ISO | FUJI X WEEKLY

Exposure Triangle, Part 3: Understanding ISO

*Fujifilm X-T30 – ISO 25600 – Ilford HP5 Plus 400 Push Process*

Part 1: Aperture, Part 2: Shutter

As we’ve already discussed, aperture determines the amount of light that enters the camera, and shutter speed determines for how long that light is allowed to expose the camera’s sensor. The third aspect of the exposure triangle is ISO, which is how sensitive the sensor is to that light. Well, that’s not exactly true. ISO works much different with digital sensors than it did with silver halide film, but the basic premise is similar: the higher the ISO, the brighter and “grainer” the image; the lower the ISO, the darker and “cleaner” the image. ISO is found in the camera’s menu, and on some models is controlled by a knob on the top plate or via a wheel around the shutter knob.

This is the simplest of the three exposure triangle elements to grasp, and yet maybe the most difficult. With things like dual-native ISO and ISO invariance, it can be quite confusing. I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds here, because it doesn’t really matter all that much. Basically, Fujifilm cameras technically have just two ISOs: base gain (ISO 200 on X-Trans III and older, ISO 160 on X-Trans IV, ISO 125 on X-Trans V) and second gain (ISO 800 on X-Trans III and older, ISO 640 on X-Trans IV, and ISO 500 on X-Trans V). The base gain is the cleanest of the two. As the ISO is increased from the base gain, the picture becomes “noisier” (a.k.a. “grainier” or “grittier”) because the brightness is being turned up, making the digital noise more obvious. At the second gain point, a switch activates the second base ISO, and the image is actually cleaner than the ISO directly below it. As the ISO is increased from the second gain, it becomes “noisier” because the brightness is being turned up, making the digital noise more obvious. You could photograph at just those two ISOs, and using software increase the brightness, and the results will be the same as increasing the ISO in-camera. Clear as mud?

Another point worth mentioning is that Dynamic Range (DR) and D-Range Priority (DR-P) settings are ISO-dependent. In order to use DR400 or DR-P Strong, the minimum ISO required is ISO 800 on X-Trans III and older, ISO 640 on X-Trans IV, and ISO 500 on X-Trans V. For DR200 or DR-P Weak, the minimum ISOs are 400, 320, and 250, respectively. DR200 and DR400 are unavailable at the extended ISOs. This illustrates another point of confusion: while the maximum dynamic range (range of details between deep shadow and bright highlight) for DR100 is at base ISO, the maximum dynamic range in general is at the second gain point with the camera set to DR400 or DR-P Strong. Confusing, right?

*Fujifilm X-T50 – ISO 51200 – Nostalgic Neg. film simulation*

The old rule of thumb for ISO was to keep it as low as possible, and only increase it when necessary. I think that advice is a little outdated. Fujifilm cameras produce clean results that are very difficult to distinguish from each other at and below the second gain point, and are still pretty clean at and below ISO 1600. Above ISO 1600 the noise becomes more obvious, and it’s up to each person to determine just how high is too high, how much noise is too much noise. Generally speaking, on X-Trans III and newer cameras, I personally find that color photographs are good up to ISO 6400 and black-and-white up to ISO 12800. There are, of course, exceptions to this. You might desire the gritty aesthetic produced by using ultra-high ISOs. Each person’s tastes are different.

Because (for the most part) ISO isn’t all that important, I like to let the camera choose it for me with Auto-ISO. This works with either the Aperture or Shutter set to “A” (Aperture-Priority or Shutter-Priority). In Auto-ISO, the camera will choose the lowest ISO possible, and only increase it when necessary. You can choose the top and bottom ISO values, and the minimum shutter speed. It works really well most of the time. Also, like aperture and shutter, there are full stops (ISO 200, 400, 800 etc.) and intermediate third stops (ISO 250, 320, 500, 640, etc.).

Unless you desire a “grainy” photo, you want to keep the ISO low (however, no lower than the minimum for the Dynamic Range setting used). Find the maximum ISO that you are comfortable with, and set that as the top value of your Auto-ISO (basically, you can set-and-forget). I think a lot of people worry too much about ISO and digital noise—I invite you to try a higher ISO than you might otherwise set as the maximum, as you might find it to be more useful than you previously thought. For the cleanest photographs, keep the ISO low, no higher than the second gain point for your camera.

