the future of digital?

[Outdoorsman]

I have been thinking about digital a lot lately, mainly because I'm totally ready to get one but just need to gather the funds. The one thing that really bothers me still is the necessity for ISO settings and apparent noise at higher settings. And this led me to wonder about the future of digital.
I wondered: "When will there be a camera with no ISO settings?" This ISO-less camera would give max resolution (whatever the lowest ISO equivalent would be for the camera- say, 25 or 50) at all ISO settings with no noise, meaning that there would be no need to adjust. You could just dial in whatever aperture/shutter values you want and the camera would adjust automatically and you would never know the difference. The sensitivity of the senosr would still be listed in an ISO range, like 25 to 6400, but with no intermediate steps. There would be no need for manually setting ISO, since all images at all ISOs would be the same.
Imagine never having to switch anything with changing lighting conditions. You could go from shooting a slow shutter with a small aperture to shooting the camera's highest shutter speed with the same small aperture and still have identical images. You could be indoors under low light and walk outside into bright sunlight and not have to change your shutter/aperture.
That would be trick!
Am I dreaming or is this technology on the horizon? What do you guys think?
I realize that current digitals have a setting for an automatically set ISO, but you still have the noise at higher ISOs and a lot of these cameras don't go slower than 50 or 100 ISO equivalent. I wish for one that is like a 50 ISO equivalent at all times.

[another view]

It's already here to some extent - some compact digitals have an auto ISO, or incorporate the ISO setting with shutter speed/aperture when in Program mode, etc. Makes sense, those three variables determine exposure but we never used to be able to adjust the ISO until the roll of film was done. But it's another auto mode and that means it won't always do what you want it to do.

I like having the ability to switch the ISO speed when the light drops, but it would be nice to be able to incorporate the ISO in the auto functions. For example, I shoot concerts occasionally and try to use 800. But sometimes even that doesn't work unless I'm at 1/20 and f1.4. I'd rather bump up to 1600 and get a little smaller aperture and/or shutter speed. Lighting changes by the second some times, and an auto function that would handle that would be nice. Truthfully, in conditions like that I'm shooting film now.

Higher ISO's are getting better all the time; look at the Nikon D70 at 1600 and the new Canons at 3200 - very clean. I wonder how long we'll be calling it an ISO setting because that's a film reference. They do it now because that's what we're familiar with. My Fuji even has a 160 speed like a lot of portrait films (even though most people shoot them at 80 or 100!).

[almo]

I have been thinking about digital a lot lately, mainly because I'm totally ready to get one but just need to gather the funds. The one thing that really bothers me still is the necessity for ISO settings and apparent noise at higher settings. And this led me to wonder about the future of digital.
I wondered: "When will there be a camera with no ISO settings?" This ISO-less camera would give max resolution (whatever the lowest ISO equivalent would be for the camera- say, 25 or 50) at all ISO settings with no noise, meaning that there would be no need to adjust. You could just dial in whatever aperture/shutter values you want and the camera would adjust automatically and you would never know the difference. The sensitivity of the senosr would still be listed in an ISO range, like 25 to 6400, but with no intermediate steps. There would be no need for manually setting ISO, since all images at all ISOs would be the same.
Imagine never having to switch anything with changing lighting conditions. You could go from shooting a slow shutter with a small aperture to shooting the camera's highest shutter speed with the same small aperture and still have identical images. You could be indoors under low light and walk outside into bright sunlight and not have to change your shutter/aperture.
That would be trick!
Am I dreaming or is this technology on the horizon? What do you guys think?
I realize that current digitals have a setting for an automatically set ISO, but you still have the noise at higher ISOs and a lot of these cameras don't go slower than 50 or 100 ISO equivalent. I wish for one that is like a 50 ISO equivalent at all times.

What would be the point of that? As a photographer I want total control. I don't the camera choosing that kinda thing for me. If I did I would just shoot in auto all the time. And besides, I like grain when shooting B&W, so I need higher ISO's with some noise.

I can't imagen giving up that kind of control.

almo

[Paul.S.]

I have to agree with ALMO on this, I never want the complete removal of an ISO setting. I think its great idea for complete automatic shooting and as a setting for those who don't want to bother but to completely remove the option of manualy setting the ISO is foolish. Just my 2 cents...

[Michael Fanelli]

I have to agree with ALMO on this, I never want the complete removal of an ISO setting. I think its great idea for complete automatic shooting and as a setting for those who don't want to bother but to completely remove the option of manualy setting the ISO is foolish. Just my 2 cents...

Same here. The entire point of digital is user control. Why eliminate it? As for noise, digital is already much cleaner than equivalent high speed 35mm film. I'd prefer the emphasis on providing a latitude equal to or greater than print fim.

[Trevor Ash]

I might be wrong, but I think the point he was trying to emphasize is why don't the digital cameras have a "stepless" iso speed. He wasn't just talking about letting the camera pick from 50,100,200,400,etc. He was probably talking about the possibility for the user or the camera to select something like 74.34 for an ISO speed. Some number within a range but on an analog (stepless) scale.

Personally, I'm happy with what we have today and don't think I'd get any real benefit from that kind of control. It could even do more harm than good. New things to learn, etc.