Extended range ISO

[sweeney]

Can someone please explain why cameras, such as the Canon 30D in my case, have

"extended range" ISO sensitivities that you have to go into the menus to enable?

Why aren't they just selectable like all the other ranges. Why do I have to

enable ISO 3200 why cant I just select it like 1600?

[tommyinca]

I think it may have to do with the three alphabet called ISO. It is an international standard, not just marketing. If you do it via reduction of something else, better call it H or L and not ISO. Or else ISO may go after the OEM.

[eric merrill]

By having the feature, they can claim a bullet point for their marketing brochures.

 

By not having the options available as a default, they don't irritate their customers. I'd be really unhappy if I couldn't leave the 50/3200 speeds disabled. I want to be able to quickly flip to either 100 or 1600 and not have to worry about the fake sensitivities.

 

 

Eric

[steve_solomon2]

Mark, I think it's because these particular ISO values are not optimized in terms of overall quality, noise characteristics, dynamic range, etc. Therefore, the manufacturer knows that you won't get the best quality when selecting them, but as someone else said, for reasons of "marketing", they make them available, if not easily.

Good luck!

~Steve

[colinsouthern]

It's because they're not true ISO settings they simpy take the nearest true ISO setting and then 1/2 (L) or double (H) the data.