Extended ISO Range

My Fuji can extend the base ISO of 200 to L100. In your experience does the extended lower ISO have any effects, good or bad, on the final image.

Extended ranges generally have more noise and less dynamic range. They're intended to allow wider apertures or slower shutter speeds.

It means, for whatever reason, that it is outside the optimal range.

 

Noise is more obvious at higher ISO values, amplifying smaller signals.

What about noise or DR at ISOs lower than optimal range?

What about noise or DR at ISOs lower than optimal range?

That's the situation I was thinking of. There are at least two components in noise - thermal (pre gain) and electronic (post gain). In the extended lower range, the gain is reduced but the electronic noise level is roughly the same as at the native gain. I didn't discuss extended high ISO, because it stands to reason that thermal noise would increase with increased overall gain.

Thanks for the clarification. Or, I could just go out and do a text.

You will have to check with Fuji experts, but most cameras which have such an extended ISO feature, when you set the ISO lower than the base ISO for the sensor, the camera then overexposes the image then adjusts in processing to correct the overexposure. The purported result is a reduction in dynamic range, but I have not actually tested that on my current camera (Olympus EM-5). I typically avoid the low ISO setting unless absolutely needed, usually to decrease aperture in bright light.

I'll occasionally use the low setting to get longer shutter speeds and/or a larger aperture, but in general I don't go lower than the base ISO.

 

I try to avoid the high speeds too. I may be wrong, but it's always been my understanding that in their typical implementation, the extended high speeds as done entirely in software. If I'm in a situation where I need them, I've generally had decent enough results by underexposing and then lifting in post. Even relatively primitive CCDs(thinking back to early common commercial cameras like the Nikon D1 and D100) could have their shadows pulled decently, albeit with a pretty serious noise penalty. Of course, back in those days there basically was no highlight recovery-Fuji had an interesting approach in the "Super CCD"-and it worked decently(I still use my FinePix S5 pro some-I posted a photo earlier this evening that I took today under strobes, and the Super CCD handled black objects against a white backdrop admirably, as it always does) but that was the exception rather than the rule. It's worth mentioning that DXOMark list the sensor in the Finepix S3 and S5 at 13.5 stops of DR, which is not far behind the current heavyweights like the Sony A7r series and Nikon D8x0(which are listed at well over 14 stops). In any case, with my D800, and really with all of my "new" CMOS-based cameras, I can often recover 1 stop of overexposure without any issue-something unheard of in the days of CCDs.