Photo by  Ib Jensen. Olympus OMD E-M1, lens 12-100mm (FF: 24-200mm) 1/125 sec, Iso 2500, Aperture 4.0, 34mm (FF: 68mm).

On photo tour in Copenhagen with my Olympus 12-100mm lens.

Now the ride has come to test my 12-100mm (FF: 24-200mm) lens in low light.
Biggest aperture is here 4.0. Is this enough for low light photography? The lens has built-in image stabilization that works with the image stabilization on my Olympus OMD E-M1 body. Exciting.
The test is part of my study of whether to invest in a fixed lens with aperture 1.2 or 1.8 or I can use the lenses I have. I take all the pictures handheld and I have to try to rate a good combination of aperture, iso and shutter speed that gives satisfactory results in the dark hours.
All images are taken with aperture 4.0 which means a slightly greater depth of field than on larger apertures. It will probably be an advantage on many subjects.
After analyzing the images on my PC screen, I have found that a shutter speed of 1/8 sec. does not produce a satisfactory result as most images are not sufficiently sharp, even if I’m using serial recordings, the rate is very low. A shutter speed of 1/15 sec. on the other hand, provides sharp, satisfactory images in most cases. But there are still pictures that are too blurred. A shutter speed of 1/15 can be combined with a reasonably low ISO value.
A breath option I used was to use ISO 3200 and then take approx. 10 shots with a short shutter speed and stack them in Photoshop and thus remove the noise. The results of this method were indeed very satisfactory. So I will also try this method with ISO 6400-25600.
In any case, I now know that I will use this method in the future if the shutter speed is longer than 1/15 sec. with iso 100-1600.
So a preliminary conclusion must be that I can use my current lens 12-100 (FF: 24-200mm) for my nightlight photo project. An additional advantage of aperture 4.0 rather than aperture 2.8 or 1.2 is the greater depth of field.

Ib jensen