Equivalent ISO's?

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Snake Man

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Andy
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The first thing I noticed when I got the D300 was that it didn't have ISO100. Instead it has L1.0, the equivalent of ISO100. But what are these settings? I thought all ISO setting on DSLRS were equivalent of film ISO's?
 
There are some cameras now whos sensor has a native iso above 100.
That means the iso that the sensor has the best performance with noise and dynamic range.

I don't know much about the D300 but usually when a camera manufacturer puts an option for an iso setting like that it means theres some sort of performance penalty for it.

Usually it's an emulated iso setting with lower dynamic range with the same or sometimes actually worse noise pattern as the iso above it.
 
The D300 has an indicated base sensitivity of ISO 200, sensitivities below this (ISO 160, 125 and 100) are indicated as L0.3, L0.7 and L1.0 respectively. The same is true above ISO 3200 with ISO 6400 indicated as H1.0. the compromise at ISO 100 is highlight range which falls just over two thirds of a stop (0.7 EV) short of the highlight range seen from ISO 200 upwards.
 
the equivalents are 100, 120 and 160 iso if memory serves and you'd only really use them if you had too much light and stopping down wasn't an option really as there does seem to be a slight loss in saturation and contrast but I havent seen any noise as a result. I remember that when the D40x came out it was critiscised for not havng a base ISO at 200, but rather at 100 meaning it was a 'slower' camera... didnt really bother me, but I am glad the D300 base ISO is 200 :)
 
Cheers for the answers. Makes sense now. Always obvious when you know.
 
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