Fujifilm X-E5 should have the Combo Shutter/ISO Dial

Posted on September 7, 2024 by Ritchie Roesch

Fujirumors posted a poll today asking whether people would prefer the (someday upcoming) Fujifilm X-E5 to have the same Shutter Knob as the X-E4, or replace the Shutter Knob with a Film Dial, or use a Shutter/ISO combo Knob like the X100/X-Pro cameras. As of this writing, a little over 70% would prefer the Shutter/ISO Knob, according to the poll.

Way back in March of 2021 when the X-E4 was brand-new, I said “It would have been a nice touch if Fujifilm had included an ISO ring around the shutter knob.” It should not surprise anyone that my vote is for the Shutter/ISO combo. In my opinion, if the X-E4 had had that combo Knob, had kept the M/C/S switch, and had kept the rear Command Dial, the camera would have been pretty much perfect. I understand that the Shutter/ISO combo Knob is much more complicated and more expensive, but it would be worthwhile to include it on X-E series cameras, in my opinion.

There’s a vocal group of people who didn’t like the X-E4, but prefer the X-E3 instead, and want the X-E5 to be more similar to the X-E3 than the X-E4. That’s because the X-E4 was slimmed down with a minimalistic approach, but perhaps just a bit too minimalistic. It’s completely understandable that not everyone appreciated it. The reason why the X-E5 is much more likely to have more in common with the X-E4 than the X-E3 is simple: the Fujifilm X-E3 did not meet sales expectations, while the X-E4 exceeded them. Fujifilm had to steeply discount the already affordable X-E3 just to clear the warehouse, and even then had trouble selling them (the X-E3 could be found rather easily a year after it was discontinued, and for a discount). The X-E4 was difficult to find in-stock throughout its production life, and had months-long backorder lists when it was suddenly discontinued, presumably because Fujifilm ran out of parts and couldn’t secure enough to justify keeping the assembly line open. Now, the X-E4 sells for a few hundred more used than it did brand-new. I’m not saying that the X-E3 is a lesser camera, only that Fujifilm had trouble selling it and had trouble meeting the demand of its successor, so it is logical that they’d follow the formula that worked well for sales.

The less that Fujifilm changes from the X-E4, the better in my opinion. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Give it the X Processor 5, an improved EVF, the M/C/S switch, rear Command Dial, and that combination Shutter/ISO Knob, and you’ve got a really compelling camera. But, who knows, Fujifilm might do a complete overhaul. I have no idea.

While I actually really like the Film Dial on the Fujifilm X-T50, and I found a way to make it work quite well, I would not replace the Shutter or Exposure Compensation Knobs with it. That just doesn’t make any sense. If Fujifilm really wants to include the Film Dial on the X-E5, it would need to be an additional feature, and not a replacement of something already existing. Maybe similar to how Leica integrated the ISO Dial into the M11?

It will be interesting to see how Fujifilm evolves the X-E line. It’s much beloved by those who have owned them, but always on the chopping block, it seems. Apparently it’s not mainstream enough to have a secure spot in the X-series lineup, but the passionate fanbase prevents Fujifilm from axing it. If the X-E5 existed today, it would sell like hotcakes; heck, if the X-E4 was still being manufactured, it would be selling like hotcakes right now. Whenever the X-E5 is eventually released, perhaps next year, it will likely do very well for Fujifilm. But, I do think it’s important to strike while the iron is hot, and it’s hot at this very moment—so the sooner the better.

ISO 51200 — Why?!? — Or, is it actually useful?

Posted on July 31, 2024 by Ritchie Roesch

*Fujifilm X-T50 – ISO 51200 – Nostalgic Negative*

Today’s digital cameras are exceptionally good at high ISO. For those unaware, ISO can be understood as a measurement of the sensitivity of a digital sensor or film emulsion to light. The more sensitive, the more grainy or noisy, which degrades the image quality. My question is: why do our Fujifilm X-series models even have ISO 51200? Who would ever use it?

I remember way back in the film days that ISO 400 was considered to be “high ISO”—that’s what the “H” stands for in Fujicolor PRO 400H, actually. ISO 800 was largely used only if you really had to (or for the novice that didn’t know any better—Kodak made a lot of sales of ISO 800 and ISO 1000 film back in the day marketed specifically to the uninformed). ISO 1600 was basically for emergency situations. ISO 3200—the upper limit—was for the truly brave. The higher ISOs were more acceptable (and more widely used) for B&W than color, where the grittiness could be used artistically. Still, the rule of thumb back then was to always use the lowest ISO that you thought you could get away with.

