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How does ISO work?
I have a pretty in depth understanding of it but I'm confused about my phone.
Cameras all operate in multiples of their base ISO, but, my phone's base ISO is 100, up to 1600. It has an expanded ISO up to 3200 in the default camera app but I assume that's just software.
What I don't understand is that when I use third party apps I can scale my ISO from 100 and go to values like 613 or seemingly random shit (seems like it controls by 1s, but fatfinger precision isn't enough for the slider) and when it is set to Auto it basically never ever lands on 100/200/400/800/1600. It always chooses something random.
I have done some testing and found these weird ISO values to be legitimate, somehow. For example an auto ISO choosing 324 had less noise than 400 ISO but managed to have far greater exposure value than a 100 ISO or 200 ISO image, I did these comparisons using RAW and adjusting the EV.
Why can my phone seemingly control ISO in steps of 1 while all my other photographic devices are limited to multiples of the base ISO?
Are "real" cameras just behind the curve on dynamic ISO or something? Are they purposefully designed to be idiot proof for people "in the industry" to always be hand-held into common values or is there some legitimate reason for "real" cameras to not have this fine ISO control my phone has?
