lowering the quality of the image.  On the flip side of this particular coin, the lower the ISO number, the less noise and the better quality final image. The test subject - a 1:36 scale Mini Miglia Corgi model The way a camera handles 'noise' is also dependent on a number of factors. The first being the size of the sensor and the number of pixels that is packed onto that sensor.  For example a mobile phone cameras sensor or simple digital point and shoot are tiny compared to normal cameras.  Manufacturers pack millions of pixels onto these tiny sensors but the downside is the ...