Nowadays, with modern gear, I use ISO 800 without even batting an eye. ISO 1600 is more like how ISO 400 was back them—perfectly usable, but the high-ISO limit for some. ISO 3200 on my Fujifilm cameras is actually much more usable than ISO 800 film ever was—ISO 6400 is probably a closer parallel to ISO 800 film, yet cleaner.

*Fujifilm X-T30 – ISO 25600 – Ilford HP5 Plus 400 Push Process Recipe*

For color photography, ISO 6400 is often my upper limit, but sometimes I’ll use ISO 12800, like with the GAF 500 Recipe. For B&W, ISO 12800 is often my upper limit; however, there are times when I’ve used ISO 25600 or (more rarely) ISO 51200, like with the Ilford HP5 Plus 400 Push-Process Recipe. I feel like ISO 25600 is probably the closest equivalent on Fujifilm X cameras to ISO 3200 with film.

The fact that I use ISO 6400 and sometimes ISO 12800 (particularly for B&W) without being too concerned about the quality is mind blowing. Even going back just 15 years… I remember accidentally shooting at ISO 1600 on my first DSLR, and the pictures were essentially ruined by it. ISO 800 was pretty much the upper limit for that camera before the image quality degraded too much. Some people probably don’t realize just how good their Fujifilm cameras are at high ISO photography.

Several people have told me that they avoid Film Simulation Recipes that use DR400 because the Dynamic Range settings are ISO-dependent, and DR400 requires a higher ISO than they are comfortable using. Everyone has their own tastes and preferences, but I would encourage anyone who is afraid to try higher ISOs to just give it a try and see what you discover. Don’t be afraid to bump it up a little.

*Fujifilm X-T5 – ISO 25600 — Ilford HP5 Plus 400 Push Process Recipe*

On Fujifilm models that don’t have a dedicated ISO Dial, I will use the front Command Dial to adjust the ISO. The unfortunate aspect of this is that I occasionally bump the Command Dial, which changes the ISO—most often, to ISO 51200, which is the camera’s maximum ISO. I usually catch it right away, but sometimes it’s not until after a few exposures.

Whenever this happens, I wonder why Fujifilm even has ISO 51200. Why not top it out at ISO 25600? While ISO 25600 isn’t especially useful for color photography, it can be good for gritty B&W. ISO 51200 is marginal even for gritty B&W, and is pretty much unusable for color. And who needs ISO 51200 anyway? Certainly the situations are extremely rare where ISO 12800 is too low, let alone ISO 25600.

Just recently, though, I had a change of heart. Actually, I had an epiphany: ISO 51200 on Fujifilm is a lot like Kodak Kodacolor VR 1000 film. When Kodak released that emulsion in the early 1980’s, it was the highest ISO color film available. However, the pictures were quite grainy and textured, and the film was shunned by most “serious” photographers at the time (and discontinued after just four years). Nowadays, there are actually some people who search out the film (which has long since expired), and shoot it for its aesthetic. Instead, they could simply use ISO 51200 on a Fujifilm camera and get similar results. You won’t want to print very large, but for web use or small prints, it’s surprisingly fine.

Below are some pictures that I captured recently using ISO 51200 on a Fujifilm X-T50. It began as an accident, but then I did it on purpose. The “Recipe” is a modification of an upcoming Film Simulation Recipe that I’ve been working on. Most of the pictures below are the Nostalgic Neg. film simulation, and one is Eterna. Those two film sims seem to be the best for ultra high ISO color photography.

This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.

Fujifilm X-T50 in black:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Wex, Nuzira
Fujifilm X-T50 in silver:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Wex, Nuzira
Fujifilm X-T50 in charcoal:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Wex

Creative Collective 055: Serendipity of Accidental Noise

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Ritchie Roesch

*Dark Cloud Over The Dark Mountain* – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – Ilford HP5 Plus 400 Push Process Recipe – ISO 25600

Most people don’t use ultra-high ISOs like 25600 on their Fujifilm cameras. But maybe it’s underutilized? Perhaps it’s not appreciated nearly as much as it should be. While I have utilized ISO 25600 and higher on purpose in the past, a couple of recent accidental uses of this ultra-high ISO has made me pause and reconsider if I should be using it more often than I do.

