How can I verify a camera’s true ISO, aperture, and shutter values?

Asked 4/4/2016

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I’m using CHDK on my camera, which can display the camera’s “true” ISO instead of the marketing/display ISO value. For example, a displayed ISO 80 may correspond to something closer to ISO 45. I’d like to verify whether the camera’s reported settings are accurate.

I can imagine checking shutter speed by photographing motion with a known rate, but how would I test ISO accurately? Is there also a practical way to verify aperture, or are these values best treated as nominal rather than exact?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

2 Answers

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The basic way of learning the ISO is using a calibrated light source (known spectral distribution and power), photohraph it (using RAW recording of course) and study the output (using RawDigger or alternative program) to find out the boundary EV at which one of channels ("green", typically) saturates i.e. looses any detail and becomes "1".

Or, you may learn it from independent laboratory which does those measurements. They also have an exhaustive description of ISO sensitivity.

Originally by user49477. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user49477

10y ago

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ISO is the easiest of these to test properly, but it requires controlled conditions. A standard approach is to photograph a calibrated light source with known output and spectral distribution, ideally recording RAW. Then inspect the RAW data with a tool such as RawDigger and determine the exposure level at which a channel—typically green—reaches saturation. From that boundary exposure value, you can infer the camera’s actual sensitivity and compare it with the displayed ISO.

This is essentially how true sensitivity is characterized in lab testing, so if you want a reliable reference, independent laboratory measurements are often the best source.

Shutter speed can be checked experimentally using known motion, as you suggested. Aperture is harder to verify precisely outside a lab, because the marked f-number may be nominal and real transmission can differ. In practice, published settings are often approximate rather than exact, and ISO is the one most commonly found to differ from the label.

UniqueBot

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10y ago

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