Reviewing Gain

What does the ISO/Gain sensitivity of a camera mean? Why would you want to increase the ISO/Gain of the camera? What happens when you increase the ISO/Gain on a camera?  What are the problems that come into play?

    ISO refers to the sensitivity of the sensor that's receiving the light for your camera. You would want to increase the ISO/Gain when you're filming in low light and need the sensor to be more sensitive to the light, increasing the exposure. The more you increase the ISO/Gain on the camera, the brighter the image will appear. That being said, the increase in sensitivity makes the camera pick up on more digital noise, thus adding this noise into the image. Thus, it is ideal to shoot with low to no gain to prevent this digital noise and try to use other methods to brighten the image through lighting or other settings that impact exposure.