Rebel, L's, and 'Too Much Noise'!!

[Jonny]

Hi guys,

Yesterday i went out shooting a kite landboarding competition and as normal the sun didn't want to play ball. As the action was quite away from me i was using my longest lens, a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM wide open all the time to try and get a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. I had to crank the ISO up to 800/1600 to get anything that looked half decent on the LCD.

When i got home the pics were awful, the noise was terrible so i have decided i need a faster lens, am i right in this assumption?

I have been looking at the 70-200 2.8 L IS but i am unsure if it is ok to use with my rebel. I am sure i read somewhere that it was not a good idea due to the weight on the camera mount. Is that correct or just BS.

Any advice is greatly apprieciated as is any opinions on my pics so far....These can be viewed on my site @ www.jonspeed.com/?

Many thanks everyone

[CyberDyneSystems]

The weight on the camera mount is only an issue where tripod mounting is concerned..

...to alleviate the strain... one mounts the lens to the tripod,.. not the camera body.

When hand holding you will naturally support the weight of the lens buy holding it with your left hand.

[Jesper]

Ofcourse getting a faster lens so that you can lower the ISO setting is the best solution, but you could also try using one of the many noise reduction programs to get rid of (most of) the noise.

I recently bought Neat Image (http://www.neatimage.com) and it's really great. It can get rid of almost all of the noise while keeping fine details in the image intact. There are also other popular packages with approximately the same functionality as Neat Image; for example Noise Ninja (http://www.picturecode.com) and Noiseware (http://www.imagenomic.com). For each of these, there are demo versions available.

[Deckyon]

When i got home the pics were awful, the noise was terrible so i have decided i need a faster lens, am i right in this assumption?
This noise if from the high ISO. Yes, getting a faster lens will help with that. You can help by lowering the ISO and using M mode to set a faster shutter speed and aperture manually. The photos will be darker, but that can be fixed with photoshop.

I have been looking at the 70-200 2.8 L IS but i am unsure if it is ok to use with my rebel. I am sure i read somewhere that it was not a good idea due to the weight on the camera mount. Is that correct or just BS.
This is BS. I have that lens, and use it on a tripod all the time. The lens itself mounts to the tripod, not the camera. This takes car of the weight problem. I do not have the rebel, but the 20D and Mark II, and they both work great.

[tpinchback]

This was taken at ISO 1600

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44719

[BrandonSi]

Ofcourse getting a faster lens so that you can lower the ISO setting is the best solution, but you could also try using one of the many noise reduction programs to get rid of (most of) the noise.

I recently bought Neat Image (http://www.neatimage.com) and it's really great. It can get rid of almost all of the noise while keeping fine details in the image intact. There are also other popular packages with approximately the same functionality as Neat Image; for example Noise Ninja (http://www.picturecode.com) and Noiseware (http://www.imagenomic.com). For each of these, there are demo versions available.

I'll second neatimage. If I use ISO 400 or up, I almost always load up neat image and see what kind of noise I'm dealing with. Just an extra step..

[robertwgross]

When you get to the bigger and heavier lenses, you do not attach the lens to the camera. You attach the camera to the lens. The lens is firmly mounted on top of the tripod, and it might weigh several times what the camera weighs, so our thinking gets turned around.

---Bob Gross---

[Molydood]

my understanding is that you do not get the lens mount with the lens (70-200 f4)
If that is the case, does anybody know any good places in the uk that I can buy the mount from, as I just ordered a lens.

I also hear it is very expensive, and I also hear that the non 'L' version is cheaper but just black.

I guess I will need to use it without the tripod until I get the mount :-(

[DocFrankenstein]

http://andrew4137.fotopic.net/p6315487.html

The lens weighs 1.6 kilos. Unsupported,

[MrChad]

The 70-200 IS L what a dreamy lens.
I love my 75-300 IS but I so yearn for the faster L zoom.

I'm thinking of skipping on getting a digital body just to own that lens :D

[Jesper]

my understanding is that you do not get the lens mount with the lens (70-200 f4)
If that is the case, does anybody know any good places in the uk that I can buy the mount from, as I just ordered a lens.

I also hear it is very expensive, and I also hear that the non 'L' version is cheaper but just black.

I guess I will need to use it without the tripod until I get the mount :-(

The 70-200 f/4 (not the f/2.8 or f/2.8 IS) is not a very big and heavy lens. I don't have it myself, but I know fellow photographers who do. It weighs 705g (25 oz.) according to Canon's website (http://www.usa.canon.com/html/eflenses/index.html). The f/2.8 versions weigh about twice as much. You can easily use the f/4 on a Digital Rebel.

[Molydood]

thanks, I'll give it a try and see how I get on. I'm guessing that a monopod is the only support I will ever use for it, and then I will be hand holding the lens anyway.
We will see.

[drisley]

When i got home the pics were awful, the noise was terrible
I have been looking at the 70-200 2.8 L IS but i am unsure if it is ok to use with my rebel. I am sure i read somewhere that it was not a good idea due to the weight on the camera mount. Is that correct or just BS.

If you expose correctly, ISO800 shots are VERY clean on the DRebel.
If you underexpose, even slightly, and have to correct later in software, the noise will be rather high.

Also, there will be no problem with the weight of the 70-200F2.8L IS on the DRebel. It wont hurt it.
In fact, most people carry a setup like this by the lens, not the camera.

[scottbergerphoto]

When i got home the pics were awful, the noise was terrible
I have been looking at the 70-200 2.8 L IS but i am unsure if it is ok to use with my rebel. I am sure i read somewhere that it was not a good idea due to the weight on the camera mount. Is that correct or just BS.

If you expose correctly, ISO800 shots are VERY clean on the DRebel.
If you underexpose, even slightly, and have to correct later in software, the noise will be rather high.

Also, there will be no problem with the weight of the 70-200F2.8L IS on the DRebel. It wont hurt it.
In fact, most people carry a setup like this by the lens, not the camera.
That's a good point. Underexposed areas look very noisy especially when lightened in levels. That's true for the 10D as well.
Scott

[Jonny]

Many thanks guys for some very helpful, imformative replies.

Jon

[Hellashot]

You should never use the image displayed on the LCD to check for quality because it simply isn't large enough. I have my digital rebel display the histogram as part of the 2 second preview after a shot is taken.

Why not let the camera do some of the work and help you with some automatic settings.

[Molydood]

I didn't know you could get the histogram displayed as part of the preview... will need to check that out tonight!