Some High ISO shots from the G7

[Toogy]

Just messing around last night with the G7 in High ISO (800) and B&W mode.
These were all taken with insanely slow shutter speeds (1/6 to 1/13 sec) handheld!!! without flash.

http://www.pbase.com/toogy/image/70827403.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/toogy/image/70827406.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/toogy/image/70827409.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/toogy/image/70827413.jpg

[twalker294]

Wow, these are great Jeff. The results from the G7 are very good...just wish it had RAW :-(

Todd

[Terrywoodenpic]

If these had been taken on film One would have said ...WOW. great shots.
why do we expect so much more from digital? We forget how grainy Iso 800 film is.



I do not think we are expecting too much to wish for lower noise, sharper detail, and a greater tone range. Though we may be expecting too much from a G7 sized sensor.

A 35mm compact camera the size of or smaller than the G7 used standard size film.
I am sure that a larger sensor could be fitted to a medium sized digital compact.
The Leica M8 is an example ...so it can be done.

I for one would love to see a G9 some day with a M8 sized sensor, and like that camera be set up for Raw shooting.... it seems the Leica Jpegs are little use to man nor beast, but that is another story... they had to compromise and went for best quality.

Cannon went for highest sales, and who can blame them.

[RafaPolit]

Toogy, very nice examples, and I think the noise is far better than acceptable in most images. Did you use any noise reduction software for them? How about sharpening procedures? Can you please explain a little your workflow?

Terry, I have been following the M8 status just because I too was interested in the large sensor in a smaller camera (following for the interest of it, never would consider buying one!). I agree with you that it prooves it can be done, but it must be a technically complex and expensive procedure, since the price is around $4700 and they havent been free of problems, even the production models are being recalled to fix "Banding" and "Mirror/Ghost images" and as for the 'above average' IR sensitivity they are claiming that IR filters must be screwed to the lenses in order to achieve full blacks on synthetic fabrics that are otherwize rendered with a magenta hue.

Lets see what the future brings, but for the present, the G7 has produced so far several nice shoots from pros and ammateurs.

Rafa Polit Jr.

[Toogy]

I used Neat Image on the last two images.
Basically they where shot as B&W in the camera, I used Fred Miranda's B&W pro plugin on the first picture to give it a Brown duotone look.
I added a photo filter warming effect to the third one as well.
I did a small un-sharp mask pass after I resized for web resolution.

The noise is definately there, I think the B&W makes it much more acceptable & "artistic" ;)
Also keep in mind these where shot handheld at extremely slow shutter speeds, I am more amazed at that then the iso performance.

[Terrywoodenpic]

Toogy, very nice examples, and I think the noise is far better than acceptable in most images. Did you use any noise reduction software for them? How about sharpening procedures? Can you please explain a little your workflow?

Terry, I have been following the M8 status just because I too was interested in the large sensor in a smaller camera (following for the interest of it, never would consider buying one!). I agree with you that it prooves it can be done, but it must be a technically complex and expensive procedure, since the price is around $4700 and they havent been free of problems, even the production models are being recalled to fix "Banding" and "Mirror/Ghost images" and as for the 'above average' IR sensitivity they are claiming that IR filters must be screwed to the lenses in order to achieve full blacks on synthetic fabrics that are otherwize rendered with a magenta hue.

Lets see what the future brings, but for the present, the G7 has produced so far several nice shoots from pros and amateurs.

Rafa Polit Jr.

Leica have built their camera witout a low pass filter, so that it can give high definition with highest quality Leica lenses. This it does well in Raw.
But all the problems hit the fan when you try Jpegs. These just do not happen in raw if you use Capture one raw converter.

Hasselblad have taken the same no low pass, raw expected route.

It creates problems for point and shoot people , but both cameras are aimed at those who do not look at the cost of either the cameras and lenses or in the time needed to get the best quality.
A shot that Amateur Photographer took in their testing at Iso 640 was both crisp and without noise.
Other manufacturers don't have to follow exactly the same route as they do not have the same heritage of exceptional but short back focus lenses that they want to be able to use. This is not the way anyone would chose to design a lens for digital use today.

The tester was unable to reproduce the banding but he had seen it in photokina, when an intense small bright light was included in an other wise dark picture.

[GNMink]

Nice shots Jeff! I really like the last one with the train.

Did you take these in B&W in custom colors or did you PP them? Can you post the color version if you have it?

George

[Toogy]

They where captured in B&W in the camera.

[The Limey]

Nice shots i can see why Christmas is starting early in them, just ordered a G7 for the wife for Xmass
The Limey

[cyclone]

These were all taken with insanely slow shutter speeds (1/6 to 1/13 sec) handheld!!! without flash

I've gotten sharp pictures at 1/5s handheld with the G2 under certain circumstances; not all time time of course. The noise in the G series seems to be getting better.

It's nice to see you are having fun with it - they are great cameras.

[ray_lam5]

Toogy thanks for posting these they are lovely pictures.

On a technical note however they do strike me as being a little flat and grainy, I guess the black and white conversion was done in haste and may benefit from pp, but in this example straight out of the camera images Im not totally convinced by the G7 yet.

With full respect for the images and their quality I think I could achieve this with any consumer compact camera, I think this is due to canon forcing 10mpix into a tiny sensor and pushing it out through jpegs.

However I guess i am just spoilt by DSLR's so my opinion may be a bit unfair.

[RafaPolit]

...I think I could achieve this with any consumer compact camera
Realy? At 1/6th of a second? no flash nor studio lights, just house incandscent bulbs? Even focusing at those levels is tough, achieving that stillness at 1/8th would need real steady hands!

I remember one 1/8th somehow still image of my cat sleeping with a Sony! If the subjects were awake, it would have been a nightmare! :)

Rafa.

[ray_lam5]

Yes you have a point, it was a well executed series in low light... Guess im comparing it to my 50 and the rebel which isnt really fair.

Maybe im just not a fan of the pictures coming out of the G7 but this is just my opinion...

[Trixion]

Here also some high iso 1600 or 800 speed photo links:

http://www.highiso.net/canon/canon-powershot-g7.html

Quite noisy pics I think.

[CameronAdams]

Hi Jeff. Those are brilliant 800 ISO captures and make me wonder what all the fuss about noise is. Cameron
http://adamscameron.tripod.com

[Gary W. Graley]

Very nice! love them all, thanks for sharing!
G2