So let’s take a look at some ultra-high ISOs!

Pal2Tech Film Simulation High-ISO Video

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Ritchie Roesch

Pal2Tech posted a video today discussing the noise performance of various film simulations when using high-ISO photography on Fujifilm cameras. I like the videos from this channel, as they’re always entertaining and educational. I’ve learned several things myself, so I definitely recommend following him if you don’t already.

I wanted to mention this particular video (which you’ll find above) specifically because I think it misses the point on high-ISO photography. Or several points, really. I do still recommend watching it—I found it interesting, personally—and I appreciate the effort put into it. But I want to add my own commentary, so here we go!

The first point that’s missed is that Fujifilm’s digital noise doesn’t look like typical noise from digital cameras. Fujifilm’s programming makes it appear more organic, a little more film-grain-like, and much less hideous than that from other brands. So having some noise in an image isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Digital noise can actually be more than just “not bad” but can actually be a positive thing, and you might be missing out by avoiding it.

Which brings me to point two: in the digital age we’re too often striving for “perfect” images with its squeaky-clean aesthetics. In my article No Edit Photography: 7 Tips To Get The Film Look From Your Digital Photos, I stated, “Perfect pictures can be perfectly boring.” And, “Creativity is rarely born out of perfectionism.” Avoiding digital noise is ok, I suppose, but never at the expense of things that are more important.

Point number three (for those keeping track) is that digital noise (from Fujifilm cameras) can actually make your digital pictures appear less digital and more film-like (that’s tip six in that article I linked to in the last paragraph). In fact, my Ilford HP5 Plus Push Process film simulation recipe purposefully uses a minimum ISO of 25600, and it looks shockingly good when printed! If you’re striving for “perfection” and you are pixel-peeping at 300% magnification, noise might bother you a little. Otherwise, the “imperfection” of it can be incorporated beautifully into your art.

The simple takeaway is this: don’t be afraid to get a little noisy. Don’t worry so much about squeaky-clean pictures, but embrace the messiness of photography, and worry about the things that actually matter (like storytelling). Don’t be afraid to shoot at high-ISOs. Certainly if you are limiting yourself to below ISO 3200 for Acros, Classic Negative, and Eterna Bleach Bypass, you are missing out on some lovely pictures (you’ll find an example of each below). It’s ok to pixel-peep, but just know that nobody outside of some photographers care what an image looks like when inspected so closely, and most people who view your pictures won’t be impressed or unimpressed by how an image looks at that magnification, because they only care if the picture as a whole speaks to them in some way.

Fujifilm X-E4 – Eterna Bleach Bypass – ISO 5000

Fujifilm X-E4 – Classic Negative – ISO 5000

ISO — How High Can You Go?

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Ritchie Roesch

*Dark Cloud Over The Dark Mountain* – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X-T30 – “Ilford HP5 Plus Push Process” film simulation recipe — ISO 25600

When it comes to ISO, how high can you go? On your Fujifilm camera, how high is too high? 3200? 6400? 12800? 25600?

This article will explore the topic of high-ISO photography on Fujifilm X cameras. Can you bump it more than you think? Will it look good printed? How does it compare to film? Those are the questions that this post intends to answer.

Note: this was a Creative Collective article, but now it’s available to everyone.

This all started by accident. Two accidents, actually. The first one was back in 2019 when I mistakenly chose ISO 51200 instead of Auto-3 ISO on my Fujifilm X-T30, which happily turned into the Ilford HP5 Plus Push Process film simulation recipe. The second accident was similar, and happened in July of this year. I have the front wheel of my Fujifilm X-E4 set to adjust the ISO (because the camera doesn’t have an ISO dial), and I mistakenly pushed it and unknowingly set the ISO to 51200! I snapped what I thought could be a wonderful picture while at an aquarium. A couple of minutes later I realized my mistake—and I initially panicked, because the opportunity came and went. Then I remembered the Ilford HP5 Plus Push Process recipe, which requires a minimum ISO of 25600, and I knew that I could RAW reprocess in-camera the picture with that recipe, which is what I did (except that I set Grain to Weak and Small instead of Strong). You can see the photograph below:

*Fujifilm X-E4 at ISO 51200 — click here for bigger*

The results, honestly, are pretty darn impressive. Seriously, this is ISO 51200! I remember back in the film days that ISO 400 was considered to be high-ISO—that’s what the “H” stands for in Fujicolor Pro 400H. ISO 3200 was crazy high, and only for extreme situations or the truly brave. The fact that I use ISO 3200 on any of my Fujifilm cameras—going back to X-Trans I—and don’t even think twice about it is a testament to the advancements of digital technology. It’s truly amazing! And it’s not uncommon to go even higher than that. But would my ISO 51200 picture look good enough when viewed larger than internet and social media sizes? Would it look good printed?

