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I keep seeing people shoot the Milky Way with their ISO cranked way too high
Last month I was out in Joshua Tree and saw a guy's camera screen glowing white from noise. He had his ISO at 12800 for a 20 second shot. That just kills all the fine dust clouds and star color. I dropped mine to 3200, opened my aperture to f/2.8, and took a 25 second exposure instead. The difference in the raw files was huge, way less grain and more detail. What's the highest ISO you'll push for a tracked shot before it gets messy?
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jackson.matthew2d ago
My old Sony A7III just falls apart past ISO 3200 for tracked shots. The shadows get this ugly green and purple confetti, especially in the dark parts between stars. I'll stack a bunch of lower ISO shots all day to get a clean image. Pushing it higher just means more time fixing garbage in post.
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sageadams2d ago
Wait, 12800 for a tracked shot? That's wild! Even with my tracker I try to keep it under 1600, maybe 2000 if I'm really pushing it. Anything higher and the color noise just wrecks the blues and purples in the nebula for me.
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rowanharris1d ago
That sensor heat buildup is a killer people forget. Even with a tracker, cranking the ISO that high just cooks the data. I'll run a test shot at 6400 to frame up, but for the real stack I never go above 1600 on my old camera body. The extra exposure time is worth it to keep the noise floor down, don't you find?
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