F300 – Review Part 23 – 1600 ISO

So, can this camera be shot at 1600 ISO? Well, in low light, we’ve already seen that smearing is pretty strong. The various ISO ladders I have done show that the F70EXR retains a lot of detail at 1600 ISO on the Jamaican Dollar Bill test, while the F80EXR gives up a lot of that detail and the F300EXR gives up a bit more again. On the other hand, the F300EXR looks a lot like the F70EXR where saturation and white balance are concerned, so the camera looks pretty decent at high ISOs if the subjects is close enough to the camera to avoid the smearing.

So here is a torture test … shot from my front porch at the beautiful overhanging Ash tree in my front yard standing next to my CR-V from 2001. An oldie but a goodie … (it’s actually that wicked Alpine stereo with 10” subwoofer that keeps me in this car :-). The reason the camera chose 1600 ISO was the rain … it was a very dull day. Note also that this is shot at the equivalent of 180mm …

Observations:

• The grass has detail, but there should be a bit more. Smearing is obviously evident. Still, acceptable to me for snap shots (vacation, etc.)
• The fence in the background and the Annabelle Hydrangea show just how much smearing is occurring. Pretty heavy.
• The car looks ok, as does the Hosta in the distance. Higher contrast and larger details make for adequate output.

Note, though, that the shutter was 1/120s … so I could have dropped to 1/60 at 800 ISO or 1/30 at 400 ISO. Frankly, though, smearing is pretty evident as soon as the threshold of detail size and contrast is reached … ISO has less to do with it than it does in other brands …

Fuji, oh Fuji, wherefore art thou decent programmers? :-)