high iso in a SLR

Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 60

I was wondering if in general, SLR's will take a cleaner photo at a higher iso than an advanced point and shoot camera and if so, how much better? I'm comparing like my canon S3 vs a Nikon D80.

Premium Member Joined: 02 Apr 2005 Posts: 2020

Yes. The sensor size alone in DSLRs like the D80 will result in lower noise. I've seen quite a few P&S cameras that show considerable noise at 200 ISO. My D70 shows virtually zero noise at 400 ISO, and quite acceptable noise at 800 ISO (Given reasonable lighting circumstances..)

Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:05 am

95whtgst,

It's a matter of electronics/physics. You probably already know that a larger aperture gathers more light faster than a smaller one. Well with small sensors the individual sensor 'pixels' tend to be smaller than larger sensors pixel sites. The larger 'pixel' size allows more light to strike it and the more ligh/photonst you have the more accurately you can convert to a voltage that represents what the sensor sees. Also with larger sensors you can locate them further apart which helps electronically with the problem of one sensor pixel emitting noise and influencing the neighboring sensor pixel. In electronics if you turn up an amp it's tolerance goes up and it becomes more inaccurate. Below I have listed a link to dpreview comparing the two cameras you have in question. Notice that the sensor on the S3 is approximately 5.76mm X 4.29mm and the sensor for the Nikon D80 is 23.6mm x 15.8mm. A Very large difference. Electronically it is much easier to design a more accurate amp when there is this much more space to do it in. You can take a lot more measures to insure accuracy.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/compare_post.asp?method=sidebyside&cameras=canon_s3is%2Cnikon_d80&show=all

Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Posts: 60

awesome! thanks for the link :)