With color photography, on X-Trans I & II cameras, I like the results up to ISO 3200. On X-Trans III cameras I like the results all the way to ISO 12800. On X-Trans IV cameras I like the results up to ISO 6400. Black-and-white is another story, though. On X-Trans I & II I like the results up to ISO 6400. On X-Trans III & IV, you can max it out. While some digital cameras are known for their high-ISO performance, and ISO 51200 is no big deal, going that high on an APS-C sized sensor is nothing short of incredible! Fujifilm does not get enough press for just how miraculous this is.

Wanting to see how the aquarium picture would look printed, I sent it off to the lab. I also printed the Dark Cloud Over The Dark Mountain photo because it was captured at ISO 25600 and I was curious how it would compare to ISO 51200. For the fun of it, I also printed a picture captured on actual Ilford Delta 3200 film. I had the lab make 8″ x 12″ prints of all three images.

*Actual Ilford Delta 3200 film — click here for bigger*

I captured some images of the prints, which you’ll find below. It’s hard to tell anything by looking at them on the web, so I want to talk about them. First, all three pictures appear good printed at the 8″ x 12″ size. The lab seemed to print the aquarium picture a little darker than I had expected—by maybe 1/3 stop. That was disappointing, but otherwise the quality was good, and I wouldn’t have any issues displaying these on my wall. I think all three could have been printed larger. I suspected that 8″ x 12″ would be the largest that I’d want to print an ISO 51200 exposure before it would degrade, but after examining the print, I do believe it would look fine even larger, perhaps 12″ x 18″. The ISO 25600 exposure could probably do well printed at 16″ x 24″ and maybe larger.

The obvious thing about the ISO 3200 film picture is the size of the grain. It’s huge! This was 35mm film, so the grain from Ilford Delta 3200 in 120 format wouldn’t appear quite so large. This brings up a point about Fujifilm’s faux grain and the digital noise, which is a little film-grain-like on Fujifilm cameras, that I’d like to mention: the size of it is more like medium-format than 35mm. This isn’t universally true—low-ISO films often had extremely fine grain. Generally speaking, however, even with Grain set to Strong and Large at a high-ISO, it’s not going to be anywhere close to the size of 35mm ISO 3200 grain, and not ISO 1600, either, and maybe not even ISO 800. Medium-format film is much larger, so the magnification isn’t nearly so much when printed, and the grain appears finer, and a lot of times I think Fujifilm cameras produce a grain-look that’s more similar to that.

Let’s look at the prints!

Like I said, there’s not much that you can really tell by looking at these pictures of the prints. It’s something you have to view for yourself. If you’ve captured an ultra-high-ISO picture on your Fujifilm camera, try printing it, so that you can see for yourself the surprisingly good quality. I think you’ll be shocked at just how usable these supposedly unusable ISOs actually are.

And that’s the point of this article. Is ISO 51200 or even ISO 25600 ideal? No. If you are after optimal image quality, my advice is to keep the ISO at and below ISO 800. But if a little graininess doesn’t bother you, and you’re not planning on pixel-peeping or printing posters, the photographs captured at these ridiculously high ISOs are sufficiently good. In fact, their graininess and softness actually gives them a more analog-like feel.

While I made the mistake of accidentally shooting at ISO 51200, you might try using high-ISOs on purpose, especially for black-and-white photography. If you are not comfortable going as high as these pictures, start off with something higher than you normally go. For example, if ISO 1600 is your typical max, try ISO 3200. If ISO 3200 is your typical max, go to ISO 6400. And so on. How high can you go? The sky is the limit! Actually, ISO 51200 is the limit, because that’s as high as the camera will go, but you get the point.

When Does ISO Matter?

