How do you know ISO 100 is really ISO 100?

13 years 3 months ago #32868 by madeline
I'm trying to teach myself all the technical stuff about photogrraphy. I read that when you get a new camera, before you start taking lots of photos, you need to "verify your ISO." Apparently some cameras over-expose and some under-expose. My question is - If my camera's set to ISO 100, how do I know it's really ISO 100? Is there some kind of chart to compare photos to or some test for it?


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13 years 3 months ago #32899 by Joves
Well in the digital world the ISOs are equivelents, so they guess that the ISOs they setup expose like film did. All that means is they have the approximate same response to light. Sensors dont always get it right and that is more a case of how the meters work. The newer metering systems are given a set of values to the lighting then they form a mathematical solution to expose the scene, sometime the math is off in either the+ or-. This is why many of use shoot in Manual Mode. What you need to do is try your camera and use manual mode look through the view finder and center the meter. Take the shot now take another shot of the scene shoot with it - one or two stops then do the same in the +. Look at the photos on your computer and decide which exposure ended up being the closest to what you saw. If the one where you went to the minus was best over the center then your cameras metering is over exposing, if the one was the plus it under exposes. Also in low light it can be the exact opposite. My D300 will over-expose in bright sunlight and I know this so I compensate for it. In low light it tends to under expose. This is especially true in Matrix Metering which actually measures the whole scene. Spot metering is much better. Wether to use Matrix or spot is really a case of what you are shooting, Matix is fairly good for landscapes but sucks for Macros, so for Macros it is Spot. I hope this helps.


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13 years 3 months ago #32901 by Baydream
It is a very good question. Looking forward to hearing others comments.

I guess the same question could be asked about shutter speed (Is 1/100 on your camera actually producing 1/100 sec exposure?).
Do Kodak Gold 100 film and Fujiflim ISO 100 give you exactly the same results from every batch?
Some digital cameras (like early consumer Canon SLRs) have bee known to slightly underexpose photos. Some of this was explained by it being better to slightly under expose than over expose since over exposed data can not be recovered.
Simply understand how YOUR camera operates and adjust accordingly,

Shoot, learn and share. It will make you a better photographer.
fineartamerica.com/profiles/john-g-schickler.html?tab=artwork

Photo Comments
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13 years 3 months ago #32961 by crystal
That is a good question.

I can also see the question for film....How do you really know that 100 speed film is truly 100 speed film? Just like is 100 ISO truly 100 ISO?

Why is ketchup, ketchup?
Why is a cow a cow and not a pig?

The only thing we do know is the world is round. lol :rofl: :banana: :toocrazy:
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13 years 3 months ago #33433 by Joves

cwightmanphotos wrote: That is a good question.

I can also see the question for film....How do you really know that 100 speed film is truly 100 speed film? Just like is 100 ISO truly 100 ISO?

Why is ketchup, ketchup?
Why is a cow a cow and not a pig?

The only thing we do know is the world is round. lol :rofl: :banana: :toocrazy:


Actually! :lol: Depending on whos film you were using some were indeed different. I have had some minor diffrences in how the film exposed using the sunny 16 rule to test them.


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