Is ISO invariance really important, should I worry about it or should I buy a new camera that has it because my current one isn’t ISO invariant?
I get asked these questions A LOT because there’s a lot of talk about new camera sensors and ISO invariance on the bigger YouTube photography channels.
If your camera is NOT ISO invariant is it therefore an inferior camera – OF COURSE IT ISN”T!
ISO invariance is becoming something of a ‘buzz-term’ touted by the bigger photography influencers as if it’s the Holy Grail of camera sensor performance, and this is something I find somewhat annoying.
Why?
Because there are plenty of other sensor attributes that are FAR MORE important, such as dynamic range for instance!
The only real advantage of a true ISO invariant sensor is that it would give you a ‘get out of jail free’ card if you screw up your shot by massively under exposing it.
But the necessity for it is easily avoided if only folk would learn how to use their equipment properly in the first place.
Correct exposure is everything in photography, and ISO invariance – for the most part – is just a way of circumventing it!