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Ritchie Roesch

Modern cameras have amazing high-ISO capabilities. Back in the days of film, ISO 400 was considered high-ISO by many (including Fujifilm, who designated all their ISO 400 films with the letter “H” for high-speed), and ISO 1600 was ultra-high-ISO, used only out of absolute necessity or by the brave who wanted a certain gritty look. Nowadays some photographers don’t even think of ISO 1600 as a high-ISO setting, and don’t think twice about using it. For many, high-ISO doesn’t really begin until ISO 3200, and ultra-high-ISO doesn’t begin until you go above ISO 6400. It’s really unbelievable!

The real question is this: when does ISO matter? Since modern cameras make such good-looking images at incredibly high sensitivities, when should you start considering image quality degradation? When is a certain ISO setting too high? That’s what I want to answer.

Of course, since this is the Fuji X Weekly blog, I’m discussing Fujifilm X cameras, specifically X-Trans III. This won’t apply 100% to other cameras, but it’s still relevant to some degree no matter the camera make and model. If you are reading this with another camera in mind, take everything said here with a small grain of salt.

I did a little experiment just to better understand all of this ISO stuff. I already knew the answer from experience even before beginning the experiment, but I wanted to see if my instincts matched reality. I captured a few sets of identical pictures, all straight-out-of-camera JPEGs from a Fujifilm X-T20, using ISO 400 and ISO 6400. I made sure that all of the settings were the same between the identical pictures except for ISO and shutter speed. This isn’t 100% scientific, but it’s a controlled-enough test to draw some conclusions about ISO capabilities.

Here are the original pictures:

ISO 400 – my Ektachrome 100SW recipe

ISO 6400

ISO 400 – my Velvia recipe

ISO 6400

ISO 400 – my Acros Push-Process recipe

ISO 6400

There’s not a lot that can be learned by looking at the above images, other than when viewing images on the web the ISO doesn’t matter whatsoever because it’s incredibly difficult to spot the differences even when comparing side-by-side. In real life nobody does side-by-side comparisons, that’s pretty much an internet-only thing, so it would be impossible to tell if a picture was captured using a low-ISO or high-ISO just by looking at it on your screen. We need to look much closer to really gain anything from this test. Below are some crops from the above images.

ISO 400

ISO 6400

ISO 400

ISO 6400

ISO 400

ISO 6400

If you study the color crops carefully, you’ll notice that the ISO 400 images are cleaner, sharper and have just a hair more dynamic range, but the differences are quite small and subtle. You really have to look carefully to find them. With the black-and-white image, the differences are even less obvious, and I actually prefer the ISO 6400 version, as it seems to have a more film-like quality. Looking at the crops clarifies things a little, but what kind of conclusions can we really draw?

My opinion with regards to color photography and ISO is this: if I’m printing smaller than 16″ x 24″ or displaying the pictures on the web, I don’t find any practical difference between base ISO and ISO 6400. Even ISO 12800 can be acceptable, especially if I’m not going to print the picture. If I’m going to print 16″ x 24″ or larger, a lower ISO is better, preferably less than ISO 3200, but it’s not a big deal to use up to ISO 6400. The ISO that I select does not make a huge difference to the outcome of the image, so I don’t worry a whole lot about it. Put more simply, if I print large, it’s preferable but not critical that I use a lower ISO, and if I don’t print large it doesn’t matter at all.

My opinion with regards to black-and-white photography and ISO is this: the ISO doesn’t matter much at all no matter how large I’m printing, and I often prefer (just by a little) high-ISO over low-ISO because it looks more analog. I freely use without hesitation any ISO up to 12800. Thanks to the Acros film simulation, Fujifilm X cameras are some of the best monochrome cameras on the market, and with that film simulation, often times the higher the ISO the better.

These are, of course, my opinions, and not everyone is going to agree with them, and that’s perfectly alright. Find what works for you. Use a higher ISO or lower ISO if that’s what you need for your pictures, because, after all, they’re your pictures. I’m not here to judge your camera setting choices, only to offer mine, which I’m hoping is helpful to some of you. I hope that this article makes sense and clarifies some things regarding high-ISO on Fujifilm X cameras.

Below is a video that I made on this topic:

My Fujifilm X100F Auto-ISO Settings

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Ritchie Roesch

Fortuity – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X100F

A reader of Fuji X Weekly asked me what my Auto-ISO settings are for the Fujifilm X100F. I realized that I’ve never fully covered this in a post. I’ve mentioned some things here and there regarding Auto-ISO, but never laid it out in one place. So I’ll explain it here and now.

Back in the days of film or in the early days of digital, ISO was critical because things didn’t look particularly good past a certain point. I remember when I considered ISO 400 to be high ISO. I remember that my first DSLR, which I purchased about a decade ago, was only capable of good results to ISO 1600, and any ISO above that looked unpleasant. Nowadays cameras are capable of great results at ridiculously high ISOs. The X100F is good to ISO 12800, which is amazing to me!

Auto-ISO is a great feature. Most cameras have it, and the X100F is no exception. You can set it and forget it. You can worry about more important things since you know you’ll get good results no matter what the camera chooses.

Most of the time I operate the X100F in aperture-priority mode, which means that I set the aperture but let the camera choose the ISO and shutter speed. It’s all situational, and I don’t always do things the same way, but the majority of the time this is what I do because the aperture is what I typically want control of.

Kiki – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F

For the Auto-ISO parameters I set the minimum ISO to ISO 200 and the maximum to ISO 6400. Why not ISO 12800? Because if I use the digital teleconverter, ISO 12800 doesn’t look so great. I can always manually set the ISO to 12800 if I need it with a quick and short twist of a ring on top of the camera.

I also set the minimum shutter speed to 1/125. The camera will only choose a slower shutter speed than 1/125 if it reaches ISO 6400 but needs more light for a correct exposure. I find this to be a good shutter speed for most situations. If nothing in the scene is moving and you use a good technique for holding the camera, it’s possible to get sharp pictures handheld with a shutter speed as slow as 1/15. Sometimes if the subject is quickly moving, 1/125 isn’t fast enough, and 1/250 or even 1/500 might be more appropriate. It’s pretty easy to adjust the shutter to be either slower or faster with a turn of the shutter knob on top of the camera from “A” to whatever is needed.

Auto-ISO is a feature that I rely on extensively, but from time-to-time I manually adjust the ISO and/or the shutter speed whenever appropriate. The auto features work well on this camera, and manual adjustments are simple when necessary because the X100F is well designed for quick on-the-fly adjustments.

To summarize, on the X100F I use Auto-ISO with ISO 200 set as the minimum and ISO 6400 set as the maximum, and with the minimum shutter speed set to 1/125. But I look at each situation and decide if these settings will work, and, if not, I make manual adjustments. I hope this helps.

Fujifilm X100F – Digital Teleconverter + High ISO

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Ritchie Roesch

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I talked about how the Digital Teleconverter on the Fujifilm X100F adds versatility, and I talked about how great the camera does at high-ISO photography, but I never talked about how these two things do together. I’ve noticed some things about using the Digital Teleconverter at high-ISOs that I’d like to discuss.

Does the Digital Teleconverter limit how high you can go on your ISO settings? The answer is simple: yes. But it’s actually a little bit more complicated than that, so let me dig a little deeper.

I’ve already discussed exactly what the Digital Teleconverter is, and I don’t want to spend much time rehashing that, but basically it’s a digital zoom (zoom-by-cropping) that receives some smart upscaling and sharpening to make the file appear to have more resolution than it actually does. It’s a software trick that allows you to print larger than you might otherwise be able to. You can do this yourself with software on your computer, or you can let the X100F do it for you (which is the Digital Teleconverter).

Kepler Cascades – Yellowstone NP, WY – Fujifilm X100F 75mm Digital Teleconverter @ ISO 8000

I’ve also discussed that the practical high-ISO limit on the Fujifilm X100F is 12800, which is very high. Yes, some cameras with larger sensors can go a stop or so higher, but ISO 12800 is way up there, much higher than I ever imagined ISOs going even just 10 years ago.

When using the 50mm Digital Teleconverter (16 megapixel crop) setting, ISO 12800 doesn’t look all that usable. If you want soft and grainy looking black-and-white images, you can get away with ISO 12800 using Acros and the 50mm option. I’ve produced acceptable results this way. However, for the most part, ISO 6400 seems like a more practical high-ISO limit for this situation.

Putting Away The Reins – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100F – 75mm Digital Teleconverter @ ISO 12800

When using the 75mm Digital Teleconverter (12 megapixel crop) setting, anything above ISO 6400 doesn’t look all that usable. ISO 6400 looks alright for soft and grainy looking black-and-white images using Acros. For the most part, ISO 3200 seems like a more practical high-ISO limit for the 75mm Digital Teleconverter.

You might have noticed a trend, and that’s a one stop loss for the 50mm option and a two stop loss for the 75mm option. It’s not that the camera is performing worse, it’s that you are looking much more closely at the exposure (because of the crop). You can more clearly see the degradation in image quality that happens at the higher ISOs. It’s kind of like pixel-peeping–you don’t notice certain things when viewing normally, but they become obvious when you zoom in.

If you use the Digital Teleconverter along with auto-ISO, pay careful attention to the ISO that the camera is selecting. You may need to set it yourself (very quickly and easily done via the knob on top of the camera). My recommendation is to go no higher than ISO 6400 with the 50mm setting and no more than ISO 3200 with the 75mm setting. You can get away with higher sometimes (especially if it’s only for web use), but for best results keep the ISO a little lower than you otherwise would.

Fujifilm X100F & High ISO

Posted on September 13, 2017 by Ritchie Roesch

Bowling Shoes – Kaysville, UT – Fujifilm X100F @ ISO 12800

When it comes to high-ISO performance, digital camera technology has taken photography to a place that was impossible or nearly impossible not very many years ago. What used to be a fast film-speed is now just another ISO that looks like all the others.

I started photography in the age of film, and I studied film photography in college. It makes me sound old, but I remember when my high-ISO option was ISO 400 film! And if I was feeling daring, I might push-process that film to ISO 800 or (gasp!) ISO 1600 on a rare occasion. Only a couple of times did I dare try ISO 3200, and the results were super grainy.

Departures – SLC, UT – Fujifilm X100F @ ISO 12800

Nowadays ISO 400 seems closer to base-ISO than what most would consider high-ISO. Even ISO 1600 doesn’t seem all that high. Photographers routinely use ISO 3200 and higher. If you told me 20 years ago that this was going to be the case in the future, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

All of this is truly amazing, and I wanted to lay out this context, because it’s easy to forget just how far this has come. Any camera that is capable of great results at ISO 1600 and higher is something that we should marvel at! And pretty much all cameras available today are capable of this.

Tabasco – Tooele, UT – Fujifilm X100F @ ISO 10000

The Fujifilm X100F, which has a 24-megapixel APS-C X-Trans III sensor, is capable of producing excellent high-ISO results well above ISO 1600. One reason for this is that there are more green sensor elements than a traditional Bayer sensor (55% vs. 50%). Luminosity information comes from green (while red and blue are for color information), so X-Trans cameras have a little more high-ISO headroom.

I have found that there is no practical discernible difference between ISO 200 (which is the base ISO) and ISO 800 on the X100F. There is a small increase in digital noise with each ISO stop increase above ISO 800; however, ISO 3200 is difficult to distinguish from ISO 800 (or ISO 200 for that matter) without a side-by-side comparison. ISO 6400 still appears great, but by this point the noise has become a little more obvious. ISO 12800 is a bit on the noisy side and noticeably softer, but it still looks good and I have no hesitation using it when I need to.

Sitting & Relaxing – South Weber, UT – Fujifilm X100F @ ISO 12800

Interestingly enough, ISO 12800 on the X100F reminds me a lot of ISO 1600 on my first DSLR from a decade ago. One of the biggest improvements in digital camera technology over the last ten years has been high-ISO performance.

There are cameras that go well beyond the ISO 12800 practical high-ISO limit of the X100F. But the high-ISO performance of this Fujifilm camera is truly amazing, all things considered. Ten years ago it would have seemed impractical and twenty years ago it would have seemed impossible. Yet here we are today, with good looking ISO 12800 right at our fingertips!

48 – Farmington, UT – Fujifilm X100F @ ISO 12800

I’m sure camera makers will continue to improve high-ISO performance throughout the coming years and decades. People will scoff that you could “only” get good results through ISO 12800 on the X100F. So what? You use what you have to the best of your ability and don’t worry about the rest. Do you think it really matters in the long run if you can’t shoot at ISO 25600 or ISO 51200? I’m personally happy to get good results above ISO 400, which wasn’t always an easy task in the days of film photography.

The photographs in this article were captured using the Fujifilm X100F. All are out-of-camera JPEGs using Acros or Classic Chrome. The camera can add faux film grain (Acros does this automatically, while Classic Chrome is either toggled on or off), and all of these have grain in additional to the digital noise.

The Tortilla Maker – Layton, UT – Fujifilm X100F @ ISO 12800